NEWS RELEASE - UN Human Rights Office welcomes selection of Manfred Nowak to lead new global study on situation of children deprived of liberty

UN Human Rights Office welcomes selection of Manfred Nowak to lead new global study on situation of children deprived of liberty

  

GENEVA / NEW YORK (26 October 2016) – The UN Human Rights Office today welcomed the selection of Manfred Nowak to lead a new global study on the situation of children deprived of their liberty. The study, mandated by the UN General Assembly in resolution 69/157 in December 2014, will include good practices and recommendations for action to effectively realize all relevant rights of the child.

Most countries lack data on the number of children deprived of liberty, and on the reasons, length and places of detention. Children deprived of liberty thus often remain invisible and forgotten. In the absence of robust child protection systems, countless children throughout the world are deprived of liberty, purportedly for their care and protection, with severe consequences both for the person and for society as a whole.

To address this pressing situation, the UN General Assembly invited the Secretary-General to commission an in-depth global study on children deprived of liberty. The Global Study will include good practices and recommendations for action to effectively realize all relevant rights of the child.

The study will be conducted in cooperation with Member States, UN organizations including the UN Human Rights Office, national human rights institutions, civil society, academia – as well as children, among other stakeholders. A funding appeal has already been issued to mobilise support for the development of the study, which will be funded by voluntary contributions.

Mr. Nowak, who will lead the Global Study, is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at University of Vienna and the Secretary General of the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice. He was previously the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and has also been a member of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

ENDS

For further information on the Global Study, please contact:

Ms. Imma Guerras, Advisor on Child Rights, Secretariat on the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva;

Tel: +41 22 928 9249, or E-mail: iguerras-delgado@ohchr.org.

Ms. Sanna Käki, Child Protection Specialist, Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children, New York; Tel: +1 917 367 6131, or E-mail: kaki@un.org.