A/HRC/38/36 B. Penal institutions 60. Penal institutions were designed principally for adults. At best, separate facilities are provided for children, but they are still modelled on adult prisons. Prison is one of several forms of immigration detention used around the world. The fundamental right of the child to care and protection can never be realized within penal institutions.34 61. Children have been confined in cells, wards, corridors, exercise yards and visiting areas for weeks, months or even years. Childhood is a uniquely precious time in a young person’s development; in penal settings, fresh air, windows and opportunities to play, exercise and explore outside are strictly limited, if available at all. A lack of nutritious and wholesome food saps children’s energy; squalid conditions spread infection and disease. For children in immigration detention, release from captivity prior to deportation equals the loss of places they call home and the people linked to those places. Escorted transfers from an institution to an aircraft robs children of any final opportunity to say goodbye. 62. The impact of penal institutions stretches far beyond the curtailment of children’s physical freedom; their mental well-being and potential for psychological and cognitive growth are all deeply and negatively affected. Research evidence shows that immigration detention aggravates pre-existing trauma in children. For some it is the worst experience of their lives.35 63. Adolescence is a critical period of cognitive and emotional development, affecting the whole of adulthood. The Special Rapporteur remains deeply concerned about how punitive responses to youth violence affect adolescent health and development. 36 Criminalization and incarceration have increased, despite the evidence that public-health approaches deliver better results. 37 In reality, children held in penal institutions, including for acts of violence, are those whose early childhood needs and rights have not been fulfilled. International human rights law requires children to be treated in accordance with their age and best interests.38 Ensuring the full and harmonious development of children in society, from infancy to adolescence, is a core strategy for preventing youth crime. 39 64. Since the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, neuroscience research has revealed that the brains of adolescents are still developing in many critical ways. This calls into serious question the rationale for punitive, closed environments and methods of control. 40 Corporal punishment, humiliation, coercion and the denial of supportive environments that can ensure healthy, non-violent relationships and physical comfort can never elicit positive, long-term change in a child’s behaviour.41 65. Many children are detained due to their mother’s incarceration, when it is considered in the child’s best interests to remain with his or her mother. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that this is too limited as an assessment of best interests. States must weigh the 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 See the Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 3 (2) and 40. International Detention Coalition, Captured Childhood: Introducing a New Model to Ensure the Rights and Liberty of Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Irregular Migrant Children Affected by Immigration Detention (2012), p. 49. The Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed similar concerns; see its general comment No. 13 (2011) on the right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence, para. 15 (c). Arianna Silvestri and others, Young People, Knives and Guns: A Comprehensive Review, Analysis and Critique of Gun and Knife Crime Strategies (London, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 2009), pp. 61–67. Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 3 and 37, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 7 (2). See United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (the Riyadh Guidelines), paras. 1–6. Barry Goldson and Ursula Kilkelly, “International human rights standards and child imprisonment: potentialities and limitations”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights, vol. 21, No. 2 (2013). WHO and International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, Preventing Child Maltreatment: A Guide to Taking Action and Generating Evidence (2006); Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, “Corporal punishment of children: review of research on its impact and associations”, working paper (2016). 13