Article 37: Prohibition of Torture, Capital Punishment, and Arbitrary Deprivation of Liberty
AbstractArticle 37 is inspired by the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). However, it extends the ICCPR’s provisions to the protection of the children by: (1) imposing the prohibition of life imprisonment for children without the possibility of release; (2) demanding that detention of a child shall be used as a measure of last resort and be imposed for the shortest period of time; and (3) providing to children deprived of liberty the right to maintain contacts with their family members. Article 37 imposes a child-centred understanding of its provisions and rights. These rights extend beyond the ambit of child justice administration to all situations where children may be deprived of liberty, including, for example, child protection settings, health care settings, and immigration settings. This chapter analyses Article 37 rights in accordance with four essential attributes, as enumerated in its four constituent paragraphs: (1) the prohibition in paragraph (a) on torture or ill-treatment, specifically ruling out capital punishment and life imprisonment without parole for minors; (2) the prohibition in paragraph (b) of unlawful and arbitrary deprivations of liberty, insisting that such sanctions are a measure of last resort that must only be imposed for the shortest appropriate period; (3) the limitations on the deprivation of liberty, including the core commitment in paragraph (c) to upholding the child’s inherent dignity and right to be treated with humanity in such circumstances; and (4) the right, in paragraph (d), to minimal due process guarantees which must accompany any child’s deprivation of liberty. While youth criminal justice practice varies greatly from state to state, Articles 37 and 40 have emerged as a codification of global standards set out in the Beijing Rules and a summary prompt to the adoption of guidelines and minimum rules for the protection of children deprived of liberty and the prevention of youth crime. Article 37 should therefore be applied consistently with the recent General Comment no. 24 (2019) on Children’s Rights in the Child Justice System.