ABSTRACT
It is well established that the effective implementation of children’s rights requires independent monitoring, which takes on added importance when children are deprived of their liberty when the closed setting may create heightened risks to the protection of children’s rights. Independent oversight and monitoring of places of detention is thus essential to ensure the protection of children’s rights and it is especially important to protect such children from violence.
This chapter details the monitoring mechanisms that aim to better protect children deprived of their liberty. It draws on international standards that mandate such oversight, as well as international mechanisms that have an independent monitoring function. Although deprivation of liberty can take a range of forms, this chapter focuses primarily on children detained in the youth justice system. It begins by considering the standards that have been developed at the United Nations and Council of Europe level before considering the requirements for effective independent oversight and complaints in the context of child detention. The chapter concludes with some reflections on the challenges of providing effective oversight and the need to ensure that such monitoring operates not just to highlight deficiencies in children’s treatment, but to also proactively protect children’s rights.
