On opening the meeting, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on international legal affairs and gender policy Olena Bondarenko stressed that the committee she heads pays a lot of attention to the issue of refining the system of executing penalties in Ukraine and the state of imprisoned women and imprisoned mothers with children.
She stressed that “the main problems the imprisoned women and mothers with children face are as following:
the penitentiary system arose and was elaborated mainly for men;
special women’s requirements, based on physical and social (gender) differences were not reflected in the architecture and organizational structure of the institutions. Some women’s colonies still do not meet sanitary norms, etc”.
People’s deputy believes that the issue of women’s service in the penitentiary system still remains very important, especially what concerns “working conditions and labour remuneration”.
O.Bondarenko informed that the Decree of the President of Ukraine upheld the Concept of state policy in the sphere of reforming the State Execution Service of Ukraine which presupposes measures that “by leaps and bounds bring Ukrainian penitentiary system in line with the European standards”.
However, the problems of imprisoned women and possible ways out were mentioned in the document only once, the people’s deputy stressed.
She believes that this testifies to the importance of discussing the prospects of practical implementation of United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok rules) in Ukraine.
Deputy Head of the Administration of Social and Educational, and Psychological Work of the State Department of Ukraine on Execution of Punishments Vitaliy Khvedchuk informed that as of the date, there are 15 institutions in Ukraine executing punishments for women, where together with pre-trial detention centers about 9 thousand women are kept. According to him, 30% of women serving their sentence do not receive parcels and 58% of tem have not had long dates.
At the same time, V. Khvedchuk stressed that 17 thousand women are registered as persons who received punishment without deprivation of freedom.
Characterizing the situation around imprisonment of women with children, he said that there is a House of Mother and Child in Odessa colony, where the children of women imprisoned in this colony live; there is also the Center of Mother and Child in Chernihiv colony, where the imprisoned live together with children under 3 years of age.
By results of discussion the participants of the event stressed, in particular, the necessity of immediate improvement of conditions for women serving their sentences, improvement of medical care for such women, and intensification of preparation of women to their release by taking resocialization measures.