During "Child Rights Month", visits were made to state children's institutions based in Ganja

During the "Child Rights Month" initiated by the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan, the Ombudsman’s National Preventive Group members visited the Ganja Children's Home, Sports Lyceum, and Special School No. 45 located in the city of Ganja without prior notice.

In the course of the preventive visits conducted on the basis of the OPCAT and the Constitutional Law "On the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan", the purpose of these visits was to monitor the conditions of detention of children living and studying in the noted above institutions, to investigate the issues of treatment of them, and to assess the situation of ensuring the rights of child residents in these establishments.

During the visits, the conditions in living and teaching areas, medical rooms, canteen, kitchen, food storage, and other areas of the institutions were inspected, individual and group conversations were held with the child residents, and the current situation on treatment and detention was investigated.

It was found that the standards of food and clothing in Ganja Children's Home were not satisfactory, and there was a need to increase standards, as well as to implement fire preventive and safety measures in the facility in terms of more effective protection of children's rights.

In the Ganja City Sports High School, there was a need to increase the water and electricity supply, provide the medical room of the high school with necessary drugs, and the psychologist's room with visual aids and didactic materials, and fill a vacant psychologist position.

During the visit to Ganja City Special School No. 45, it was revealed that the institution was in need of additional funds for the purchase of medicines. In addition, it was known that the staff of doctors was reduced without taking into account the type of school, and only one staff nurse did exist. Although there was a need for provision with special textbooks prepared on the basis of a simplified program, it was found that the school was given textbooks for Maths and the Azerbaijani language only for the first grades, and there was a lack of special textbooks for the remaining grades and subjects. It is also necessary to solve the existing transport service problem of the institution in order to eliminate the difficulties in transporting children with disabilities to school.

At the end of the visits, awareness talks were held with the management and employees of the institutions regarding the standards of treatment and behavior with children, and recommendations were given to eliminate existing gaps.