2.3 VISITS TO RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT INSTITUTIONS The children and adolescents with whom we spoke were for the most part acquainted with the institutions’ rules of conduct, but they sometimes disagreed with them or the measures taken when these rules were violated or they found them too strict or unfair. Most children or adolescents found it pointless to complain against the imposed measures. The NPM believes that individual measures implemented in all visited institutions (e.g. restriction regarding going home at the weekend, confiscation of mobile phones, compensation for damage) denote an excessive interference with the rights of children and adolescents living in the institution in certain circumstances, and the institutions lack a sufficient legal (legislative) basis to adopt internal acts with such rules (e.g. compensation of a threefold amount of the damage incurred). We thus thought that it would be appropriate that each institution (as per a suitable legal basis) adopt an internal act, which would comprehensively regulate the rules of conduct applicable in educational and residential groups by defining violations and correctional measures in the case of violations, the procedure for corrective action and complaint channels. Such an internal act could still function as a general act, and the institutions could take suitable action in concrete cases and impose appropriate correctional measures with regard to all circumstances of the case. In the NPM’s opinion it would be appropriate that a child or an adolescent is informed about the correctional measure in writing (at least with a measure imposed by the institution upon severe violation of the rules), including the possibility of a complaint against the decision and who the appeal body is. It should be clear who decides about individual measures or who imposes them, and in what way a child or an adolescent participates in the procedure. The institutions have the legal basis in the rules of conduct in schools, i.e. the Basic School Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 81/06 et seq. – ZOsn), the General Upper Secondary School Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 1/07 et seq. – ZGim), the Vocational Education Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 79/06 et seq. – ZPSI-1) and the Rules on the House Rules of Secondary Schools Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 30/18) Whereby no suitable legal basis exists according to which the institutions could govern in more detail educational operations and action or take concrete action in educational and residential groups. We believe that when drafting a new act that will govern residential treatment institutions and discuss children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural problems and disorders, it would be reasonable to provide a legal basis and determine the rules of conduct in institutions (in educational and residential groups), correctional measures for individual violations of rules and the procedure for corrective action on the regulatory or executive level. The institutions could thus adopt internal acts or decide in concrete cases. The adopted legal basis would provide more uniform standards of the rules of conduct in institutions and correctional measures, and also comparability and facil- 44 THE REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA ON IMPLEMENTING THE TASKS OF THE NPM