Visits were paid to the State Child-Care Institutions to monitor their readiness to the new academic year

Given that the new academic year started, based on the instructions of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ms. Sabina Aliyeva, the scheduled visits were conducted to the boarding schools and children’s homes, located in the districts of Baku, as well as Ganja, Sheki, Guba and Jalilabad Regional Centers’ covered cities and districts.   

The objective of the visits was to monitor the living conditions in these boarding facilities and to evaluate their readiness to the new academic year and the situation with ensuring the rights of children.  

During the visits carried out to boarding schools and gymnasiums for the children with limited health capacities and those deprived of parental care, subordinated to the Ministry of Education, in general, the whole areas and all objects of the facilities, including bedrooms, medical rooms, classrooms, canteens and recreation rooms have been inspected. The talks were conducted with the administration and staff of the facilities.

It was found that the classrooms have been made ready for the new academic year taking account of social distancing rules among students in the boarding schools. Furthermore, the number of beds in the dormitory was reduced and the distance was adjusted to standards. Whereas, it was observed in the Specialized Boarding School No. 12 for children with limited health capacities that repair works were not completed and consequently, the facility was not ready for the academic year. 

Similar issues were investigated in children homes subordinated to the local executive bodies and the readiness of those facilities to the new academic year, including education and training process during a period of special quarantine and pandemic, were evaluated satisfactory. It was observed that the living conditions in the Children Home No. 2 in Surakhani district (Baku) needed improvement, and Children’s Home No. 3 in Khatai district (Baku) had impediments to the readiness of the education process of children.

At the time of the visits, some questions related to the detention conditions that could be solved on the spot, have been raised before the administration of the facilities and recommendations were put forward concerning their solution.

Furthermore, during the visits, the HRCA staff members conducted legal awareness talks with the administration and staff of the facilities based on the requirements of the national and international standards, including CRC. The facilities have been recommended increasing the attention to ensuring child rights and extension of the awareness raising events on COVID-19 infection and advancing the activity in the concerned fields and the documentation.   

At the end of the visits, educational materials on COVID-19 infection and on other issues have been presented to the facilities.