These notes are included for the information of States Members. They are not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. The human rights issues raised by these provisions and the reasons why the draft Law is compatible with relevant international human rights obligations are set out below. The draft Law includes, inter alia, provision that will enable young persons i. The secure accommodation unit that these children and young people may be detained in is known as Greenfields and is a secure eight bed-unit that comes under the responsibility of the Minister for Health and Social Services.
At present Greenfields is only used to accommodate children for welfare reasons or those on remand who are under school leaving age. Residents normally associate with one another regardless of their reasons for being there and it would not be feasible to segregate convicted and unconvicted children for a number of practical reasons.
It is perhaps relevant to note that in both the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man, secure accommodation is used for the detention of young persons who have been convicted of offences and young persons who are detained on remand or for their welfare.
At present, female children over school leaving age who are remanded or sentenced to a period of youth detention are detained in the adult prison. This is because the number detained is insufficient to make the establishment of a female young offender institution viable and it is not lawful at present to detain them in secure accommodation.
The relevant provisions and their limitations are briefly set out below, followed by an explanation as to why the provisions of the draft Law are compatible with them. That reservation provides that:. However, again there is a reservation in respect of this obligation which states that:. The pre and post-trial detention of a young person in an adult prison, may, together with other negative factors, potentially give rise to a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR. However, that would only be the case if the treatment of the young person taken as a whole amounts to inhumane and degrading treatment of sufficient severity.
