Considering the challenges modern migration crisis has posed on both a practical and theoretical basis, this article takes a thorough look at the protection of unaccompanied minors under international human rights law with the aim to present the main issues that need to be revisited and the areas that require further development. Precisely, Section II deals with the detailed analysis of the definition of the ‘unaccompanied minors’ notion and the intertwined regimes of protection of unaccompanied children under international human rights and refugee law. Subsequently, Section III draws the framework of the fundamental rights of unaccompanied minors through observation of states’ migration policies and laws, recent judicial decisions as well as non-state actors’ practices. The structure of the human rights protection scheme, evaluated hereinunder, is composed of states’ primary obligation of nonrefoulement; care and accommodation rights in initial proceedings; guardianship; legal representation and access to asylum procedures; and, finally, the family reunification right.
Finally, Section IV discusses the demand to find durable solutions in favor of the best interests of unaccompanied minors focusing on two major topics of the global dialogue: the reinforcement of human rights’ applicability against state practices of “securitization” and externalization of border controls, as well as the meaning of structuring “life projects” for unaccompanied minors as a future solution.
