CYIL 2012

DALIBOR JÍLEK CYIL 3 ȍ2012Ȏ enjoys the right to information. Items of information are the cognitive units used to make personal choices. The child must be informed regarding its legal claims, rights and responsibilities, the powers of the individuals who are looking after it, its family and how to search for it, as well as the means of communication with it and the administrative procedure. 167 5. Proposition Every human right and every right of the child is subject to the dynamics of social practice and thought. Hence the right of the child to liberty must be assessed and critically evaluated in an ongoing manner. The standpoints for this critical evaluation are various. This paper has made particular use of comparative standpoints in order to demonstrate how the content and scope of the child’s right to liberty develop and which duties and responsibilities are justified by such subjective rights. This paper has particularly aimed at the administrative detention of the child in the immigration situation. The author gives reasons why the practice of detaining children should be abandoned. His line of argument includes such points as detriment, vulnerability and the dehumanizing experience of the child. The principle of the best interests of the child reconciles the above points. The administrative detention of the child in an immigration situation is irreconcilable with this principle, which has an evaluating, controlling and decision-making function. This paper proposes that state authorities abandon the imposition of administrative detention as a means to deprive liberty and instead use measures which are more lenient and compatible with the interests of the child.

167 Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No.6 (2005), Treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, CRC/GC2005/6, 1 September 2006, p. 10.

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