Archive | 2021
Challenges to the Application of the Concept of Vulnerability and the Principle of Best Interests of the Child in the Case Law of the ECtHR Related to Detention of Migrant Children
Abstract
The administrative detention of migrant children, and the conditions of deprivation of liberty, pose serious challenges to the realisation of their rights. The present chapter discusses the concept of vulnerability and the principle of the best interests of the child, and their legal consequences, for the effective respect, protection, and fulfilment of the human rights of migrant children in the context of immigration detention. In doing so, it gives a short overview of the developments in the Court’s case law related to detention of migrant children. Using the Court’s concepts of vulnerability, the best interests of the child, and circumscribed child’s autonomy, as well as taking inspiration from other international instruments and EU law, this chapter attempts to demonstrate where the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case law on the detention of migrant children in particular under Articles 3, 5, and 8 of the ECHR could grow further, and the opportunities for such growth, as well as the barriers to it.