Domestic law, participation, and Feydhoo Finolhu Children at Feydhoo Finolhu are cared for, guarded, and taught by police officers in plainclothes from the Child Protection Unit at the Maldives Police Service. Whereas the Home Ministry’s Regulations on the Isolation of Children state that children should be detained at the Centre for a minimum of six months (Article 21.a), there is no maximum length of detention. Some children have stayed at the Centre for over a year. And none of the children have a clear indication as to when they will be allowed to leave the detention centre apart from being told that they will be released once the officers in charge and the JJU are satisfied with their progress. Every word and action of the child—‘Respect and Manner’, ‘Bad Mouth’ to ‘Hair Cut’ and ‘Neatness and Decency’—are assessed as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and marks awarded or deducted accordingly. Children are told that they need to score very high if they want to leave the institution, but they are not made aware of how many marks exactly they have to earn before they are deemed qualified to leave. They live in anticipation or dread, depending on whether or not they have scored low or high on a particular day or week. In addition to the incessant evaluation of their actions and disciplinary actions that can be taken against the children, officers in charge also have the power to hold the children in isolation. Despite being extremely forthcoming during consultative meetings about the children’s schedules and other matters at the Centre, the officer in charge of operations on the day of the visit did not volunteer the information about holding children in isolation as a form of punishment. This suggests that officers know that holding children in isolation is against regulations and the ethos of the reforms being attempted of the juvenile justice system. Interviews with children, however, revealed that some children were held in isolation for over a week over an incident in which violence broke out at the centre. A police officer is always present in the vicinity of where children are, and even accompany children to the toilet of which there is only one on the whole island. Contrary to the requirement in the Minimum Standards at Alternative Care Institutions discussed earlier that children’s daily schedules should include time in which children have a choice of doing nothing if they so choose (Article 16) and that there should be flexibility in their daily schedules and that children should be consulted in drawing up the said schedules (Article 19), every minute of every day of the children detained at Feydhoo Finolhu is strictly regimented. And, contrary to international instruments on the deprivation of children’s liberty, which advise that there should be as little restriction to children’s movements as possible, children on the island of Feydhoo Finolhu are confined to particular areas which they cannot leave. If they stray beyond, marks are deducted from for ‘Being in a Restricted Area’. The Minimum Standards also require that: Staff in charge of caring for young children and children with special needs should be properly trained in such matters, and should also be given guidance on how to carry out such duties with the consent of the child concerned (Article 10.d) 62