Human rights in Ukraine 2011. XXI. CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

[1]

The year 2011 was marked by increased number of problems and strengthening of the negative tendencies concerning observance and protection of children’s rights in Ukraine. Just like with other problems, the absolute majority of the evaluations, conclusions and recommendations provided in the previous report “Human rights in Ukraine. 2009–2010” are still relevant and not implemented.

1. Institutional mechanism

Consistency of the policy and programs in the interests of children was challenged by destruction, due to the administrative reform, of the institutional mechanism for protection of children’s rights. The Presidential Decree as of December 9, 2010 (No. 1085/2010), disbanded the Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports, the authorized body of the central executive power in this sphere, as well as in implementing the family policy. The Presidential Decrees as of April 6, 2011, approved the provisions concerning central bodies of executive power, so its functions were partly transferred to the Ministry of Social Policy. Yet, only in November 2011 the Ministry of Social Policy established the Department for protection of children’s rights and adoption. Its activities were funded on leftovers.

Reformation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine also caused liquidation of the Criminal Police Department for issues of minors, and instead of it, establishing in different departments of two weak subdivisions barely connected with each other — for offence prevention and for criminal investigation. Locally, there was also overall lay-off of the police officers, including lay-offs in these services.

One can consider it a positive factor that in August of 2011 the institute of the President’s Authorized Representative for Children’s rights was established; Yuriy Pavlenko, ex-Minister of Ukraine for Family, Youth, and Sports, was appointed to this position, his professional team was formed and expressed their willingness to cooperate with NGOs. Yet, this new body cannot be considered an independent monitoring institution, which is supposed to be established according to the UN Convention. In addition, the main function of the Representative is monitoring of the situation concerning observance of children’s rights in Ukraine, not implementation of the policy, which puts further consolidation of the services for children on the agenda. The first wave of attention to the problem was raised by the All-Ukrainian council for protection of children’s rights. On December 12, 2011, the Presidential Decree No. 1163/2011 was signed, aimed to strengthen the policy of children’s rights protection.

2. International context

In 2011, Ukraine presented in the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child its third and the fourth consolidated scheduled report (CRC/C/UKR/3-4) on compliance of the state with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The same Committee at its 1611th meeting, which took place on February 3, 2011, adopted the Final Remarks, where it formulated its conclusions and recommendations concerning protection and observance of children’s rights. They refer to the entirety of the children’s rights and their various violations. For example, while acknowledging the necessity of reformation and rationalization of the governmental management system, the Committee, though, is especially concerned about the fact that disbanding the Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports, and transferring its functions to the State Service of Youth and Sports under the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports, as well as disbanding the central state bodies related to the liquidated ministry, would constitute a threat for the existing professional and technical potential in the sphere of children protection. In addition, the Committee notes with concern that the reform did not start with adoption of a clear plan concerning delegation of powers and functions, related to child care or child protection.

In the end of 2011, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child completed its work on the third Optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which enables children to independently file complaints on their rights violations.

Since May till November of 2011, Ukraine presided in the Committee of Ministers of the European Council, and selected the topic of protection of children’s rights among the priority topics for presiding. Within this framework, in May 24–25, the international conference “Combating violence against children: from isolated actions to integrated strategies” was conducted in Kyiv, attended by many international experts.

3. Improvement of legislation

According to the conclusions of both national experts and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Ukrainian legislation on children’s rights remains non-conforming to the provisions of international documents, first of all, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Optional protocols to it. First of all, this pertains to general approaches in the governmental policy concerning guaranteeing children’s rights. This policy considers a child just as an object to be protected, not a person with their own rights. Many legislative norms concerning children’s rights remain declarative, and not all children’s rights defined in the Constitution are secured by the relevant laws. For example, the right of children to take part in making decisions pertaining to them is not secured in any way. As a response to this commonition, in 2011 in Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a large number of legislative initiatives was registered, which in case of their adoption would, on one hand, promote improvement of child protection, yet, on the other hand — would impair the situation with their protection.

3.1. Preparing for ratification of international documents

The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse remains not ratified, although it was signed yet in 2007. This convention was incorrectly translated in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (in the translation, the term “molestation” was used in its title and text), which narrows and changes its meaning. In 2011, over 20 petitions were prepared concerning the necessity of urgent ratification of the Convention and correct official translation of its terminology. Regardless of these addresses, neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the Ministry of Justice responded to these messages timely. On November 9, 2011, the President filed for consideration by Verkhovna Rada a draft of the Law “On ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse” (No. 0232). On December 12, 2011, at its meeting, the Committee for Foreign Affairs resolved to recommend to Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to support the necessity of ratification of this Convention, yet only provided the translation of the title of the Convention is corrected and the corresponding translation of the terms is used in it. Such resolution was also prepared by other Committees of Verkhovna Rada, for example, the Committee of Ukraine for legislative support of law enforcement activities. This way, ratification of the Convention is postponed due to necessity of amending the draft documents, which could have been done yet in 2010.

On November 7, 2011, the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence was signed on behalf of Ukraine, which also has great significance for protection of children’s rights, and requires considerable changes in the legislation for its ratification and further implementation.

3.2. National legislation

In September 2011, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Counteraction to Trafficking in Human Beings”, which has a separate chapter on securing the rights of children who are victims or suspected victims of trafficking. It considerably improved the national legislation in this sphere[2]. Authors of the “Scientific and practical analysis of the national legislation’s compliance with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on the actions to counteract trafficking”, mention that in these articles the Law complies with the provisions of the mentioned Convention[3]. The main problem is its application on practical level, allocation of sufficient funding, and coordination of actions.

In 2011, the La Strada — Ukraine Center, with support from UNICEF in Ukraine, continued implementation of the project “Supporting harmonization of the legislation of Ukraine and of the law application practice concerning child protection against trafficking in human beings, child pornography, child prostitution and sexual violence”. As a result, the expert group worked out a number of drafts and proposals concerning amendments to the legislation, which were reflected in the registered drafts, in particular, No. 9135 on amendment of the Criminal Code and Criminal Code of Practice of Ukraine (concerning the crimes against morals in the sphere of sexual relations), No. 9136, on amendment to the Criminal Code and Criminal Code of Practice of Ukraine (concerning sexual relations with a person under 16 years of age). The comprehensive draft developed by the expert group “On amendments to some laws of Ukraine concerning counteraction to child prostitution” was introduced for consideration of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on December 6, 2011, under the number 9540 by the people’s deputies of Ukraine V.V. Shemchuk, O.F. Bondarenko and K.Y. Lukianova. At the same time, not all amendments were conceived by the society and legislators with understanding. In particular, drafts No. 7390[4] and No. 7391[5], which, among other things, offered to remove administrative responsibility for prostitution for minors of age from 16 to 18, at the same time criminalizing clients of such persons, was incorrectly construed as an attempt to “legalize prostitution of minors”, and due to this the draft was withdrawn by the initiator.

3.3. Legislative initiatives leading to aggravation of the situation with securing the rights

For example, the law that cancels the maximum difference of 45 years in ages between the adopted child and the potential guardian is negative for children, because it resolves some of the problems of adults without taking into consideration the rights of children (No. 3738-VI as of 09.09.2011)[6]. And, although in Ukraine there is a considerable need to improve legislation for implementing its compliance with the international legal standards in the sphere of adherence to children’s rights, in 2011 the Ministry of Social Policy introduced a number of legislative initiatives, that are directed at reduction of governmental obligations in the sphere of social security and policy, including support of families with children. And, as a consequence, they cause violation of children’s rights. Partly these problems are covered in the chapter “Women’s Rights: does the society notice how they are violated?”. For example, the procedure for implementing the methods of indirect income evaluation, introducing dependence of the right to receive assistance due to pregnancy and childbirth on the amount of income per family member can impair the circumstances of the families who bring up children. To the opinion of experts and NGOs, such changes, were they adopted, would complicate the procedure for assigning assistance and reduction of payouts, and reduction of the number of families that will be entitled to receive state-funded assistance. Implementation of the indirect income evaluation can deprive some families of their rights to receive monetary assistance: for child care before the child is three years old; for child care — to single mothers; to families with low income. The amendment of the law “On governmental assistance to families with children” will change the conditions of assigning the assistance (additional certificates) due to pregnancy and childbirth, number of recipients of this assistance, which is against article 22 of the Constitution of Ukraine on inadmissibility of narrowing the scope of rights.

One can see the necessity to cease practice of including the payouts for the children in ward into the aggregate income of the family. According to the Law of Ukraine “On governmental social assistance to families with low income”, families with low income include children in ward, who are being brought up in these families. This way, payouts to the children in ward are being included to the aggregate average monthly family income for assigning governmental social assistance. Along with this, according to the Law of Ukraine “On governmental assistance to families with children” (Article 16), assistance to a child in ward is equal to two living wages and belongs to the child, that is, it must be used for the child’s needs only. So, the legislation contains two mutually exclusive norms: in the first case the funds allocated for a child in ward are a part of the aggregate family income, that is distributed to all family members, and in the second case — the funds allocated for a child in ward is the property of that child. The existing practice of calculating the average monthly aggregate family income with inclusion of payouts for children in ward causes the situation where at the cost of these “orphan” funds the family loses the right to be acknowledged as having low income, and other family members spend money given to orphaned children for their needs. This means that there is an urgent need to prepare amendments for article 4 of the Law “On governmental social assistance for families with low income”, and to exclude payouts to children in ward when calculating average aggregate monthly family income.

A contestable one is draft 7132[7]On amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On protection of public morals”, the authors of which, hiding behind the words of protecting children and morals, attempt to introduce total manipulative censorship and fixation in law of authoritarian relations in family without taking into account the best interests of a child. This draft will be considered by the Parliament in the first reading.

4. Juvenile justice

Both the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee of the Ministers of the European Council mentioned to Ukraine several times that it lacks child-friendly procedures on the national level. In 2011, the activities on developing the concept and implementation of juvenile justice intensified. On May 24, 2011, the President with his Decree No. 597/2011 approved the Concept for development of criminal justice concerning minors in Ukraine[8]. Change of the title from “juvenile justice” to “criminal justice” became the consequence of baseless criticism from a number of religious organizations and so called “Orthodox community”, who are against human rights, in particular, they are against strengthening the rights of women and children, seeing it as ruination of the patriarchal ideology and relations. The Decree stipulated that the Cabinet of Ministers would, within three months, develop and approve measures for implementation of the mentioned Concept. More than half a year passed, yet the plan remains unapproved. The concept’s goal is establishing in Ukraine a full-fledged system of justice concerning minors that would be able to secure legality, good underpinning and efficiency for each judgment concerning a child that is in conflict with the law, leading to the child’s rehabilitation and further social support. Among the directions established by the Concept are securing effective justice for minors who committed an offense, taking into consideration their age, social, psychological and other peculiarities of development; facilitating development of rehabilitating justice; establishing an effective rehabilitation system for minors who committed a crime, with the goal of their rehabilitation and re-socialization; securing at the time of investigation, and at the time of prejudicial inquiry justice for the minors who committed a offense, observance of their rights taking into account their age, their social, psychological and other peculiarities of development; securing minors’ access to free legal counsel; training of the employees of internal affairs agencies, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, employees of guardianship and care bodies on the issues of conducting investigation, prejudicial inquiry and justice for minors; implementation of specialization for judges on trials concerning minors; development of correctional, educational and informational, as well as psychological and pedagogical programs; development and implementation within the rehabilitation system of the measures of educational, preventive, cultural and spiritual nature; facilitation of establishing the service for probation of minors, one of its functions must be collecting, analyzing and providing to the court the information of social and psychological nature on the personality of the juvenile criminal, and securing proper patronage over the minors in the specialized educational institutions, or those who are discharged from them, facilitation of their social adaptation and re-integration, in particular, by means of securing such minors with housing, providing assistance in employment, education, etc. The Concept is built around the principle of increasing the role of family and community in the process of children’s education by means of providing legal, consulting, and other informational assistance to children, to their parents and to people who perform the duty of raising children.

Among the negative points we must add that this Concept pays insufficient attention to the issues of protecting children who are involved into legal proceedings, that is, to those who are either victims or witnesses of crimes. In addition, the Concept does not mention any issues of administrative law proceedings related to children.

Equipping “green rooms” that are a part of implementation of juvenile justice, is performed at the cost of NGOs only (Odeska and Kharkivska oblasts).

5. Social protection of children

The issues of adherence to children’s rights for family education, and assistance for orphaned children are still urgent. Although in the last years we can observe a tendency of reduction of the total number of orphans and children deprived of parental care (social orphans), the numbers are still astonishing. While in 2009 there were 103 thousand of them, in 2010 — 100 thousand, in January 1, 2011, there were 98 thousand of such children. According to the data as of July 2011, the number reduced to 97, 300. AS of January 1, 2011!, 63 thousand children are under guardianship, 9 thousand 200 children are being brought up in adopted families and family orphanages. Every year 3.5 thousand children are adopted by approximately 2,100 Ukrainians and 1,200 foreigners. The national adoption rate, what is rather reassuring, is twice as big as the foreign one. That is, 75% of our orphans and social orphans are being brought up in the families of citizens of Ukraine.

6. Problems of children lacking housing

In Ukraine there are numerous violations of law on securing housing for orphans and social orphans. In Ukraine with its 98,119 orphans and social orphans and children, deprived of parental care (as of Jan. 01, 2011), only 13, 599, that is, only one in every seven children, legally owns housing. Yearly, around 12 thousand orphaned children and social orphans become adults, and the majority of them does not have a place to live. In 2010, only 263 children received from the state a place to live and 153 children received housing from the social fund. Not a single apartment was provided to children in Zaporizka, Ivano-Frankivska, Poltavska, and Ternopilska oblasts and in the city of Kyiv. Unfortunately, in the great majority of cases their right for receiving government housing on priority basis is not being observed.

According to the legislation, after reaching the age of 18, orphans and social orphans are entitled for temporary social housing (in a dormitory) and later they are provided with an improved place for permanent residence. In Donetska, Luhanska, Mykolaivska, Poltavska, Rivnenska, Khersonska, Cherkaska, Chernivetska oblasts, in the cities Kyiv and Sebastopol, no social dormitories are available.

Due to this, the President of Ukraine’s Authorized Representative for children’s rights addressed Mykola Azarov, Prime Minister of Ukraine, with a proposal to include in the draft of the Law of Ukraine “On State Budget of Ukraine for 2012” expenditures for establishing social dormitories in the regions of Ukraine, and a proposal to assign to the Ministry of social policy, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Utilities sector, and to the Ministry of Finance, to develop and approve the national dedicated social program for securing orphans and social orphans with housing, for 2013–2017.

7. Problems with timely payout of funds to the families who raise orphans

As of fall 2011, in Ukraine there are 565 family orphanages, where 3,795 children are being raised, and 3,356 foster families fostering 5,765 children. Which means that 9,560 orphans and social orphans are being fostered in families. At the same time, there is a problem of delays of the payout of governmental social assistance, or its incomplete payouts. In spite of the measures taken by the government for covering the indebtedness that emerged in the first half of 2011, the issue became urgent again. At the time of the meeting with the Ombudsperson for Children’s Rights, foster parents of a number of oblasts claimed that they were warned about an expected delay in payout, or stoppage of the payouts in December — January. For this reason, a special level of control is needed on the part of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the Ministry of social Policy of Ukraine, and taking measures for securing timely financing of the expenses for sustenance of orphans and social orphans, who are being fostered in family orphanages and adopted families.

8. Problem of observance of children’s rights in orphanages

NGOs keep discovering numerous violations of children’s rights in the governmental orphanage facilities. In spite of the direct interdict in the law, in the majority of oblasts of Ukraine till now the titles of general secondary education orphanages include the categories of children there, on the basis of their social background or health condition. The specifications in the titles of these institutions like “for orphans and social orphans with mental retardation”, “for children who require correction of physical and mental development”, “for children with minor and damped forms of tuberculosis”, “for children with post-effects of poliomyelitis and cerebral palsy, with combined deficiencies of mental, psychic and physical development”, and others such, is nothing but a gross discrimination of children, violating the Constitution of Ukraine, and the Laws of Ukraine “On Protection of Childhood”, “On Education”, “On Securing Institutional and Legal Conditions for Social Protection of Orphans or Social Orphans”. The government stigmatizes children, and they will have to live with this stigma for their entire lives. Certificates given to graduates of such institutions must include information only on the level of education, not on their condition of health or social status of the graduates’ families. The type of the institution and its specialization must be noted only in the institution’s foundation documents. On this regard, the President’s Authorized Representative for Children’s Rights addressed the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine with a request to eliminate, in cooperation with local self-governments, this and other manifestations of discrimination of the children who study in orphanages. In December of 2011, according to mass media, in Kharkivska oblast 28 orphanage institutions for children are to be renamed.

9. Community discussion on the framework school curricula

The Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports conducted community discussions of the curricula for basic elementary school subjects. For example, the La Strada Center, together with the Ukrainian Scientific and Methodological Center for Practical Psychology and Social Work, and the Institution of Innovative Technologies and Contents of Education, for implementing the Decree of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine No. 292 as of 29.03.20911 “On organizing educational preventive work against trafficking, exploitation and abuse of children in 2011”, conducted an expertise of school curricula for clarifying the opportunities to include the topic of counteracting children’s trafficking and exploitation into the basic part of the state component of school curricula. Basing on the results, the methodological recommendations were sent concerning inclusion of such topics in the school curricula[9]. As of now, the response has not been received yet.

10. Problems with securing the rights for health protection
and wholesome nutrition of children

As of Nov. 01, 2011, provision of all types of meals covered 92.7 per cent of all pupils of 1–11
forms (in 2010/2011 — 91.8 per cent); hot meals are provided for 94.9 per cent of pupils of 1-4
classes (in 2010/2011 academic year this indicator was 98 per cent). Distribution of funds for children’s meals in pre-school educational institutions is performed in compliance with article 35 of the Law of Ukraine “On pre-school education” (parents’ fee is 50% in the cities and 30% in rural areas).

Basing on the results of the check-ups, initiated after the All-Ukrainian council for protection of children’s rights chaired by the President of Ukraine in October of 2011, the prosecutors initiated 515 criminal cases, 2.5 thousand documents were introduced in response to protection of children’s rights, and protection of life and health. At that, 4.2 thousand officials were brought to disciplinary responsibility, including about 700 officials from the sanitary inspection agencies. Due to improper financing from the local budgets, in no institution inspected the established norms for nutrition were complied with. The children’s ration consisted mostly of cheap, low-grade, low-calorie products. Diet nutrition for children with chronic diseases is not organized. In the majority of the regions of Ukraine, the prosecutors protested the orders of the school directors, according to which parents were bound to pay additionally for children’s board. In spite of the limited financing from local budgets for children’s board, there are still many facts of embezzlement of these funds.

The issues of Combating violence against children, trafficking in children, exploitation of children are still pressing, but the state failed to address them proactively. The Law of Ukraine “On Combating Trafficking in Human Beings” in its final provisions stipulates development and adoption of the required enactments but none of this was done.

The children were consulted on the La Strada-Ukraine Center hotline on prevention of violence and protection of children’s rights. During 2011, the number of such calls grew twofold. But despite the recommendations received from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, whose paragraph 81 emphasizes the importance of operation of the hotline run by the La Strada-Ukraine Center and its support by the state, no such support (be it financial, organizational or informational) has been provided.[10]

The research of the situation of sexual exploitation of children in tourism in Ukraine was conducted that included analysis of the legislation in the sphere of combating sex tourism, description of causes and scopes, organization of sex tourism and the social portrait of participants[11].

The online “hotline” on collecting information about instances of child pornography on the Internet continued operating. During the period from November 19, 2009, to November 30, 2011, this hotline received 547 messages, of them 189 concerning child pornography. Child pornography is most often placed on full-fledged pornography websites, but it can also be found on websites with legal content or forums or bulletin boards. Despite numerous appeals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs concerning some actions in response to the information submitted to them, the Ministry failed to give any answer.

Children and youth collected more than 55 thousand signatures under the Petition against sexual trafficking in children. On October 5, 2011, they were handed to V.Shemchuk, People’s Deputy, who is a contracted MP of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from Ukraine on Convention No. 201 for lobbying the amendments in the legislation. The National Trainers’ Network, consisting of 156 trainers from 14 oblasts of Ukraine, has been conducting extensive educational activities. In 2011 it started the youth section. During the first six months of the year 2011, the National Trainers’ Network conducted 1,001 events for 45,284 participants — 11,237 specialists and 34,047 people from risk groups.

Non-governmental organizations have been repeatedly trying to call attention of the heads of governmental authorities of all levels to violations of children’s rights. But the response to such appeals has been formal — or none at all.

13. August 19, 2011 — Address to the director of the Department of general secondary and pre-school education, the Ministry of Education and Science, youth and sports of Ukraine concerning incorporation of the topics of protection of children’s rights in the junior school curricula[12].

 

14.      September 20, 2011 — Address to the President of Ukraine concerning vetoing the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Family Code of Ukraine (concerning adoption)”[13] adopted on September 9, 2011.

 

October 1, 2011 — Open address to the Authorized representative of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights, the Authorized representative of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, the Prosecutor-General of Ukraine, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Minister of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the head of Lugansk oblast state administration concerning the open violation of children’s rights and cruel treatment of them by the administration of School No. 22 in Lugansk [14].

Address of participants of the Youth partnership project against commercial sexual exploitation of children to the Authorized representative of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights with a demand to ban the exhibition of works by Daniil Galkin “BDSM-2222” at PinchukArtCentre, which promotes sexual relations between children and with children.

11. Recommendations

Below are the recommendations presented in the previous reports. The italics mark the ones still relevant for the year 2012, that is, 12 out of 15!

1. To work through the issue of establishing the institution of the Ombudsperson for Children and to develop a draft of the corresponding law.

2. To recommend adoption of the Laws of Ukraine, registration No. No. 7390, 7391 and 7340.

3. To introduce in the education legislation, in particular, in the Laws of Ukraine “On Education” and “On General Secondary Education”, the provisions on obligatory informing about children’s rights, education concerning prevention of offences against child and their harmful consequences, informing about risks of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, as well as about ways of self-defense in the form fitting for their age.

4. To include the definition of the notion “trafficking in children” in the Law of Ukraine “On Combating Trafficking in Human Beings.”

5. To include the definition of the notion “child prostitution” in the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Childhood.”

6. To develop amendments to the Criminal Code of Process of Ukraine concerning: obligatory participation of a psychologist at all stages of the legal proceedings where a child is involved; providing the free legal assistance to children recognized as victims and witnesses that is necessary for protection of their rights; obliging the body of prejudicial investigation to find information about threats to safety of the child concerning whom it is known that he or she suffered from the crime, and to secure his or her protection, before this child is recognized as a victim, no matter whether a complaint or message about a threat to his or her safety was submitted by the child him- or herself or by another person; immediate transfer of materials containing information about a crime committed against a child to the investigative force to decide whether to commence a criminal action, and for the period of inspection of materials to secure the child’s safety in case of necessity before the criminal case is initiated; a separate section in the Criminal Code of Process of Ukraine that would regulate the procedural issues with the purpose of ensuring the best interest of the child affected.

7. To prepare the new regulation of the Plenum of the Supreme Court concerning judicial application of the legislation on responsibility for sexual crimes against children.

8. To ratify the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

9. To approve the concept of introduction of the juvenile justice in Ukraine, by paying significant attention to protection of children’s rights that became victims and witnesses of offenses.

10. To ratify the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse.

11. To conduct the nation-wide educational campaign for the population of Ukraine concerning juvenile justice.

12. To develop the system for ensuring and protection of children’s rights, to develop the mechanism of interaction between different bodies and institutions concerning protection of children.

13. To establish specialized centers for social-and-psychological rehabilitation of children who suffered from sexual violence and sexual exploitation.

14. To assign the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to make a correct translation of the name of the Council of Europe Convention No. 201 in the Ukrainian language.

15. To take into account all recommendations in the Alternative Report on Ukraine’s adherence to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (p. 69–78).

 

The recommendations listed above should be expanded with the following positions:

1. To develop a comprehensive document as implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Childhood” and the Final Recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and implement it.

2. To conduct public discussions of the topic of introducing of the curfew and their consequences for children.

3. To perform at the end of the year 2012 the monitoring of implementation of the Presidential Decree No. 1163/2011.

4. To allocate the budget funds for equipping “green rooms”.

 

 

[1]  Prepared by K.B.Levchenko, president of the International Women’s Rights Center “La Strada — Ukraine”. This section was prepared using the materials of the All-Ukrainian Network Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, organization “Child Protection Service” and the President’s Authorized Representative in Children’s Rights.

[2]  A more detailed analysis of the Law of Ukraine “On Counteraction to Trafficking in Human Beings” is presented in the section “Trafficking as violation of human rights”.

[3]  The sientific and practice analysis of correspondens of the Ukrainian legislation to the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking — Kharkiv, Prava ludyny. — 2011.

[4]  http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb_n/webproc4_1?id=&pf3511=39070

[5]  http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb_n/webproc4_1?id=&pf3511=39071

[6]  http://zakon1.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=3738-17

[7]  http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb_n/webproc4_1?id=&pf3511=38551

[8]  http://www.president.gov.ua/documents/13600.html

[9]  http://la-strada.org.ua/ucp_mod_materials_show_124.html

[10]  http://issuu.com/wcuwcu/docs/crc.c.ukr.co.4_ukr

[11]  The results will be published at the beginning of the year 2012.

[12]  http://www.la-strada.org.ua/ucp_mod_materials_show_124.html

[13]  http://www.la-strada.org.ua/ucp_mod_materials_show_115.html

[14]  http://www.la-strada.org.ua/ucp_mod_materials_show_120.html


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