fundamental and human rights �.� national preventive mechanism against torture Punitive restrictions The Deputy-Ombudsman considered ”early retirement to your room” to be punitive when applied as a systematic consequence for minor negligence or other behaviour on the part of the child. On the other hand, the educational objectives of the practice were understandable. Rules and restrictions must nevertheless be proportionate to their objectives. Among other things, this means that disciplinary rules and restrictions imposed on a child must not go further or last longer than is necessary to fulfil the acceptable objectives of such rules or restrictions. Neither may disciplinary rules be arbitrary or excessive. The child’s age, level of development and other individual needs and circumstances must always be taken into account in their application (356/2018). The Deputy-Ombudsman found the residential school’s practices for employing and implementing physical restraint to be illegal. A child cannot be restrained physically due to disobedience or passive resistance. The use of physical restraint must be necessary in each individual case and may never be used as a punishment. The Deputy-Ombudsman required the residential school to pay particular attention to the operating cultures of its various units (1353/2018). The Deputy-Ombudsman required the units to immediately abandon their degrading and humiliating practices in the use of written assignments. If the children are given written assignments, they must always have an educational objective and purpose and must be genuinely useful for the child. Doing assignments must never cause harm to the child or his or her development (1353/2018). Consequences for all of the children – ”collective punishments” – are not acceptable upbringing methods. The Deputy-Ombudsman required the residential school to abandon all collective punishments (1353/2018). The Deputy-Ombudsman required the residential school to give up degrading and humiliating rules and punishments for the children. Placement into care and foster care is not a punishment for the child. The purpose of child welfare services is to protect the child and provide him or her with the most normal childhood and youth possible (1353/2018). 100 The Deputy-Ombudsman required that, in the future, the children’s possessions would only be confiscated when the legal requirements were met and after making the decisions required by law. Confiscation must never be used as a punishment (1353 and 4099/2018*). Disciplinary measures provided for in the basic education act The Deputy-Ombudsman pointed out to the residential school that it is subject to the Basic Education Act. This means that only the disciplinary measures provided for in the Basic Education Act are permitted during the school day (1353/2018). The pupils were regularly searched for items falling outside the scope of section 29 of the Basic Education Act. The Deputy-Ombudsman also considered it problematic that the grounds for the searches were not recorded in the pupil’s or school’s documents in any way. In the absence of such entries, the justification and methods of the searches was impossible to determine in retrospect. The Deputy-Ombudsman considered it necessary for pupils to be informed of the reasons for searches in the manner specifically provided for in the Basic Education Act. The school also searched a child who was not placed in the residential school but came from outside to study. The searches were conducted every morning before the start of the school day. However, the Basic Education Act requires ”evident” reasons for conducting a search (356/2018). Consent for the morning searches had been obtained from the pupil’s parents and social worker. The Deputy-Ombudsman considers it problematic that there are views or practices according to which it is possible to infringe on a child’s protected rights based on a consent of the child or the child’s custodian. This applies also to a social worker. Guaranteeing the genuine voluntariness of consent is always problematic in the case of minors. For example, children can be afraid of being subjected to restrictive measures in the child welfare unit if they do not voluntarily consent to the restriction of their rights. Therefore, a negative stance must be taken to conducting such searches