CRC/C/15/Add.201 page 10 Alternative care 44. The Committee notes the adoption of the Act of Residential Care in 2002 (EPS 16), but is concerned that it has not addressed the full range of rights covered by the Convention. The Committee also notes that children may be placed in institutions under the jurisdiction of three different ministries and that a court may order reformative (preventive) upbringing of a child below the age of 15, which means in practice that such a child will be placed in the same institution as juvenile delinquents. The Committee welcomes the policy of deinstitutionalization, but remains deeply concerned by the increasing number of children placed in institutions by preliminary injunction and at the frequent use of this special measure, which can be revoked only after a lengthy and complex procedure. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned that the general principles of the Convention are not always observed in such situations and that: (a) Institutional responses to providing assistance to children in difficulty are predominantly used and a disproportionately large number of children are placed in a residential institutional care environment; (b) Temporary measures may be extended for lengthy periods and that there are no regulations for review of placement; (c) Children are often placed at significant distances from parents, who, in turn, may not be aware of their visiting rights; punitive measures such as limitation of phone calls or meetings with parents may also be used; (d) Contacts with parents are sometimes made conditional upon the behaviour of children in care; (e) The conditions and treatment of children in some institutions may not be provided in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child and the obligation to ensure his or her survival and development to the maximum extent possible; (f) Institutions are large and an individual approach to each child is lacking, child participation is minimal, and treatment in some institutions (such as diagnostic institutions) may have undesirable effects. 45. The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Establish or strengthen, at the local level, the mechanism for alternative care within the system of social welfare and take effective measures to facilitate, increase and strengthen foster care, family-type foster homes and other family-based alternative care and correspondingly decrease institutional care as a form of alternative care; (b) Take effective measures to strengthen preventive efforts aimed at reducing the number of children deprived of a family environment due to social problems or in other crisis situations, and ensure that placement in an institution is for the shortest time possible, subject to regular review in accordance with article 25;