Violations of children’s rights in children’s institutions have been revealed in Ukraine again, and once again the situation in the Lviv region is particularly acute. How many more egregious cases need to be revealed before children’s basic rights are finally ensured in these shelters? Systematic violations in children’s shelters have already become a sensitive issue in Ukraine. Each case is not just a fact of indifference on the part of the administration or lack of state control, but a sign of the alarming injustice that happens to children left to their fate in institutional settings.

Last week, a monitoring group consisting of the Service for Children of the Lviv Regional State Administration together with representatives of NGOs (Diymo, RIDNI, Golosy Dityei and SOS Children’s Villages), on behalf of the Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, visited the children’s shelter of the Lviv Regional State Administration. What they saw was not only disappointing but also outrageous.

“Children are placed in the isolation ward as a punishment. We know about the fact that children have been there for 5 days. The administration of the institution explained this by saying that the children were faking illness to avoid going to school. However, it is unacceptable to leave minors behind closed doors without round-the-clock supervision;

– many children stay in the shelter for longer than the prescribed period of 90 days. Some have been living in the institution for over 2 years;

– the doctors of the shelter practice medicine without a licence, which is a gross violation;

– the children’s services of Lviv and Zaporizhzhia AOs (where children with IDP status were moved from) do not show any interest in coordinating their actions for the benefit of children;

– the deinstitutionalisation reform is being ignored: only 4 children out of 44 who left the shelter in 2023 were placed in foster families. The rest of the children were sent to institutional institutions, not to families,” Lubinets said.

Thus, children in this shelter are isolated as a form of punishment – they are locked in isolation rooms for a week for the slightest ‘offence’, including faking illness if they do not want to go to school. Without round-the-clock supervision, without human treatment, they are left behind closed doors, alone with their fears and sadness. What kind of a system is this that sees isolation as the solution to all problems with children who are already deprived of the warmth of home?

And this is only the beginning. Many children have been in the shelter for more than three months, although the law clearly defines this period as the maximum for staying in such institutions. Many of these children have been in the institution for more than two years. Imagine, little Ukrainians who were displaced from the eastern regions and who have experienced the horror of war, instead of being cared for, are receiving another form of isolation from normal life. Instead of finding families who could give them a normal childhood, they are kept for years in closed orphanages.

And what if even the doctors in such an institution work without a licence? Medical care, which should be a primary need for children, becomes another victim of irresponsibility. What is the professionalism of such doctors? And how do you explain to parents and relatives of children that their health is in the hands of those who have not been officially controlled? This is not just a violation – it is a risk for every child living in this shelter.

The worst part is that regional services for children, in particular in Lviv region, do not show even a minimal interest in coordinating their actions. Internally displaced children, who have already lost everything that was familiar and dear to them, do not receive even basic support. The lack of communication between these institutions affects children who remain locked up for years in institutions where no one cares about their rehabilitation or return to normal life.

This situation is a vivid example of how all attempts to implement deinstitutionalisation reform in Ukraine, which would allow replacing children’s shelters with foster or adoptive families, are being ignored. Of the 44 children who left shelters this year, only four were placed with families; the rest were sent back to institutions. This is an indicator that the reform exists only on paper. And each new case in Lviv or any other region confirms that the system of children’s shelters needs immediate transformation, because the lost years of childhood are not losses that can be easily compensated for.

The Ombudsman has already submitted a report on the violations to the state authorities and filed a submission with the Lviv and Zaporizhzhia Regional Administrative Offices, demanding that the violations be eliminated within a month. However, will this change the situation? Will this submission remain just another bureaucratic document that everyone will forget about as soon as the reports are submitted to the next level of authority? Children need real help, not empty promises, because every day spent in these institutions is another small loss for their childhood, which should be full of love, not indifference and isolation.