The monitoring group of the Ombudsman’s Office together with civil society organisations revealed massive violations of children’s rights in social protection and educational institutions in Mykolaiv region. This was reported by the Ombudsman of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets on his Telegram channel.
Violations at the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care for Children
Children were tied with belts and fixed in chairs and wheelchairs – the administration explained this as ‘injury prevention’. The monitoring group found that such methods were applied even to a 6-month-old baby, who had swelling and bandaging marks.
Only 2 staff members were caring for 8 children, including 5 infants and 3 palliative patients, although according to the documents, there were 89 employees in the institution.
The children were not provided with clothes and underwear, and their personal files were kept chaotically, making it impossible to find foster families.
Alcoholic beverages were found in the facility’s utility rooms.
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Problems in educational institutions
The right to education is not ensured: in locked-down schools, children study remotely via messengers, without access to classrooms and gyms.
In the Lysohirsk special school, children are divided into ‘friends’ and ‘foes’, limiting access to services for evacuees.
Terrible living conditions: in buildings without repairs, with up to 10 children in a room, things are stored in food boxes, and the temperature in some rooms does not exceed 15°C.
Violation of the right to medical care:
Children were given expired psychotropic drugs.
Cases of scabies were recorded in the institutions, but sick children did not receive medical care for 9 days.
Representatives of the Ombudsperson’s Office called an ambulance to a child who had not attended school for a long time due to skin problems.
Lack of respect for privacy and hygiene:
Children shower in a shared bathroom without partitions.
For two years, the children had to use an outdoor toilet because the administration forbade them to use the toilet in the building.
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Shelter problems:
The shelter for evacuated children is locked by the administration, which is critical in a region near the hostilities.
Children use the assembly hall instead of the bomb shelter.
What’s next.
Based on the identified violations, the Ombudsman’s Office filed a statement with the Prosecutor General’s Office on the commission of a crime under Article 127 of the Criminal Code (torture).
Response acts were sent to the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, the Ministry of Social Policy and other bodies. It is demanded that the children be transferred to safe conditions with access to education, medicine and rehabilitation.
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