Supported by UNDP "Democratization and Human Rights Programme in Ukraine," the training session was organized to improve the quality of monitoring human rights in places of deprivation of freedom, protecting children's rights and implementing National Preventive Mechanisms.

The National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) is an independent national mechanism, which operates under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture, aimed at regular monitoring of all places of deprivation of freedom to prevent ill-treatment of people held there. In Ukraine, NPM is introduced in the form of Ombudsman+, which envisages cooperation between the Ombudsperson's Office and civil society, particularly regional coordinators, in monitoring places of deprivation of freedom.

Yuliya Shcherbinina, UNDP Senior Programme Manager, emphasised: "It is very important and significant to form a network of independent monitors at regional level and it is especially valuable that the regional network of NPM is forming around regional coordinators."

Participants learned about the minimum standards of proper behaviour in social care institutions and methods of monitoring institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, State Penitentiary Service, State Border Service, State Judicial Administration and Ministry of Defence, as well as institutions of social protection.

During the training session, representatives of the Kharkiv Institute for Social Research shared their experience of visiting institutions of social protection in Ukraine. Andriy Chernousov, a leading expert of the Institute, spoke of the places of deprivation of freedom in Ukraine and shared his experience of monitoring these sites. It was noted that thanks to visits of NPM specialists with the assistance of the Ombudsperson, the places of deprivation of freedom, where numerous human rights abuses and ill-treatment were registered, were closed or eliminated.

NPM specialists of the Ombudsperson's Office instructed regional coordinators how to monitor health care and education institutions, shared their experience of NPM visits to different places of deprivation of freedom in Ukraine. Also, the session paid attention to children's rights, guarantees of their protection, and peculiarities of child protection in child care centres.

In addition, the electronic database required for analysing the results of NPM monitoring visits and modern technical equipment used by NPM specialists during monitoring visits were presented during the training session.