A seminar on human rights issues was held in Chernihiv

On 7 February in Chernihiv, a seminar-training ‘How to make standards work’ was held as part of the implementation of the project ‘Ensuring the social and legal protection of the penitentiary system personnel—a guarantee of observance of convicts’ rights’ with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.

At the seminar, which took place in the Chernihiv pre-trial detention centre, the talk was about international standards by which the personnel of penal institutions should be guided in their work with prisoners and convicts. This seminar-training for the staff of this institution was prepared and conducted by representatives of the charitable organisation ‘Chernihiv Women’s Human Rights Centre’.

During its work, special attention was paid to the new edition of the European Prison Rules, which emphasises the need to observe the rights of personnel and the need to inform the public about the goals of the penitentiary system and the work of its personnel in order for the public to better understand the role of penitentiary institutions in society.

The pre-trial detention centre staff shared their vision of the process of reforming the penitentiary system in Ukraine, the application of European standards of treatment of prisoners in their work, and the problems of observing the rights of penal institution personnel.

After all, the SIZO (pre-trial detention centre) is the ‘face’ of the criminal-executive system, its ‘gateway’ through which all special contingent enters penal colonies. These institutions perform a huge volume of work on the reception and placement of prisoners and the provision of judicial and investigative actions. Annually, the movement of the special contingent in the Chernihiv SIZO amounts to about 5,000 people. Their average stay in this institution is 5-6 months.

To perform such work, people who are guided in their work by high social ideals should work in the SIZO. The specifics of working in such institutions require great physical strain from them, psychological readiness for special working conditions, and should be appropriately paid by the state.

A socially unprotected employee with a low salary and no career prospects is not capable of forming a criminal into an individual who would lead a law-abiding lifestyle and observe the legal and other social norms of the state and society.

These and other problems in the work of the pre-trial detention centre personnel were discussed during the seminar.