Child Human Rights Defenders
Interactive
Implementation Guide
4.3. Arrest, Detention and Criminal and Administrative Sanctions
CRC Article 37
States Parties shall ensure that:
(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;
(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;
(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances;
(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.
CHRDs should not be arrested or detained solely for the exercise of their human rights and for HRD activity. However, as is the case with many other HRDs, the reality is that children are arrested and detained, charged with criminal offences and/ or subject to administrative sanctions. While all HRDs have a right to a fair and prompt process, the CRC provides specific obligations on States in relation to children in Article 37. It expands the ‘corpus of international law by demanding a prohibition on life imprisonment without the possibility of release, by requiring that the detention of a child must be a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and that a child has a right to maintain family contact whilst deprived of his or her liberty.’ The UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty has called for the end of all detention of children, asserting that deprivation of liberty is deprivation of childhood.