CHILD DETENTION: A global report on the administrative detention of children

In 2009, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimated that there were around 1.1 million children deprived of their liberty by criminal courts worldwide.1 While judicial detention of children by courts is relatively well documented, little is known about the practice of administrative detention of children. Few publications address the issue and States do not regularly collect or collate statistical data on administrative detention. As a result, information on the extent to which children are exposed to different forms of administrative detention is sparse and discussions of the impact that such detention has on children rare. 

Administrative detention occurs when, as a result of a decision of an executive or administrative body, a child is placed in any public or private setting from which he or she cannot leave at will. Administrative detention occurs in some form in all States, although the bodies that have power to order such detention vary from State to State. Bodies and individuals that have the power to administratively detain may include police officers, military panels, immigration officials, health officials, doctors or local government child welfare bodies. While decisions taken to administratively detain a child may vary in terms of context, rationale and legal framework, the common element is that the decision to detain is taken not by a judge or a court, but by a body or a professional, who is not independent from the executive branch of government.

The purpose of this study is to examine:

• What is meant by administrative detention.
• The extent to which administrative detention is used worldwide.
• The contexts and circumstances in which children are placed in administrative detention, and the profile of children held in administrative detention.
• The legal frameworks and procedures used by States to place children in administrative detention.
• The key provisions in international human rights law, including Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which limit the use of administrative detention.
• The impact of administrative detention on children, including the conditions of detention
• and child rights implications.

Further Information:

• More information on child-friendly justice and children's rights 
• Read CRIN's Toolkit on Child-Friendly Justice and Children's Rights here.