On the 17th December, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Fundamental and Human Rights, together with the Global Campus of Human Rights invited children’s rights experts to the final conference of the project “Personal Freedom as a Child’s Right – Alternatives to Deprivation of Liberty and Restrictions of Liberty in Austria”. This is a follow-up project of the Global Study that assesses the status quo and challenges for alternatives to deprivation of liberty of children in Austria. Helmut Sax, project lead, together with Rebecca Hof and Claudia Grasl presented the main project results, which include children´s testimonies and recommendations to end deprivation of liberty. Following the presentations of several invited experts, the participants had the opportunity to exchange their views on urgent measures needed to avoid deprivation of liberty in the Austrian context in the field of migration, institutions and administration of justice. Some of the measures identified related to the need to conduct more qualitative research work on regular basis, to take more into account the children´s opinion, use appropriate language and train staff working with and for children. Among the almost 100 attendees there were representatives from the Austrian Ombudsman Board with NPM mandate, youth advocates, representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Interior, members of UN agencies and from civil society organisations.
You can re-watch the full event (in German) here.