
Greece: lack of access to protection of migrant children (UN Statement)
The ICJ today raised concerns for the lack of access to protection of migrant children in Greece, in a statement to the United Nations.
The ICJ today raised concerns for the lack of access to protection of migrant children in Greece, in a statement to the United Nations.
In a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Hungary, the ICJ today raised concerns about the ongoing degradation of the rule of law, the undermining of the independence of the judiciary and human rights protection, including for migrants.
Today, the ICJ in collaboration with Forum for Human Rights (FORUM) is holding an online training seminar on the rights of children who are suspected or accused of violating the law within the European Union.
The training (16-18 February 2021) focuses on the right of a child in conflict with the law to an individual assessment, under Article 7 of EU Directive 2016/800 on procedural safeguards for children suspected or accused in criminal proceedings. The individual assessment of the particular circumstances and needs of the child provides an important guarantee which, if implemented through a rights-based approach, can ensure that the best interests of the child are protected and that the child’s rights are upheld throughout the criminal justice process.
The training brings together some of the key professionals involved in implementing individual assessments in the Czech Republic and Slovakia – over 20 lawyers and 20 social workers from both countries working in the field of child justice. Speakers at the training will consider the approach to the individual assessment in light of international human rights law as well as experiences from other EU Member States. They will explore the potential of the restorative justice approach to ensure that the child has practical and effective opportunity to actively participate in the proceedings.
Speakers include Mikiko Otani, ICJ Commissioner and member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Dainius Puras, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, as well as judges and academics other EU Member States and from the European Forum on Restorative Justice, FORUM and ICJ.
See the full agenda here:
in English
in Czech
in Slovak.
This project was funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality, and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). The content of this publication represents the views of ICJ only and is its sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.
Following the killing of an Afghan boy in the Moria reception center in Greece, the ICJ calls on the Greek authorities to effectively implement measures of protection prescribed to Greece this May by the European Committee on Social Rights.
According to information by the UN High Commissioner for refugees, the 15-year-old Afghan boy was killed and two other boys injured after a fight broke out at the Moria reception centre on the Greek island of Lesvos.
The safe area at the Moria Reception and Identification Centre, RIC, hosts nearly 70 unaccompanied children, but more than 500 other boys and girls are staying in various parts of the overcrowded facility without a guardian and exposed to exploitation and abuse.
“This is not a situation unique to Moria. In other parts of Greek islands and also on mainland Greece human rights of migrant children are being violated,” said Karolína Babická, ICJ Legal Adviser.
Security of children as well as access to basic needs, such as appropriate shelter, food water or medical care, were the focus of a recent case the ICJ brought together with ECRE and Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) to the European Committee on Social Rights (ECSR).
The ECSR acknowledged the urgency of the situation and decided on immediate measures in the case already on 23 May 2019.
“It is unacceptable that the decision on interim measures has not yet been implemented by the Greek government and now we have to witness such tragic events like a death of a child in the camp,” said Karolína Babická.
“It is a sad wake-up call to the Greek administration that the situation cannot remain like this,” she added.
In its decision, the Committee members required the Greek government to immediately provide migrant children with appropriate shelter, food, water, education and medical care; to remove unaccompanied migrant children from detention and from Reception and Identification Centers (RICs) at the borders, place them in suitable accommodation for their age and appoint effective guardians.
“Greece must urgently bring those children to safety and make sure their basic needs are met and human rights are protected, in order to comply with its international legal obligations,” said Róisín Pillay, ICJ Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.
Contact:
Karolína Babická, Legal Adviser, ICJ Europe and Central Asia Programme, m +32 475 46 2067 ; e: Karolina.Babicka(a)icj.org
The ICJ, European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) welcome the decision of the European Committee on Social Rights that Greece should take “immediate measures” to protect the rights of migrant children as required under the European Social Charter.
The Greek government should now take urgent steps to comply with the Committee’s decision, to prevent serious and irreparable injury or harm to the children concerned, including damage to their physical and mental health, and to their safety.
The Committee’s decision, issued on 23 May, requires the government to immediately provide migrant children with appropriate shelter, food, water, education and medical care; to remove unaccompanied migrant children from detention and from Reception and Identification Centers (RICs) at the borders, place them in suitable accommodation for their age and appoint effective guardians.
The Committee noted that “immediate measures” were exceptional, but found that they were necessary in this case given the government’s failure to dispel serious concerns about the gravity and urgency of the situation of migrant children in Greece.
This decision is in response to a collective complaint brought before the Committee by ICJ, ECRE and GCR, alleging systemic violations of migrant children’s rights on mainland Greece and the North Eastern Aegean islands. The complaint catalogues the numerous ways in which Greece has failed to fulfill its obligations under the European Social Charter to protect the rights migrant children, leaving them in conditions of squalor, insecurity and violence.
In addition to indicating immediate measures, the Committee found the complaint itself admissible. The complaint now awaits examination and determination on the merits by the European Committee on Social Rights.
Read the statement on the decision here in English and in Greek and full complaint here.