European legal and policy framework on immigration detention of children vulnerability and to protect the rights of children in the context of migration, the court held that states have an obligation to take measures to promote “the well-being and development of the child”.78 This call is supported by the views of several UN human rights mechanisms, who consider immigration detention of children to never be in the best interests of the child and to always constitute a violation of the rights of the child. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stressed that additional justification – beyond merely being a migrant in an irregular situation – is needed for the detention of children.79 The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment have called on all states to cease the detention of children on the basis of their immigration status, and to establish alternatives to detention in law and in practice, in accordance with the best interests of the child and their right to liberty.80 Detention of children on the sole basis of their or their parents’ migration status constitutes a child rights violation and always contravenes the principle of the best interests of the child, the Committee on the Rights of the Child concludes.81 A similar call to end detention of migrant children and their families has been addressed to UN Member States by the Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Migration of February 2017.82 UNHCR takes a similar position,83 as does the OHCHR.84 78 IACtHR, Advisory Opinion OC-21/14, Rights and guarantees of children in the context of migration and / or in need international protection, 19 August 2014, para. 164. 79 UN, Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, 18 January 2010, A/HRC/13/30, para. 30. 80 UN, Committee on the Rights of the Child, Report of the 2012 Day of General Discussion: The Rights of all Children in the Context of International Migration, paras. 79 and 84. Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, A/HRC/28/68, 5 March 2015, para. 85. 81 UN, Committee on the Rights of the Child, Report of the 2012 Day of General Discussion: The Rights of all Children in the Context of International Migration. On detention of unaccompanied children see also UN, Committee on the Rights of the Child, No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside their Country of Origin, CRC/GC/2005/6, 1 September 2005, para. 61. 82 UN, General Assembly, Note by the Secretary General transmitting Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Migration, 3 February 2017, A/71/728, para. 52 (b). 83 UNHCR, Guidelines on the Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum-Seekers and Alternatives to Detention, 2012, Guideline 9 (for unaccompanied children) and UNHCR, UNHCR’s position regarding the detention of refugee and migrant children in the migration context, January 2017 (for all children in the context of migration). 84 UN, Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Situation of migrants in transit, A/HRC/31/35, 27 January 2015, paras. 44-45. 30 Soft law calling for an end to immigration detention of children dates back more than a decade, particularly for unaccompanied children. Such calls are increasing rapidly. An illustration of this trend is the forthcoming Joint General Comment on the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration, currently under preparation by the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is also expected to confirm that immigration detention is never in the best interests of the child and constitutes a child rights violation. The Joint General Comment is expected to call on states to expeditiously and completely stop detaining children on the basis on their, or their parents’, immigration status and to instead implement community-based alternatives.85 Conclusion A person’s right to liberty and security, as enshrined in EU, Council of Europe and UN instruments, is a fundamental right. Any restriction of this right must respect the requirements established by international, European and domestic law, which are particularly strict for children. Neither EU  law nor the  ECHR prohibit immigration detention of children. The stringent requirements flowing from the Charter and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) mean, however, that only in exceptional cases depriving children of liberty will be in line with EU law. 85 See Joint General comment No. 3 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and No. 21 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration, draft, 24 April 2017.