Global Torture Index: Realities of the Torture of Children

Children[1] are tortured for many reasons: because they live in conflict zones, are accused of crimes, engage in activism, or simply because they belong to a marginalised community. Some face torture as a form of collective punishment, while others are targeted because of their ethnicity or religion, victims of discriminatory policing or state repression.

Children involved in student movements or protest actions may be detained, beaten, or intimidated simply for organising at school, handing out flyers, or joining a demonstration. In some cases, they become pawns, abused by authorities to pressure parents or relatives into confessing or surrendering.

Accused of breaking the law or being on the “wrong side” of a political or ethnic divide, they are often subjected to the same brutal tactics used against adults, despite international laws that demand their protection.

The scale of the problem is staggering. Globally, it's estimated that 1 billion children aged 2 to 17 have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional violence or neglect in just the past year. The tolerance of violence against children and corporal punishment as a form of discipline, including in custodial settings and prisons, also create environments that are conducive to torture and contribute to the tolerance of treatments that would be regarded as unacceptable if inflicted on an adult 2, despite children’s greater vulnerability to violence.

In order to bring this hidden reality to light, this post lays down 13 facts about torture against children, which reveal systematic failures to prevent, protect and help children recover from torture. They also show where progress is being made.

To inform this piece, we have used data collected by OMCT’s network members and partners from 21 countries (Bahrain, Belarus, Colombia, Congo, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Hungary, India, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Mexico, Moldova, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Spain, Togo, Tunisia and Türkiye), for the Global Torture Index, a new platform designed to measure the risk of torture and ill-treatment across various countries currently being consolidated by the OMCT in collaboration with the SOS-Torture Network and set to be officially launched in June 2025.

Detention Conditions

1. According to the 2019 UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty supported by the OMCT, between around 7 million children worldwide are deprived of their liberty including 1,5 million in the administration of justice each year. Detention has a profound impact on children's development, increasing their risk of being exposed to torture and mistreatment, disrupting their right to education, and endangering their prospects for successful reintegration into society. Detention itself can also constitute torture or ill-treatment. The lack of access to child detention premises by civil society organisation contributes to the deep invisibility of the situation of children and particularly of torture, which remains hidden, underreported, inflicted behind closed doors, as well as to the lack of data on children in detention.
2. Children are subjected to solitary confinement in at least five countries, and the use of physical and manual restraints, humiliation and degrading searches on children has been reported in half of the states under scrutiny.
3. The law does not prohibit the detention of migrant children in half of the countries where there is data available. Furthermore, alternative measures to deprivation of liberty are not promoted in the majority of states (15 out of 21).
4. In nine out of the 21 countries surveyed by the Index, migrant children are frequently separated from their family or persons accompanying them.
5. Children who are in conflict with the law come mostly from poor and marginalised communities.

Forms of torture and other ill-treatment

1. The 2002 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography has been ratified by all the 21 Index countries.
2. However, child marriage continues to be practiced in 16 of them. In those cases, the adoption of the necessary measures to eradicate it is rarely observed.
3. The worst forms of child labor continue to take place in more than half of the territories analysed, despite all of them having ratified the International Labour Organization Convention No 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999).
4. Child victims of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment (CIDTP) often do not enjoy all the guarantees during the judicial proceeding on the prevention of double victimization, protection of privacy and safety, both physical and psychological, as well as the child’s best interest.

Domestic violence against children

1. Even though domestic violence is mostly criminalised, including for all members of the family (in 16 out of 21 countries), the necessary measures to fight against it have only been taken in seven countries out of 21.
2. In many cases, there are no mechanisms and guidelines to ensure mandatory investigation and prosecution of all cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of children.
3. Children who are victims of domestic violence are rarely provided with child-friendly complaints channels, effective protections, access to shelters, psychosocial counselling, social support schemes or residence permits independent of the abusive relative migration status.
4. Data on the rate of domestic violence against children is missing in half of the Index countries due to systemic underreporting and lack of transparency. The percentage of complaints leading to convictions is mostly unavailable as well.

Ending all forms of torture against children needs strong political commitment and the implementation of evidence-based strategies to address its root causes. Key efforts include reinforcing legal and policy frameworks that prohibit such acts and safeguard children, expanding high-quality, evidence-based parenting programs that encourage positive and non-violent discipline, enhancing support services for victims, and investing in effective violence prevention and response systems.

The Time to Act is Now

The torture and cruel and inhuman against children can be prevented, by concretely implementing international children’s rights standards, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention against Torture, to ensure the absolute prohibition of the torture of children, and in particular through:

1. Collecting data on children deprived of liberty and making information public and available to break the invisibility of the issue of torture of children;
2. Ensuring access to places of child detention to civil society organisations to enable the monitoring of the detention conditions of children;
3. Aligning legislation and implementation of juvenile justice standards in line with international instruments, in particular on setting a minimum age of criminal responsibility in line with international recommendations, using detention of children only as a last resort and for the shortest time possible, ensuring the separation of children from adults, establishing and using alternatives to detention, the prohibition of solitary confinement, of degrading searches, the proportionate and limited use of restraints, ending all violence and corporal punishment at all stages, and ensuring access to essential services such as adequate food, hygiene, healthcare and education, among others;
4. Ending detention migration of children;
5. Ensuring the prohibition of violence, ill-treatment and torture by the police during arrests or protests;
6. Ensuring access and visits of families of children deprived of liberty;
7. Ensuring access to adequate and free legal assistance for children deprived of liberty;
8. Putting in place adequate,safe, and child-friendly reporting mechanisms of torture and other forms of violence inflicted on children by the police or in places of deprivation of liberty;
9. Holding perpetrators accountable through effective and transparent complaints, monitoring, investigation and redress mechanisms for children victims.

Join OMCT

For more information and updates on this topic:

• Read our Global Guide on Protecting Children from Torture in Detention
• Join the Global Torture Index Launch in 2025

[1] A ‘child’ is every human being below the age of 18 years old, according to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 1). Also see United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules); the United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (Riyadh Guidelines); the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (Havana Rules); the Guidelines for Action on Children in the Criminal Justice System.