MONITORING MECHANISMS OF PLACES WHERE CHILDREN ARE DEPRIVED OF THEIR LIBERTY Such bodies can be composed of officials, independent civilians, NGO representatives and experts (judges, lawyers, medical experts, social workers, etc.). The overall mission of these bodies is the independent control of the places (e.g.: prisons or police cells) and the monitoring of the treatment of the detainees (including children). In addition, they often have the mandate to advise the Ministry responsible for the facility on necessary improvements of the legislation or rules and regulations. Civil society monitoring In some countries, civil society organisations have the necessary authorisation / accreditation to regularly visit places of deprivation of liberty. Monitoring by civil society is usually characterised by a high degree of independence from the authorities and of the team members. However, the legal basis for monitoring can often be weak, based on the discretional powers of one or several Ministries or Ministers. In this case, civil society monitoring can depend on the political will of the authorities. As a consequence, in some circumstances, certain NGOs may not enjoy all the required powers of investigation while monitoring and they may not feel free to report their findings with the essential degree of independence required. Another difficulty that may infringe on the efficiency of their task can be their limited financial resources in order to cover travel costs, or to pay the monitors’ fees for example. Yet, this obstacle may be overcome by constituting platforms of collaboration in order to develop synergies and to divide the monitoring tasks (and required resources) amongst organisations. Judicial monitoring Judges often have a formal role of oversight of facilities by visiting and controlling the conditions in the places of deprivation of liberty, supervising the enforcement of the measures and hearing children’s complaints. Such monitoring works best when the judges are able to devote adequate time and resources to this part of their work. In some countries, there is a specific judge in charge of the supervision of settings where children can be deprived of their liberty. Their knowledge of places of deprivation of liberty gained through investigating individual cases can lead them to pay more attention to the general conditions and regime of deprivation of liberty and to report back their findings to authorities. As for children, they generally know the judge and research shows that children perceive them as powerful. 45 3