SECTION 1. 1.3.2. Implemenation of the NMP in ukraine 27 ROLE OF NGOS IN NPM IMPLEMENTATION It should be stressed that as of its inception the Ombudsman’s Office has maintained a clear course of close cooperation with the civic society and always uses the resource of the third sector for NPM enhancement. Specifically, the past year featured three working meetings of the NPM Department’s staff with activists from NGOs focusing on NPM matters. The first meeting entailed a decision to draft the Provisions on the Expert Council for NPM implementation and to develop its Rules, including the methodology and standards of monitoring visits to custodial settings. The second and third meetings directly addressed the matters of selection, certification and ethical principles of the custodial setting monitors and the general strategy of NPM development in Ukraine for the coming years. Monitoring visits with direct participation of the public were conducted to 43 institutions recognized as custodial settings. Out of this number 19 visits involved experts of the Association of Independent Monitors and Kharkiv Institute of Social Researches, and 24 were undertaken jointly with the Ombudsman’s civic relations coordinators in Kherson, Cherkassy and Volyn Regions. Interestingly, these civic coordinators factually performed some functions of the Ombudsman’s regional representatives, including participation in custodial settings visits. It became possible due to support of the International Renaissance Foundation in the framework of “Promotion of cooperation between human rights NGOs and the Ombudsman of Ukraine” Project. During the monitoring of social rehabilitation institutions of the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports the staff of NPM Department and KhISR experts undertook an in-depth study of the treatment of residents by school administrations as well as of their pre-placement treatment by the police. KhISR experts made a relevant analytical report (with the support of the European Union and UNICEF) with a detailed description of identified problems with the respect of the rights and freedoms of residents of social rehabilitation schools and substantiated recommendations on elimination of such issues (see 2.7 for more detail). It was the civic organizations’ participation in the visits that fully ensured the impartiality and objectivity of observations that served as the basis for the reports and recommendations regarding elimination of the identified violations of human rights and freedoms. These reports and recommendations were communicated to the agencies in charge of the visited institutions. Preventive effort unfolds simultaneously with elaboration of monitoring visit algorithms, also with