24 MONITORING OF CUSTODIAL SETTINGS IN UKRAINE: prison to court and back could amount to cruel or degrading treatment, and in some cases – even to torture. The arrested who have to participate in court hearings are early in the morning placed into the admittance boxes at remand prisons, where the holding conditions in the vast majority of instances fail to meet the minimum standards (lack of ventilation and windows, no opportunity to sit down). After a several hours waiting and without any breakfast these individuals are placed into special vehicles the conditions in which in the hot or cold weather are unbearable (absence of ventilation or any light, a very small floor area - less than 0.5 square meters per person). Upon arrival to court the arrested are held in special premises (cells) for criminal defendants, which in most of the site-visited courts are mere cages without any natural light, ventilation or toilet. Quite a number of courts are not equipped even with such cells and the arrested wait for the hearing (sometimes for several hours) in the special vehicles, not being able to satisfy even their natural needs. On returning after the court hearing to prison they usually miss their dinner. Most remand prisons do not provide them with dry rations. In order to secure a response to such obvious violation of human rights the Ombudsman made a report at the hearings in the Parliament and sent a submission to the Prime Minister of Ukraine seeking his relevant instructions to the leaderships of the State Court Administration, Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Penitentiary Service, for their immediate action to respect the rights and freedoms of persons involved in court proceedings and to prevent their cruel and degrading treatment. Another outstanding issue discovered during a visit to the facilities of different profiles and subordination was that of involuntary seclusion and application of physical restraints to persons with mental illnesses in the absence of any legal regulation of such procedure. This issue is especially acute in the psychiatric and neuropsychiatric institutions of the Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Health Care and State Penitentiary Service. In the absence of relevant legal regulations the institutional staff on their own decide how to deal with the agitated patients. As a result of such situation the monitoring of, e.g., the neuropsychiatric residences under the Ministry of Social Policies revealed numerous instances of placement of such persons in isolated and unequipped premises or even metal cages in which they were kept for a long time without being able to satisfy even their basic needs. Monitoring of psychiatric and neuropsychiatric hospitals of the Ministry of Health Care revealed multiple instances of the use of makeshift straightjackets and belts for physical restraint of patients. As a result of the Ombudsman’s official letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine the Ministry of Health Care was instructed to develop a draft Regulation on the use of physical restraints and seclusion during psychiatric assistance to persons with mental disorders. Monitoring of respect of rights of persons detained for administrative offences has shown that the current law does not regulate the procedure and conditions of custody for this category of offenders, which does not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine and Ukraine’s international commitments. In part these matters are regulated by legal acts of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and by agency and interagency Orders that reflect different sectoral approaches to the