Detention of juveniles The permissibility of detaining juvenile migrants has been repeatedly questioned by non-governmental organizations63, international institutions64 and the Commissioner for Human Rights. CPT Detention of juveniles is rarely justified and with certainty cannot be explained by the lack of a residence permit65. ECHR The court ruled that by placing children in closed detention centres for migrants Poland violated Article 8 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms which grants children the right to family life. When deciding on the placement of the family in the closed detention centre the well-being of three children was ignored, which stands in opposition to the obligations imposed on Poland by, among others, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. According to the court, the fact that children are placed in the closed detention centre together with their parents is not in the child’s best interest. Polish authorities should have considered applying the so called non-custodial supervision measures which constitute an alternative to detention. The court emphasized that detention should be the last resort66. Cf. Position statement of the Association for Legal Intervention of 30 March 2015: http://interwencjaprawna.pl/stanowisko-sip-w-sprawie-detencji-dzieci-cudzoziemskich/ 64 E.g. ECHR’ judgment of 19 January 2010 in the case Muskhadzyhieva v. Belgium (41442/07) 65 CPT report from the visit to Poland in 2009, CPT/Inf (2011) 20, Art. 48. 66 Case Bistieva v. Poland, application no. 75157/14. 63 Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2018 43