National Preventive Mechanism As defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), it is the responsibility of child and youth welfare facilities to support all adolescents – including delinquents, of course – in experiencing their sexuality without violation of boundaries. Criminal law protects the sexual self-determination of children and adolescents by way of protected areas in a system that is graduated according to age and therefore prohibits sexual acts – even when they are desired or provoked – with adolescents under the age of 14. Even someone who has sex with an immature adolescent younger than 16 by exploiting “his/her age-related superiority and his/her immaturity”, is punishable under the law. This is another reason why staff in child and youth welfare facilities are obligated to not only help young people in their sexual development but also to protect potential victims. Experiencing sexuality without violation of boundaries ¾¾ Recommended preventive measures to prevent sexual assaults have been implemented. 2.3.5 Positive findings One-year project to process and implement recommendations completed During two visits to a youth home in late 2012, Commission 2 criticised conditions in the pedagogical work that violated human rights due to structural deficits (increased staff fluctuation and concurrent difficulties in recruitment, permanent staff shortages, long-term sick leave) and associated overload of existing staff. In September 2013, upon the recommendation of the NPM, an interdisciplinary project financed by the Upper Austrian regional government was initiated in order to improve the situation for children and adolescents and for staff and to develop preventive standards that would apply to all three Upper Austrian regional homes. Structural deficits The project team was comprised of employees of the Upper Austrian regional government, the head of the home, a legal expert from the AOB, a member of Commission 2 and the child and youth advocate of Upper Austria. The final report for the project with brief descriptions of 47 agreed upon implementation measures, the key items of which had been jointly developed, has been available since October 2014. The following immediate measures were put into effect permanently: Development of preventive standards • Reduction of the maximum group size in group homes from eleven to nine, • Obligatory ongoing full utilisation of the staff employment plan, • No acceptance of adolescents as long as the staff employment plan has not been fully utilised or the maximum group size has not been exceeded, 117