Monitoring places where children are deprived of liberty – conference and presentation of textbook

A European conference on the monitoring of the situation of children in detention facilities was organised in Brussels. During the meeting, the guidebook “Monitoring places where children are deprived of liberty” was presented.

The guidebook describes the standards and mechanisms that govern the monitoring of juvenile institutions on the international and pan-European level and in selected countries. The publication was developed by a Belgian organisation Defence For Children International in cooperation with many partner organisations from all around Europe, including those based in Austria, Estonia, France, Italy, Latvia and Romania. The HFHR lawyers Katarzyna Wiśniewska and Marcin Wolny took part in the project.

“The practical character of the publication is its greatest advantage. It presents the standards and methodology of monitoring juvenile institutions and highlights specific aspects that require special attention, as compared with adult institutions”, said Katarzyna Wiśniewska, the HFHR’s representative at the conference.

The publication includes information on the monitoring of juvenile detention procedures, detained minors’ access to legal aid, procedures for training employees of juvenile institutions, rules governing the application of disciplinary measures, material conditions and an educational and counselling programme, among other things.

The conference, held in Brussels on 15 February 2016, was attended by Mykola Gnatovsky, Chairperson of the Committee Against Torture, coordinators of the rights of the child programmes from the European Commission and the Council of Europe, UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, representatives of ombudsmen offices, children’s ombudsmen and representatives of non-governmental organisations.

The guide “Monitoring places where children are deprived of liberty” is yet another publication on juvenile detention developed in cooperation with the HFHR. In 2014, the Foundation published the report “Children on the other side of the wall” which summarised the monitoring of juvenile institutions conducted from June 2013 to September 2014. The monitoring covered a total of 24 institutions of various types, including police remand homes for children, youth educational centres, youth shelters and young offender institutions.

The guidebook is available here.

For more information about the project, use this link.