3.1 Expert Meetings Three Expert Meetings, uniting experts from academia and the field, UN officials as well as NGO representatives, have framed, guided and informed the research process: • The first Expert Meeting was held in Venice in March 2017 hosted at the European InterUniversity Center for Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC), now Global Campus of Human Rights (GCHR), bringing together UN agencies, NGOs and international experts to design the questionnaire to be sent to all UN Member States. • The second Expert Meeting brought together the Advisory Board Members, UN agencies as well as academics to be leading different research areas in order to implement the research methodology and form the international research groups. The meeting was held on the UN premises in Vienna in April 2018. • The third and last Expert Meeting was again held in Venice in March 2019, to present, review and discuss the penultimate versions of all the chapters. All research groups were able to receive feedback from other research groups and discuss areas of convergence and divergence. 3.2 Desk Research The Study offered a unique opportunity to take stock of available information on situations of children deprived of liberty, the current legal and policy framework and its implementation in practice. For this purpose, the research process continued to include desk research activities, such as: • Literature review of academic articles and reports • Review of Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in respect of deprivation of liberty, and information from the State reporting process • Review of reports of additional UN treaty monitoring bodies, such as ࢕ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination ࢕ Human Rights Committee ࢕ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women ࢕ Committee against Torture and its Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture ࢕ Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families ࢕ Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 27