Criminal detention and alternatives: fundamental rights aspects in EU cross-border transfers Figure 12: Number of children (under 18 years) in detention (pre- and post-trial) per 100,000 child population in EU Member States, compared with EU average 60 51.4 50 43.5 40 24.5 9.4 UK (SCT) 0 UK (NIR) SK SE RO PL NL MT 6.1 UK (ENG & WLS) 1.4 SI 8.5 0.5 LV LU LT IT HU 2014 EU average (12.1) Note: Data are not available for Belgium and Germany; for Luxembourg, the latest available data are from 2013. Information for UK specified separately for each of its three main regions. Source: UNODC (2014), Juveniles held be for the shortest appropriate period of time.” They add: “[g]iven the vulnerability of children deprived of liberty, […] family ties and promoting the reintegration into society” are essential.188 Protection of the rights of the child is also stressed in the Treaty on European Union (Article 3 (3)) and provided as a primary law right in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 24). Children and justice is a vast topic, and could be covered from many different angles. This report focuses only on aspects relevant to transfers of imprisoned children or transfers of probation measures applied to children. The detention of migrant children and detention of children for educational purposes will remain outside this study’s scope; for references to other FRA projects covering these topics, please see the box highlighting select FRA publications. The extent of pre- and post-trial detention of children in the EU is shown in Figure 12, which specifies the number of detained children per 100,000 child population by EU Member State, and compared to the EU average. Figure 12 shows that some Member States – particularly the United Kingdom (Scotland), Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Greece, and Malta – have rather high numbers of children in detention compared with the EU average. The United Kingdom (Scotland) has the highest number 188 Ibid., Preamble IV A 6 (19 and 21). 74 11.3 18.1 13.5 3.6 1 HR FI ES EL FR 5 EE CZ BG AT 0 8.9 9.1 9.4 0.8 DK 10 5.4 5.3 5.8 16.2 11.3 IE 18.7 13.7 20 24.2 PT 30 at more than 50 children per 100,000 child population – followed by Poland, with over 40. At the other end of the spectrum are the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland), Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, and Slovenia, with 1.5 or fewer children detained per 100,000 children. In total, in 2014, across the EU Member States – excluding Belgium and Germany – almost 10,000 (9,569) children were in criminal detention (pre- and post-trial), with an average of some 350 per EU Member State.189 A portion of these would be from other EU Member States and would thus be potential ‘child-clients’ for the three EU Framework Decisions, in addition to those who are subjected to alternative measures to detention. As for fundamental rights standards relating to the detention of children, the starting point for an analysis of alternatives to pre- and post-trial detention is the CRC; it provides, in Article 37 (c), that “[t]he arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child must be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.”190 This is repeated in Rules 13 and 19 of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (the ‘Beijing Rules’).191 189 UNODC (2014). 190 UN, Committee on the Rights of the Child (2007), para. 70. 191 UN, GA (1985).