Message from the Independent Expert More than seven million children worldwide are in fact deprived of liberty per year. They are detained in settings such as prisons, pre-trial detention centres, police custody, migration detention centres and institutions of all kinds, including institutions for children with disabilities. Still a conservative estimate, this figure stands in direct contrast to the requirement of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which clearly states that the detention of children shall be used only as a measure of last resort. This means that children shall be deprived of liberty only in exceptional circumstances on a case by case basis if non-custodial solutions are really not available or appropriate. Although some progress has already been achieved in recent years, it is evident that much more needs to be done in terms of deinstitutionalisation, diversion, ending migration-related detention and other measures in order to comply with the Convention. This is crucial since children under all circumstances have to be protected from the traumatic experiences detention settings inevitably create. It is our responsibility to give children in detention back their childhood. Children have a right to grow up safe and surrounded by love – if not in their own family, then in a family-type setting. States have a corresponding obligation to support the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society responsible for the care and education of dependent children. Where children are unable to remain with their families, States must make it a matter of priority to invest much more than is currently the case in effective child welfare systems that provide non-custodial alternatives to the deprivation of liberty in numerous settings including institutions, migration detention or in the context of the administration of justice. It remains an undeniable fact that children deprived of liberty are invisible to the large majority of society and their fate constitutes the most overlooked violation of the Convention. This Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty is the result of a highly participatory process involving many different stakeholders, including States, UN agencies, regional organisations, civil society, academia and children. I am deeply grateful to hundreds of individuals who contributed to this Global Study, usually on a pro bono basis, from within Governments or National Human Rights Institutions, as members of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force, the Advisory Board, the NGO-Panel or various research groups, which had been established for preparing the different chapters of the Global Study. Crucially, I want to thank all the children who participated in our consultations all over the world and whose invaluable views informed and enriched this Global Study. Finally, I wish to pay particular tribute to two individuals from the coordination team in Vienna, who achieved so much with so little: Georges Younes, the Study Manager, and Manu Krishan, the Study Coordinator, for their tireless efforts and their constant support and encouragement during the entire process of this exciting, but also highly challenging endeavour. Together, we hope that this Global Study (which needs a comprehensive follow up by States, the United Nations and other stakeholders), will constitute a turning point in the lives of millions of children, make the invisible visible and start a process of liberating children from detention. In achieving this goal, it will foster the aims of the ‘Agenda 2030’, which strives to end violence against children and to leave no one behind, and in particular no child behind bars. Manfred Nowak Independent Expert leading the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty Secretary General, Global Campus of Human Rights Professor of International Human Rights, University of Vienna XI