Occupation of the country’s territory and subsequent active hostilities at Donbas called for immediate measures for the protection of life and health of persons in detention facilities in the area of an antiterrorist operation. Based on the findings of more than 20 monitoring visits, the Commissioner for Human Rights sent acts of response to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, heads of central executive bodies, Donetsk and Luhansk state regional administrations requiring immediate evacuation of social protection institutions, education and healthcare establishments, as well as penitentiaries, to other safe regions of the country. Chapter two of the Report reflects the response to Commissioner’s submissions. Chapters three and four are dedicated to general indices of the NPM performance in 2014, as well as the detailed account of violations of human rights and freedoms identified during monitoring visits to places of detention subordinate to different ministries and agencies. In addition, they contain information about the state of implementation of Commissioner’s recommendations to the ministries and agencies provided based on the results of monitoring activities. Chapter five includes detailed recommendations based on the results of monitoring places of detention in 2014, including recommendations on improving legislative framework. Importantly, regional representatives and regional public relations coordinators of the Commissioner for Human Rights provided valuable support to implementation of the national preventive mechanism in 2014 acting in the framework of the Memorandum of cooperation between the Commissioner for Human Rights and the Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement (Association UMDPL). Until 2014, regional coordinators visited various places of detention as monitors together with the staff of the Secretariat of the Commissioner or with the purpose of verifying specific information on human rights violations. However, given an extremely large number of places of detention and the subsequent need for increase in regularity and number of monitoring visits, in 2014 the Commissioner made a decision on vesting regional coordinators with the right to conduct independent visits to places of detention with public monitors who had undergone appropriate training and received the Commissioner’s assignment. I would like thank our international partners for their remarkable efforts to support and develop the national preventive mechanism during this extremely difficult time for our country, in particular: International Renaissance Foundation – for support and development of the network of public monitors, the conduct of monitoring visits, improvement of monitoring methodology; the UN Development Program in Ukraine – for support of monitoring visits conducted by regional coordinators; the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine – for support to monitoring visits, and improvement of monitoring methodology; the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine – for support to the professional development of the NPM Department staff, and improvement of its material and technical base. 5