-30 Initiative, Washington University, Washington College of Law • Women in detention: a guide to gender-sensitive monitoring, APT/PRI, 2013 • International Committee of the Red Cross, Women in detention, International Review of the Red Cross, Volume 92 Number 877, March 2010 2.2.2. Juvenile prisoners As in the case of women prisoners, there are many international documents recognizing the specific vulnerability of juveniles deprived of their liberty and focusing on their treatment. The most important of these documents are the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (the Havana Rules) at the UN level and Recommendation CM/ Rec(2008)11 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the European Rules for juvenile offenders subject to sanctions and measures at the Council of Europe level. An important source of specific recommendations to member states are the concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child after periodic reviews of state parties’ reports, as well as its general comments. The principle underlining all international documents containing standards on children deprived of their liberty is that detention of children must always be a measure of last resort and as short as possible. All such documents also recognize the specific vulnerability of children in detention because of their lack of understanding of the law and prison order, difficulty accessing legal aid and venues to complain, lack of means to provide for additional food and supplies where needed, deprivation of needed family support, and physical weakness and lack of means to defend against official abuse, etc. To address these vulnerabilities, international standards stress on states’ positive obligations to ensure contact of children deprived of their liberty with their family, including notification of family members about detention, visits, regular and unrestricted communication, and the possibility of family members to accompany