MONITORING METHODOLOGY ʺʺ Gathering information about children’s experience of deprivation of liberty and children’s perception of their rights; for example, they can be asked about the way they were treated whilst in police custody, during questioning or court hearings, whilst they were in solitary confinement, etc.; ʺʺ Ensuring that children are aware of the existence of their right to lodge a complaint and making sure that they perceive this right as meaningful and useful. Models Unannounced visits enable the monitors, having the benefit of the surprise effect, to have a more realistic perception of the living conditions and treatment of children in the visited place of deprivation of liberty. The unpredictability has the advantage of ensuring for the monitors that when the visit is undertaken, special measures have not been taken to embellish the situation and/or to mask any potential problem and staff members or children have not been prepared to be interviewed. Announced visits are those organised in a way so that the visited places of deprivation of liberty have been informed that a monitoring visit will take place and of its purpose and objectives. The aim of the visit could be to follow up on previous recommendations or to examine a specific issue. Duration The length of visits depends on the nature and the purpose / function of the visit as well as on the (human and financial) resources of the monitoring body. However, in any case, the visit should be for an adequate duration of time for the visiting team to examine the facility, to observe the living conditions and treatment of children deprived of their liberty, to interview the director, staff members and children willing to participate. Several factors may be used to estimate the length of the visit: ʺʺ the size and type of the visited place; ʺʺ the number and the different groups of children (younger and older, boys and girls, on remand and convicted, with mental health problems or with disabilities, etc.) deprived of their liberty; ʺʺ the location of the facility; ʺʺ the amount of information already gathered about the place to be visited; ʺʺ whether the place has already been visited by the same or another monitoring body or not; 53 4