The 17th Kilbrandon Lecture (University of Strathclyde, 30 January 2020): The UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty - Deprivation of liberty is deprivation of childhood

I am very honoured to deliver the 17th Kilbrandon Lecture in paying tribute to the achievements of Lord Kilbrandon and the Scottish Children's Hearing System today in this beautiful lecture hall. My lecture will deal with one of the most important human rights of children, their right to personal liberty. Since children are in their formative years, they need freedom to develop their talents, skills and their personality. That is the main reason why Article 37(b) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) established for the right to personal liberty a much higher standard than for adults. While adults may be arrested and detained for various reasons under the sole condition that such deprivation of liberty is in conformity with domestic law and non-arbitrary, the CRC adds that the arrest and detention of children shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. This means that children shall only be detained in truly exceptional circumstances, when non-custodial solutions are definitely not appropriate.