5. Conditions of Detention in Line with the Right
to Human Dignity
Deprivation of liberty does not mean deprivation of liberties.35 In other words: When
deprived of their right to personal liberty, human beings shall, in principle, keep all other
human rights and shall be enabled by State authorities, as far as possible, to exercise these
rights in detention.36 This doctrine of minimal limitations applies in even stronger terms to
children who are still in their formative stage. When State authorities decide, as a measure
of last resort, to detain children, they have the positive obligation to ensure that these
children can in fact enjoy all other rights enshrined in the CRC.
Article 10(1) ICCPR provides that all persons deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity
and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.37 This general right of
detainees applies to all forms of deprivation of liberty. In the context of the administration
of criminal justice, Article 10(2) adds that accused persons shall, in principle, be separated
from convicted persons and that accused children shall be separated from adults and
brought as speedily as possible for adjudication. Finally, Article 10(3) contains the important
principle of rehabilitation of offenders (as opposed to retributive justice) by providing that
the penitentiary system shall aim at the reformation and social rehabilitation of prisoners
rather than simply punishing them. Child offenders shall be segregated from adults and be
accorded treatment appropriate to their age and legal status.
These remarkable principles of rehabilitation and of a humane and dignified treatment of
convicted prisoners were reaffirmed for children deprived of liberty in Article 37(c) CRC.38
The principle of separation of children from adults was relativised by introducing the
principle of the best interest of the child in accordance with Article 3 CRC. There might be
instances, for example in the case of detention of primary caregivers, where it is in the best
35 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Manfred Nowak, Addendum, A/HRC/13/39/Add.5, 5 February 2010, para. 256. See also: UN General Assembly, Interim Report of the
Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, A/64/215, 3 August 2009, p. 19; UN
Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,
Manfred Nowak, A/HRC/13/39, 9 February 2010, para. 74.
36 In his interim report to the General Assembly of 3 August 2009, the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Manfred Nowak, dedicated a special chapter on conditions of detention in general, and another
chapter on children in detention. In the latter chapter, he summarised his experiences from his earlier fact-finding missions: A/64/215,
op. cit., pp. 38 ff. & 61 ff. See also Manfred Nowak, Torture: An Expert’s Confrontation with an Everyday Evil, University of Pennsylvania
Press, Philadelphia, 2018, pp. 30 ff.
37 See Nowak (2005), pp. 183 ff.
38 Cf., e.g. Schabas & Sax (2006), op. cit., pp. 88 ff; Manco (2015), op. cit., pp. 64 ff.; Liefaard (2018), op. cit., pp. 334 ff. See also the ‘Havana
Rules’, op. cit., and the UN General Assembly, United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (‘Nelson Mandela
Rules’); A/RES/70/175, 17 December 2015.
73
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