SECTION 1. of the efforts of the civil society and NPM Department over two years. The book offers its readers an overview of all custodial settings listed depending on their subordination to the central executive authorities, describes their admittance and release procedures and outlines the main conditions of custody and the legal status of inmates. This publication is of use for human rights advocates, government officials, scholars and all others interested in the activities of NPM in Ukraine. 4. “The Minimum Standards of Proper Treatment of Children in Custodial Settings” published by non-governmental organization Kharkiv Institute for Social Researches with the support of the Democracy Grants Program of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and in cooperation with UNICEF may be used both in the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism and in the course of any other monitoring. The publication describes the most common criteria applicable during monitoring visits to custodial settings that hold children. The list of such standards will help to make the monitoring of relevant settings more professional, and the administrators of such institutions will have an idea of the minimal conditions to attain for the children in their custody. This aid will also help the monitors of custodial settings, their officers, civic volunteers and all who care about the fate of children placed in such institutions. 5. The publication “Torture and illtreatment of children in Ukraine” was authored by Kharkiv Human Rights Group with the support of the Democracy Grants Program of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and in cooperation with UNICEF. The core of this publication is a comprehensive analysis and a survey of the situation with torture and ill-treatment of children in the context of criminal justice for 15 juveniles in Ukraine, followed by an expert assessment of the current legal framework and its compliance with the international rules and standards related to the children’s rights in the systems of law enforcement and criminal justice for juveniles. Assistance in the drafting of special reports of Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights on the results of monitoring of specific areas of operation of custodial institutions In 2013 members of the public and the NPM Department jointly selected the priority themes for their monitoring - the rights of children in the institutions of social rehabilitation and the status of medical support in remand prisons. Relevant efforts resulted in the making of two special reports of the Ombudsman. 1. Special report on “Children’s rights in social rehabilitation institutions of Ukraine” In the course of monitoring of social rehabilitation institutions of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine the staff of the NPM Department and the experts from Kharkiv Institute for Social Researches carried out an in-depth study of the respect of the rights and freedoms of the resident students of boarding and vocational schools of social rehabilitation. 27 residents of social rehabilitation schools and 7 staff members of such institutions were interviewed with the use of a specially developed toolkit. Moreover, in order to assess the conditions in which the children live and study the team visited and inspected all key areas/ units of the facility (dorms, classrooms, the medical unit, toilets, shower rooms, the food storage, canteen, gym, exercise area, recreation and relaxation rooms). This study was made possible due to support from the Democracy Grants Program of the