CAT/OP/UKR/3 mothers and their children, as well as between them and their visitors. The Subcommittee also recommends that pregnant women be accommodated in renovated facilities in order to maintain both their privacy and their health. 95. The Subcommittee further recommends that the State party ensure the provision of appropriate psychological care to pregnant women and new mothers to reduce the risk of psychological suffering and to minimize the negative effects of detention on children. The State party should provide additional counselling, healthcare treatment and medication, as needed. 96. Similarly, the Subcommittee recommends that the State party reorganize the mother and baby unit in Chornomorsk, using the Chernihiv unit as a model, so that mothers and babies may live together in appropriate facilities. It also recommends that mothers and children be separated only in cases of acute medical need and that decisions about such separations be made on a case-by-case basis, keeping in mind the best interests of the mother and child. Furthermore, the Subcommittee recommends that the State party increase resources to these units in order to minimize fiscal dependency on outside donors. 97. The Subcommittee requests that the State party urgently address reported illtreatment of women in the Chornomorsk mother and baby unit. The State party is encouraged to strengthen oversight of that unit and to guarantee effective remedies as a result, including the removal of abusive staff. The Subcommittee recommends that protection against reprisals be guaranteed to ensure the accuracy of information received by oversight mechanisms. Reception centres for children 98. The Subcommittee notes that, following the 2012 revision of the Criminal Procedure Code, child reception centres lack a clear legal status and accommodate only a limited number of children. The Kyiv centre, for example, accommodates no more than five children at a time, despite a capacity of 40 and a complement of 20 on-duty staff. The Subcommittee understands that children are kept in such centres as a transitional measure before being sent to another place of detention or transferred abroad. However, as those institutions do not appear to have comprehensive operating principles, their status in the system of detention is unclear and the Subcommittee is concerned that children can be held in them for up to 30 days without benefiting from a regulated regime of educational and social activities. 99. The Subcommittee recommends that the State party clarify the role of child reception centres in its system of detention, providing an appropriate legal basis and adequate funding for institutions that have been kept open following the revision of the Criminal Procedure Code. It also recommends that the State party provide sufficient resources for age-specific interventions, as in others places of detention, including continuous education, social services and medical care. Mental health institutions 100. The Subcommittee is concerned about the process of admitting children to mental health institutions, given that there is apparently no court supervision of the process nor of the medical treatment provided. While administrators confirm that children over 14 years of age are required by law to give consent before being placed in a mental health institution, the Subcommittee is not confident this is always done in practice. In addition, children under 14 years of age are not consulted and do not appear to be informed before they receive psychiatric interventions. For example, the Subcommittee has learned that children who are patients in mental health institutions may have medication put in their meals if they refuse treatment. Furthermore, it appears that the children’s unit of the Pavlova City Psychiatric Hospital lacks a formal complaints mechanism. Instead, concerns about involuntary treatment have been expressed and responded to orally. 101. The Subcommittee recommends that the State party conduct routine, case-bycase verifications of the legal competence of patients upon admission before substituting the decisions of others, including relatives and medical personnel, for that of the patients. For child patients, it is recommended that information about their health status and rights, potential interventions and alternatives to medical treatment 16

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