SECTION 1. It was also interesting to learn about the opportunity to engage hired independent experts for examining the situation in custodial settings. The conclusions of these experts are highly specialized (psychiatry, architecture, etc.) and are not included into the text of the main report but presented as annexes and serve to demonstrate one or more problems from a professional point of view. Unlike in Ukraine, the Spanish colleagues do not know the exactly number of custodial settings in their country as their inventory was never made. During the stay in Spain the Ukrainian delegates took part in a standard monitoring visit to a police commissariat with a force of over 200 and 11 operational detention cells. It should be noted that, in spite of the specific features of the Spanish criminal justice system, the Ukrainian visitors observed much in common with the Ukrainian realities – reduction of the time spent in detention, improvement of conditions in detention cells, providing of various services to detainees (interpreters, lawyers, etc.). It is important to note the high level of cooperation between the Office of the Spanish Ombudsman and the Spanish police officials: full support to NPM staff on the part of the police is coupled with very respectful attitude of NPM staff to the law enforcement officers. 17 During the visit the Ukrainian delegation met with representatives of the Danish Ombudsman, Danish Institute of Human Rights, human rights advocacy organization “Dignity”, Penitentiary Department of Prisons and Probation, Organization for rehabilitation of the victims of torture and with Amnesty International staffers. The meetings addressed the Danish “Ombudsman +” model of NPM implementation, the ways of cooperation with non-governmental organizations and the system of monitoring visits which significantly differ from the relevant Ukrainian model. The Danish Ombudsman cooperates with two organizations – “Dignity” (an NGO) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (government-run), as selected by the Parliament of Denmark. Interestingly, earlier the Secretariat of the Ombudsman pursued two separate directions of work: checks on the degree of compliance with the national legislation and (NPM per se) verification of compliance with the international standards. Currently, the two units are merged and jointly use the NPM methodology. During the debriefing after the visit it was agreed to further exchange the experience in the spheres of custodial settings monitoring, improvement of detention conditions and interaction with other authorities. During their stay in Denmark the Ukrainian delegation visited a penitentiary in Yuderup and study conditions of detention and the procedures of criminal sentence enforcement. The conditions of detention differ from those in Ukraine by being as close as possible to freedom (inmates can use Internet, cook meals for money allotted by the state and meet with their relatives; in the prison there is even a playground for their children and other alike facilities). On September 24 - 28, 2013 the representatives of the Department of NPM implementation of the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine and members of the NPM Expert Council carried out a study visit to Denmark. The Ukrainian delegation was interested in the fact that all decisions on interception of letters or phone calls are made by the police who give relevant instructions to penitentiary officers. In the absence of such authorization the convicts and arrestees

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents