Defence for Children International delivered a statement on behalf of the NGO Panel on Children Deprived of Liberty, on the Item 3– Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council on the 19th September 2022.
In the statement, DCI calls on Member States:
- to invest in the systematic training of all professionals of the justice system who work with and for children, especially those working in detention places;
- to adopt protocols for the handover of children allegedly associated with armed forces or armed groups to civilian child protection actors in order to prioritise their reintegration;
- to comply with international human rights standards, including article 37 b) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
- to explicitly exclude children from national counterterrorism and security legislation, and ensure that children suspected of national security offenses are treated exclusively within child justice systems;
- and to support the implementation and follow-up of the recommendations of the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty.
Click here to read the full statement.