United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty

Children deprived of liberty remain an invisible and forgotten group in society despite increasing evidence of these children being victims of further human rights violations. Countless children are placed in inhuman conditions and in adult facilities – in clear violation of their human rights - where they are at high risk of violence, rape and sexual assault, including acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Children are being detained at a younger and younger age and held for longer periods of time. The personal cost to these children is immeasurable in terms of the destructive impact on their physical and mental development, and on their ability to lead healthy and constructive lives in society.

To address this situation, in December 2014 the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted its Child Rights Resolution (A/RES/69/157), inviting the United Nations Secretary-General (SG) to commission an in-depth global study on children deprived of liberty (§ 52.d).

On 25 October 2016, the Secretary General welcomed the appointment of Professor Manfred Nowak as Independent Expert to lead the Study. By resolution 72/245, the UNGA invited the Independent Expert to submit a final report on the Study during its seventy-fourth session in September 2019.

Summary

The Global Study covers:

1. An assessment of the magnitude of the phenomenon of children being deprived of liberty, including the number of children deprived of liberty (disaggregated by age, gender and nationality), as well as the reasons, type and length of deprivation of liberty and places of detention;
2. The views and experiences of children;
3. Ways to change stigmatizing attitudes and behaviour towards children at risk of being, or who are, deprived of liberty;
4. Recommendations for law, policy and practice to safeguard the human rights of the children concerned, and significantly reduce the number of children deprived of liberty through effective non-custodial alternatives, guided by the international human rights framework.

Video

• Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty - Press Conference (Geneva, 18 November 2019)

Media

• UN Human Rights Office welcomes selection of Manfred Nowak to lead new Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty (October 2016)
• UN Task Force joint press release: "United Nations Task Force calls on Member States to end children’s deprivation of liberty", on the occasion of the delivery of the UNGA report to the Third Committee in New York (08 October 2019)
• Interview: Governments should think twice before putting children in detention - UN expert Manfred Nowak(17 February 2018), UN News
• Interview: Depriving children of their liberty should be “last resort” (23 January 2017), UN News