Annual Report 2015
performance of searches be brought in line with the decisions of the Council for the
Administration of Criminal Justice and Protection of Juveniles on this subject.
Closed youth care warning
In both national and international law, the principle is that no-one may be deprived
of their freedom without legal basis and without judicial intervention and that no use
of (physical) restraints and seclusion may be used without proper cause. The
assessment of whether a youth is suffering from growing-up and education
problems severe enough to warrant the deprivation of their freedom by the use of
(physical) restraints and seclusion within a closed youth care institution is to be
made by the juvenile court judge, who can grant an authorisation to have that
youth placed in a closed accommodation. This also applies to closed youth
assistance within a "voluntary framework". A youth who, together with their
parents, voluntarily agrees to or requests closed youth care, may only receive such
specialised youth care following the issue of a closed youth care authorisation by the
juvenile court judge.
The Inspectorate for Youth Care found that closed youth care institutions
increasingly often place youths within a closed regime ward without the juvenile
court judge having granted a closed youth care authorisation with respect to that
placement. The Inspectorate considers such placements to be unacceptable, as they
violate both national and international law. The placement of a youth in closed youth
care without judicial assessment severely harms their legal position.
The Inspectorate for Youth Care brought this issue to the attention of the State
Secretary of Health, Welfare and Sport in August 2015 by issuing a public warning.
The IJZ and IGZ will further investigate this issue in 2016. The findings of their
investigation will be published in mid 2016.
Calamities
One of the activities to be performed under the Youth Act is the investigation of
calamities. The Inspectorate for Youth Care, the Inspectorate VenJ and the Health
Care Inspectorate have, in 2015, set up a joint reporting centre and working
procedures in this connection. The supervisory activities performed have as yet
been too few to establish the consequences to the youth care system arising from
this system change. However, it has become apparent that problems within families
are still not tackled comprehensively, also due to the complexity of the collaboration
between assistance services. Assistance workers do not draw up a joint plan, too
little control is taken over the assistance provided and the exchange of information
between assistance workers is limited. This also appears from the Inspectorate VenJ
annual report.
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The RSJ's appeal committee in various specific cases judged that a search following every visit is not
contrary to the law. In other cases, the appeal committee has always allowed the use of random searches,
provided these occur with a frequency of no more than twice a month. However, the use of systemic
searches can, in the view of the appeal committee, be unreasonable and unfair when all interests are
balanced.
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