You're reading: Ukrainian children tortured into confessing crimes

A new report on torture and violent treatment of children in Ukraine paints a grim and disturbing picture of what is happening to minors behind bars.

 Over 100 respondents claimed
to have witnessed or been exposed to inhumane treatment in penitentiary
institutions in Ukraine, according to a June 13 report released by Ukraine’s
Ombudsman Office and conducted by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and
the Kharkiv Institute of Social Researches.

It shows that parents often
do not know their children have been detained and are being interrogated. Moreover,
they often don’t know where their child is. Meanwhile, the surveyed children
claimed to have been abused and forced to make false confessions.

There are nine institutions of social rehabilitation in Ukraine where 309 children are held.

Penitentiary service was not available for comments regarding the reports.

Research shows children
under investigation can be arrested for up to 20 months, with little room and
poor sanitary conditions. Because of insufficient medical care, two teenagers
died in social rehabilitation institutions this year.

Additionally, the report revealed a high level of
children’s rights abuses, notably in the form of beatings or being choked in
ways that do not leave visible signs on the body (using various tools, gas
masks, or bags over a child’s head).

Such practices, according to the report, are primarily
due to poor training of law enforcement officers working in prisons for minors.
As the result, they tend to regard torture as “a special sport” and often don’t
know how to behave differently.

Director of the Kharkiv Institute of Social Researches
Denys Kobzin pointed out that the inhumane treatment of children starts from
the choice to place them in institutions where they lack basic facilities, such
as toilets.

Researchers hope
the launch of the National Preventive Mechanism by the ombudsman’s office will
improve things. It aims to prevent abuses and violence against children through
regular monitoring of penitentiary institutions.

As
noted by the United Nations Children’s Fund  Representative in Ukraine Yukie Mokuo, following
strict procedures regarding detention and investigation will also improve the
situation, as will implementing an anonymous system for filing complaints.

Kyiv Post intern can be reached at [email protected]