UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty
Global Study Follow-up Initiation Activities
A broad range of activities is currently being developed to ensure that the recommendations of the Global Study are promoted and implemented as widely as possible, also by taking advantage of the Global Campus unique network.
Executive Summary of the Global Study and translation
The Global Study was published in 2019 and reprinted in a corrected version in 2020. The Global Study Team has created an Executive Summary of 68 pages that outlines the key messages and recommendations of the 800-page long Global Study. The Global Campus will partner up with its regional child rights officers to identify students/graduates of the regional Master’s programmes to translate the Executive Summary in all UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.
The translated versions of the Executive Summary will facilitate further Global Study related research and advocacy projects and support the dissemination and implementation of the Global Study recommendations.
Project Contact: Georges Younes, GCHQ
E-mail: georges.younes@univie.ac.at
Children-friendly animated video of the Global Study
The goal of this project is to create a high-quality animated video of the Global Study for children aged 14-18 years in English, Spanish, French and Arabic. Such a multilingual, educational short film will not only ensure that a wider children population is reached, but also that children actually spend time watching an educational product that best suit their age and learning style, therefore improving learning and retention.
In addition, also adult audiences with no or very limited knowledge on the issue of children deprived of liberty will benefit from such a creative visualisation. The video will mainly target schools and educational institutions via the many Global Campus and RLF networks and partners across the globe.
Project Contacts:
Angela Melchiorre, GCHQ, angela.melchiorre@gchumanrights.org
Manuela Pegoraro, GCHQ, manuela.pegoraro@gchumanrights.org
Enacting the GS Recommendations in the European Context
This project aims to support Ombudspersons for Children in implementing the recommendations of the Global Study within particular national and European multi-level governance. This function will be piloted in the Italian context, which will open the possibility for future interventions in other European countries.
Two workshops will be organised at the Headquarters of the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice:
- Workshop 1 will be held with specialised, independent, national and regional institutions existing in Italy
- Workshop 2 will be held with a selected group of members of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC)
The two workshops aim to present the findings and recommendations of the Global Study among independent children’s rights institutions (ICRIs), and discuss with them the challenges and opportunities related to their implementation both at the national and European level. By sharing information about specific areas of the Global Study, these workshops open a space to identify possible roles and actions for ICRIs in effectively supporting and facilitating the development of strategies/action plans for such enactment.
Project Contact: Chiara Altafin, GCHQ
E-mail: chiara.altafin@gchumanrights.org
Deinstitutionalisation for Children with Disabilities
The goal of this project is to broaden empirical knowledge and develop strategic skills for the effective management of deinstitutionalisation programmes for children with disabilities.
The project will focus on six countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) and pursue three main objectives:
- To broaden the empirical knowledge and skills among Armenian, Ukrainian, Moldavian and Tajik policy experts and government representatives dealing with child care policies through learning from best practices of deinstitutionalisation of children with disabilities in Bulgaria and Georgia
- To build the capacities of the same stakeholders through a workshop in Armenia for sharing experience with their counterparts from Bulgaria and Georgia
- To disseminate the best practices of deinstitutionalisation of children with disabilities among the networks of government agencies, policy makers and civil society representatives through local meetings among the workshop participants and their counterparts
For further information visit the project page.
Project Contact: Mariam Muradyan, Yerevan State University
E-mail: mariam.muradyan18@gmail.com
Oversight Mechanism - Rights of Children in Secure Care Centres in South Africa
In its response to the Global Study questionnaire, in June 2018 South Africa presented the numbers of children in detention. Among the numbers provided was the number of children in Secure Care Centres. This was significant because it was the first time that the number was captured in a manner that was comparable to other statistics, such as the number of children in prison.
The project’s main goal is to create a mechanism for independent oversight to reinforce the rights of children in secure care in South Africa. This includes the following objectives:
- Undertake a base-line study of the current Secure Care Centres, through visits to those centres and interviews with children and staff aimed at informing the independent oversight mechanism
- Develop a model of an independent oversight mechanism to reinforce the right of children in secure care
- Develop a plan for the management and care of children in secure care in situations of disaster/emergency, to be integrated into the oversight mechanism
Project Contacts:
Karabo Ozah, University of Pretoria, karabo.ozah@up.ac.za
Ann Skelton, University of Pretoria, ann.skelton@up.ac.za
Personal Liberty of Children in Austria revisited
The Global Study has highlighted the dire situation of more than 7.2 million children worldwide and stressed the need for replacing strategies and considering alternatives to detention of children. This project aims to create a process for structured implementation of the Study’s recommendations in Austria.
For this purpose, it will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the status quo, followed by a targeted intervention programme relevant for three main settings of deprivation of liberty of children, namely in the context of:
- Criminal/juvenile justice
- Migration-related detention
- Institutional care in Austria
The project will also pilot the implementation of this programme in the field of monitoring places of deprivation of liberty of children. As a distinctive feature, the project will directly engage with children throughout the process, from assessment to implementation.
Project Contact: Helmut Sax, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights
E-mail: helmut.sax@univie.ac.at
MOOC: Enacting the Recommendations of the Global Study
Considering the success of the 2019 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Children Deprived of Liberty “Learning from the UN Global Study” and the current efforts to ensure the implementation of the Global Study recommendations at national and regional levels, an updated version of the MOOC will be developed.
The topic area remains ‘Children Deprived of Liberty’ and the course will be enriched by new materials (videos, readings, etc.) and activities (quizzes, discussions, etc.) developed in partnership with the Global Study Team, experts, children’s officers and young researchers from the Global Campus and the Right Livelihood Foundation.
The goal of this follow-up MOOC is to integrate the unique knowledge contained in the Global Study with practical information on the regional implementation of its recommendations, plans of action and further initiatives by various stakeholders/actors (IGOs, States, NHRIs, NPMs, NGOs…).
Project Contacts:
Angela Melchiorre, GCHQ, angela.melchiorre@gchumanrights.org
Manuela Pegoraro, GCHQ, manuela.pegoraro@gchumanrights.org
A Model for Better Data Collection on Children Detained for Migration-related Reasons
Following one of the main recommendations of the Global Study, the overarching aim of this project is to identify and promote the most effective existing data collection frameworks in one of the most challenging and neglected areas: detention for migration-related reasons. Since this phenomenon is unlikely to be completely eradicated in the near future, establishment of data collection systems at national levels is crucial to measure progress in the long run.
The project takes on a holistic approach by integrating various actors at different stages of its implementation and assigning each of them a clear role in striving for the ultimate goal of ending the detention of children for migration-related reasons.
The goals of the project are threefold:
- To conduct a global mapping of national data sources that integrate statistics on detention of children for migration-related reasons
- To build a dedicated Statistical Capacity Index in the field of documenting immigration detention which allows to compare existing frameworks and identify promising practices
- To conduct in-depth case studies in two selected countries (based on their Statistical Capacity Index individual scores) in order to formulate detailed recommendations on how to establish effective data collection systems
Project Contact: Lukasz Szoszkiewicz, University of Poznan
E-mail: lukaszs18@univie.ac.at
Global Study Toolkit on Migration
Following the Toolkit on Administration of Justice, the Toolkit on Migration will provide a set of resources to address how to end deprivation of liberty of children in migration-related detention. This toolkit will identify international and regional legal tools prohibiting migration-related detention of children and identify existing good practices and non-custodial measures.
The main objectives of this Toolkit are:
- To provide a step-by-step guidance on how to implement the recommendations of the Global Study in the context of children in migration-related detention
- To re-activate and maintain the involved network of experts, partners and supporters of the Global Study, as well as other experts working in the field of migration
- To support children in the context of migration by identifying non-custodial measures and other good practices to ensure their rights during the asylum procedure
Project Contact: Elisa Klein Díaz, GCHQ
Global Classroom 2020: The UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty
The focus of the Global Classroom 2020 is on mapping global trends in children’s deprivation of liberty by looking at the use of detention of children in different settings and in the various regions, as well as identifying key challenges.
Given its online nature, the Global Classroom 2020 was structured in four phases and is currently in Phase 4:
- Phase 1: Each of the seven Global Campus regions worked on regional thematic research papers (to be published in the Global Campus Human Rights Journal - GCHRJ)
- Phase 2: Students were divided into inter-regional working groups to discuss and debate the research papers each region produced
- Phase 3: In a live event, which took place from 7 to 9 September 2020, students from each region and inter-regional working group presented their findings and recommendations. As part of this online event, a high-level panel (with Manfred Nowak, Najat Maalla M´Jid, Felipe Morales González, Karabo Ozah and Benoit Van Keirsbilck) shared their experiences working for and with children deprived of liberty
- Phase 4: Each region is given the opportunity to involve students in the organisation of regional events in order to discuss their findings with local authorities, experts, stakeholders and general audiences
Project Contact: Manu Krishan, GCHQ
E-mail: manu.krishan@gchumanrights.org
National, regional, international launches
In cooperation with other stakeholders and institutions, the Global Study Team organises events at national, regional and international level in order to share the findings and recommendations of the Global Study. You can find more information on our past and our upcoming events under Events.
Other Global Study related projects
In the context of these follow-up initiation process activities, the Global Campus is an academic partner of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre working on the project “Advancing Child Rights Strategic Litigation”. This project is coordinated by the University of Nottingham and comes under the auspices of the Global Campus-Right Livelihood Foundation Partnership Agreement.
The project “Child rights strategic litigation” (CRSL) seeks to use legal cases as a tool to bring legal and social change in terms of children’s enjoyment of their rights. It focuses on the development, implementation, impact assessment and critique of strategic litigation from a child rights perspective, and will contribute directly to strengthening the capacity of such litigation to deliver on children‘s rights globally. The project will expand academic engagement with CRSL, while bringing a number of key CRSL cases before judicial and quasi-judicial bodies.
For more information, please visit the project website.
Project Contact: Aoife Nolan, University of Nottingham
E-mail: aoife.Nolan@nottingham.ac.uk