The UNHCR Guidelines aim to define the principles and practical measures for the protection and assistance of refugee children. UNHCR argues that because detention can be very harmful to refugee children, it must be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. The same principle applies to alternative accommodation in which children are held under prison-like conditions. Families must be kept together at all times.
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In this decision the UN Human Rights Committee found a violation of article 9.1 ICCPR on the basis that the State, in light of the author’s particular circumstances, did not consider less invasive means than detention to achieve compliance with the State Party’s immigration policies.
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This report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Felipe González Morales, was submitted in accordance with General Assembly resolution 74/148 and Human Rights Council resolution 43/6. It advocates for a human rights-based approach to end child migration detention. In particular, it urges States to integrate unaccompanied migrant children into national child protection and welfare systems without any discrimination, irrespective of the child’s migration status.
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This study from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) provides an overview of issues relating to immigration detention practices, and promotes the use of alternatives to immigration detention of children (ATDs). The study argues that the main idea behind ATDs is identifying options which provide state authorities with a degree of control over asylum seekers while allowing for a basic freedom of movement. ATDs need to be regulated in order to avoid the arbitrary imposition of restrictions on liberty or freedom of movement and, even when alternatives apply, access to legal aid should be given to migrants, especially to children.
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Referring to its Resolution 2020 (2014) the Parliamentary Assembly stressed that States that practise the immigration detention of children contravene the principle of the best interests of the child and violate children’s rights.
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The Steering Committee for Human Rights in this analysis, adopted on 7 December 2017, provided an overview of the applicable international human rights standards in the field of alternatives to detention in the context of migration.
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