CAT/OP/UKR/1 (b) Police custody 64. National legislation referring to children in conflict with the law generally complied with international standards of due process. However, some guarantees were insufficiently respected in practice, in particular that a lawyer or other appropriate assistance be present when a child is interviewed by the police. The SPT received consistent allegations of beatings as well as the use of threats and intimidation during interrogation of children in conflict with the law. (c) Pre-trial detention 65. Pre-trial detention of children for six months to one year was common in Ukraine, and the SPT found cases of children being held in pre-trial detention for up to two years. The length of pre-trial detention of children, combined with poor living conditions, restrictions on family visits, and the obligation to stay in cells for long hours, could be considered to amount to ill-treatment. 66. The SPT recommends, to ensure the full implementation of instruments of juvenile justice in accordance with international standards, 32 and bearing in mind the best interests of the child, that: (a) Efforts be intensified to develop and enact, as a matter of priority, a comprehensive juvenile justice system; 33 (b) Efforts be made to establish, where possible, mechanisms for dealing with children in conflict with the law, without resorting to judicial proceedings, provided that human rights and legal safeguards are fully respected; 34 (c) Children and adolescents only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort, for the shortest possible period of time, subject to regular review; (d) possible; Alternatives to the deprivation of liberty be further developed, wherever (e) Priority be given to reducing the number of children detained prior to trial and while awaiting sentencing or appeal, and to reducing the duration of detention when there are compelling reasons for the child to be deprived of liberty; 35 (f) National legislation allowing joint adult/child confinement, as well as solitary confinement of minors be urgently amended; (g) Length of sentences applied to children, without precluding the possibility of early release, be reduced; (h) Children receive proper legal defence at all stages of legal proceedings, including during police interviews. 36 32 33 34 35 36 Articles 37(b), 39 and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (“The Beijing Rules”); and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty. In accordance with General Comment No. 10 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), on the rights of the child in juvenile justice. Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 40, paragraph 3(b). United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, Rule 17. United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules), GA resolution 40/33, paragraph 7.1. 13