MONITORING OF CUSTODIAL SETTINGS IN UKRAINE 12 Policy and of the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports.3 The next try at establishment of NPM in Ukraine was the human rights commu- nity’s elaboration of the draft Concept of national policy for prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.4 The third section of the Concept addressed the issues of ill-treatment prevention and contained a number of provisions with regard to implementation of a system of regular visits to the places of deprivation of liberty (p. 3.2.2), i.e. 3 – there should appear a system of regular visits, by independent experts, of the places where the persons deprived of their liberty may be held. Establishment of such system is not only a need for the state policy but also an international obligation of Ukraine under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This Protocol was ratified by Ukraine on July 21, 2006. Until the present time Ukraine has not created any system that may be regarded as national preventive mechanisms in the meaning of Article 17 of the Protocol; – efficiency of the system of regular visits implies its credibility with the civic society, public authorities and international bodies. It is crucial that the very process of establishment of such system remains transparent and open for participation of the greatest possible number of stakeholders. The structure and operational principles of this system should be discussed with participation of the representatives of public authorities related to the operation of places of deprivation of liberty, the Ombudsman, representatives of the national and international bodies, national non-government organizations, self-governed professional organizations, academics and representatives of the Verkhovna Rada; – the established system is to become a component of continuous process of analysis of all aspects of the system of deprivation of liberty from the point of view of respect of the rights of individuals deprived of their liberty, especially with regard to prevention of ill-treatment. The system is to involve independent experts of different specialties and background, able to receive information directly during visits by familiarization with the actual situation and documents and from confidential interviews with individuals in custody and with institutional staff and to reveal those components of custody that may “Monitoring of the Respect of the Rights of Clients of Resident Facilities of the Ministry of Social Policies of Ukraine” / Collective of authors. – Kharkiv: KhISR, 2012. – 138 p. (In Ukr.). 4 See URL: http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1209037015 (of 02.11.2012)