TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN UKRAINE

Torture and ill-treatment of children in Ukraineshould be noted that a number of provisions in current legislation need significantupdating to comply with the demands of the modern day and takeinto account moves in legal thinking. New forms and methods of working withjuvenile offenders are also needed. The inadequacies in legislation are inevitablygenerating problems regarding application of the law including by judgeswhose rulings have decisive influence on the future fate of juvenile offenders.These failings make it impossible to fully carry out their powers regarding theexercising of independent, objective and unbiased judgement, in particularso as to reform the young person, prevent their committing new crimes andensure that they are not caused physical suffering or that their human dignityis not denigrated.Problems in application of the law are also caused by the lack of a systematicapproach in the work of bodies and services on juvenile affairs andtheir interaction. This does not facilitate the formation of single and, mostimportantly, justified approaches to work with juvenile offenders, for example,when providing the court with documents giving information aboutthem as individuals; accompanying them during the court proceedings,etc. As a result, the measures taken cannot change the unlawful behaviourof the juvenile offender and the situation regarding the level of juvenilecrime and repeat events, which negates the whole essence of the punishmentimposed.The Concept Framework is undoubtedly only a document of an ideologicalnature which stipulates the directions of work and does not for the momentprovide normative demands which must be implemented. However itsvery appearance does indicate that the government is prepared to begin actingon protection of the child.In summing up the material presented here, we can make the followingconclusions.The existing normative legal provisions in the sphere of protection of thechild are inadequate. The main failings are:— The lack of a united attitude and approach to the issue of child protection;— The unsystematic nature which is demonstrated in the lack of a singlesystem of bodies for protecting the child and of an algorithm for interactionbetween them;— Outmoded forms of work which are ineffective and do not produceresults, as well as an obsolete normative base.76