Zero Tolerance for Torture: Monitoring Places of Detention in Ukraine
By Maryna Demura, Innovative Lawyer Awardee
Maryna Demura is a human rights lawyer from Ukraine and a recipient of the REDRESS Innovative Lawyers Award. She works with the Information Center for Human Rights (ZMINA), an organisation dedicated to defending human rights, documenting violations, and supporting human rights defenders and civil activists, particularly in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
She has also served as a monitor for Ukraine’s National Preventive Mechanism, where she participated in visits to places of detention and contributed directly to the oversight of human rights conditions.
In this blog, Maryna explains how Ukraine’s National Preventive Mechanism continues to operate during wartime, highlighting its vital role in preventing torture despite severe challenges such as shelling, resource constraints, and the expansion of detention facilities.
Full-scale war has been raging in Ukraine for more than four years, and it has been almost 12 years since Russia unleashed the armed conflict. Despite shelling and total blackouts, monitoring groups from the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) continue to visit places of deprivation of liberty throughout Ukraine, with the exception of territories occupied by Russia.
In addition to security challenges related to shelling, monitors have faced a shortage of human resources and an increase in places of deprivation of liberty – in 2022, camps for holding prisoners of war began to operate. Visiting these places falls under the mandate of the NPM, and groups of monitors also conduct such visits. These vits serve as an important safeguard against torture and other ill-treatment, as they examine the situation of detention and provide an opportunity to hear directly from those detained.
The work of monitors of the NPM in Ukraine
Ukraine ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture on July 21, 2006, and in 2012 introduced, through legislation, a model of a national preventive mechanism in the format of “Ombudsman +”, which provides for monitoring visits to places of deprivation of liberty by employees of the Ombudsman’s Office together with civil society activists.
Places of detention include places of punishment (colonies), pre-trial detention centres, boarding schools, boarding houses, remand centres, camps for prisoners of war, and others. Ukraine faced a difficult choice of model for its NPM and could have chosen the path of countries where visits are carried out exclusively by representatives of the Ombudsman’s Office (such as in Portugal, and Germany) or countries where external experts are involved to provide advisory assistance but not to participate jointly in visits (e.g., Poland). At the same time, Ukraine chose a path similar to the Slovenian NPM model.
Since 2012, all visits to places of detention have been carried out by a monitoring group consisting of employees of the Ombudsman’s Office and representatives of civil society. This allows for the formation of effective teams composed of various specialists and helps preserves the impartiality and independence of the monitoring groups. It also enables monitors to cover more regions in the country, and a higher number of places of deprivation of liberty. Today, the network of public monitors includes approximately 150 monitors commissioned by the Ombudsman.
Participation in monitoring visits allows one to assess the system of places of detention from the inside. For me, participating in monitoring visits is a reminder of the importance of independent attention to what happens behind the closed doors of institutions.
A monitoring visit usually starts early in the morning and can last all day, and sometimes there are special night visits to increase the element of surprise. During the visit, monitors inspect the premises of the institution, talk to staff, and, most importantly, have confidential conversations with the people held there. For many detainees, talking to monitors is one of the few opportunities they have to be heard. It is often during such conversations that it becomes clear what problems people face on a daily basis.
The work of the NPM in wartime
NPM monitors did not slow down during the period of martial law. In 2025, monitors made 626 visits throughout Ukraine; in 2024 – 543; and in 2023 – 538. In 2026, it is planned to launch an automated NPM system with an interactive map of places of detention across Ukraine, including reports for each visit. This will help track the implementation of NPM recommendations and compare the state of human rights compliance in the institution at different periods.
Challenges faced by NPM monitors
The work of an NPM monitor as part of an NGO is unpaid. Monitors are not reimbursed for travel expenses, accommodation in the case of remote visits, or expenses related to the working day. In fact, public monitors are volunteers who have chosen to protect human rights in places of detention.
During some visits, monitoring groups work in regions that are relatively close to the front line. In such cases, air raid alerts become part of the working day. Due to the lack of properly equipped shelters in many places of detention, detainees, staff, and monitors often remain in the same premises during an alarm. Although there have been numerous cases of shelling of places of detention, in 2025 alone, 16 detainees were killed and 35 were injured as a result of shelling of a colony in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Despite all the challenges faced by monitors, and despite the war and shelling, monitoring of places of detention in Ukraine continues. Independent monitoring of how people are treated in places of detention remains an important guarantee for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. Especially in times of war, it is important to remember that even in the most difficult times, respect for human dignity must remain an unchanging value.
About the Innovative Lawyers Awards
REDRESS’s Innovative Lawyers Awards recognise the vital work of new and emerging anti-torture champions, expose them to a broader peer support network, provide financial support to pursue public interest litigation and to inspire other lawyers and practitioners. This support is made available through the United against Torture Consortium, which is funded by the European Union. The contents of the Innovative Lawyers Awards blog series are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or REDRESS.
