Article 37(d) provides that every child deprived of liberty, for whatever reason, shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action. This right to habeas corpus proceedings, which follows from the general provision of Article 9(4) ICCPR and applies to every form of deprivation of liberty, is particularly important for children. If States, as an exceptional measure of last resort, decide to arrest or detain a child, they must immediately provide the child with appropriate legal assistance to challenge the legality of such decision. In its General Comment 24 of 2019, the CRC-Committee reaffirmed that the child should be brought before a competent authority within 24 hours.

With respect to the habeas corpus proceedings, the Committee also stressed that the “right to a prompt decision means that a decision must be rendered as soon as possible, e.g. within or not later than two weeks after the challenge is made”. One might further argue that the requirement of the ‘shortest appropriate period of time’ in Article 37(b) calls for periodic judicial review of every deprivation of liberty of children. The rights to personal liberty, personal integrity and human dignity provide high international legal standards to prevent deprivation of liberty of children. They also create a framework designed to reduce detention of children to an absolute minimum, and in those exceptional cases in which detention is justified as a measure of last resort, they ensure that children have the right to challenge the legality of their detention. While children are detained for the shortest appropriate period of time, these rights additionally ensure that children are treated with humanity, dignity and respect for all other human rights.