In Mykolaiv Oblast, childcare workers abused their charges.

In the children's institutions of Mykolaiv region, representatives of the Ombudsman Office discovered numerous violations of children's rights. In particular, children were tied up - allegedly to prevent them from 'getting hurt'. This was reported by 'Hlavkom' referencing the Ombudsman Office.

According to the agency, in the Center for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care, the charges were tied with belts, fixed in feeding chairs and baby strollers, so that they would not demand much attention. Such actions were even applied to a 6-month-old infant.

The administration of the institution explained this as 'preventing harm'.

The Ombudsman Office reminded that the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has repeatedly emphasized the prohibition of the use of restraint methods on minors in its recommendations.

'The staff of the Center restrained the children at their discretion, without any justification, as well as recording the mentioned information in the medical documentation of the children, which can be regarded as a manifestation of cruel treatment of a child under Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,' noted the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets.

Also, the Ombudsman Office noted that two employees took care of 8 children (five of whom are infants, and three require palliative care). Meanwhile, according to the provided lists, there were 89 employees in the institution on the day of the visit. Moreover, alcoholic beverages were found in the utility rooms of the Center.

While in Mykolaiv region, the monitoring group also visited:

• Lysohirsk Special School, which also houses evacuated children from Shirokolaniv Special School;
• Antonivska Arts Lyceum, to which children from Mykolaiv Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation were also evacuated;
• Voznesenska Special School of Mykolaiv Regional Council.

Systemic violations were also found in these institutions. In particular, the students were not provided with the right to education: in one of the relocated institutions, children are learning remotely via messengers, without access to equipped classrooms and sports facilities, which actually exist there.

In one of the mentioned institutions, a child was given expired psychotropic medications, while in another, children contracted scabies and spent more than a week in isolation without a doctor's examination.

The Ombudsman Office prepared and sent a statement regarding the commission of a crime under part 2 of Article 127 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (torture) to the Office of the Prosecutor General.

'Hlavkom' reported that in January this year in Bila Tserkva, a group of teenagers beat a 12-year-old girl. The court later chose a preventive measure for one of the defendants in the case - during the pre-trial investigation, he will remain in custody for two months without the possibility of posting bail. However, the preventive measure only applied to this suspect, as he alone reached the age of criminal liability (16 years).

Later, it became known that on March 5, the Kyiv Court of Appeal will consider the appeal regarding the preventive measure for the 16-year-old suspect. As for the other defendants in this case, they will not receive any charges at all.