CAT/OP/ESP/1 C. Children and adolescents (a) Protection of adolescents in conflict with the law 99. Article 1 of the Organic Act on the Criminal Responsibility of Minors provides that minors aged between 14 and 18 years who commit an offence, whether a felony or a misdemeanour, shall be held criminally accountable in accordance with the provisions established in the Act. 100. Under the provisions of this law, minors are not subject to fines, tagging or prison terms, but are instead sentenced to corrective measures aimed at rehabilitation and designed to help them move beyond the bad habits that have led them to offend. However, the increase in penalties and the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years give rise to concerns. 101. The Subcommittee acknowledges the State party’s efforts to operate a juvenile justice system that is in line with international standards and safeguards. However, it remains concerned that the age of criminal responsibility has been lowered to 14 years and that the sanctions applied for serious crimes are very severe. It therefore recommends that a review of the criminal legislation applicable to minors be undertaken in order to bring it into line with international standards on juvenile justice, in particular articles 37 ( b) and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Beijing Rules, the United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (the Riyadh Guidelines) and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, as well as general comment No. 10 (2007) on children’s rights in juvenile justice issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. (b) Disciplinary regime in juvenile detention centres 102. Article 60 (3) (a) of the Organic Act on the Criminal Responsibility of Minors provides that minors who engage in grave misconduct, such as overtly aggressive, violent or seriously disruptive behaviour, may be separated from the group for a period of from 3 to 7 days. According to the information provided by some of the children at the juvenile detention centre in Melilla, when they are separated from the group they are permitted to spend only 1 hour per day outside. Children have sometimes been subjected to the sanction of separation on consecutive occasions, which has thus exceeded the maximum period of seven days. 103. The Subcommittee was also granted access to the centre’s records, including the computer-based register of disciplinary sanctions. The Subcommittee found that, in the register pertaining to the monitoring of the use of restraint, the names of the person who requested the sanction and the official who implemented it were not recorded. The Subcommittee is of the view that recording this information could help to prevent the torture or ill-treatment of young people held in juvenile detention centres and to improve oversight in the event of complaints by adolescents of ill-treatment or torture. 104. The Subcommittee recommends that, pursuant to rule 67 of the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, the State party review the application of the sanctions permitted under the disciplinary regime set forth in article 60 of the Organic Act on the Criminal Responsibility of Minors to ensure that the dignity of adolescents in conflict with the law is respected. The Subcommittee recommends that the State party ensure that separation from the group is used only as an exceptional measure, that decisions regarding its use always take into account the best interests of the child, that it is applied for the shortest period of time possible and that children do not spend lengthy periods in isolation as a result of consecutive punishments. Similarly, the Subcommittee encourages the State party to consider including the names of the official requesting the sanction and the official implementing it in the record of disciplinary sanctions. 16 GE.19-17184