The importance of a common protocol in Europe about the detention of unaccompanied children

Authors

  • Juan Manuel López Ulla

Keywords:

Unaccompanied children in Europe, detention, inhuman or degrading treatment, best interest of the child, durable solutions, project of life

Abstract

The European Union and the Council of Europe have reminded its Member States the obligation to provide special protection and assistance to unaccompanied children. The documents that in this paper we have studied —approved from 2010 to 2013— explicitly recognize that in Europe have not yet been adopted the measures required to protect effectively the rights recognized in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Concerning the conditions of detention, children can not be treated as migrants. The EU and the Council of Europe agree on this idea when they promote the adoption of procedures to safeguard the administrative and judicial protection of these children. In this sense, we consider of a remarkable interest the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in Rahimi v. Greece (2011).