The migration law of the European Union uses both of the expression "minor" and "child". "minor" is defined in all laws as a person younger than 18 years of age. However, "child" is never defined in the expression "child", although they use them even in the same paragraph. What is the difference?
Lack of consistent naming in the EU is visible not only in the problem of definitions of "child" and "minor". Reaching the EU or national legislation or literature in this area, you can find many terms, such as minor, juvenile, juveline adult, child, young person, under-age person, a person who has not reached the age of criminal responsibility, the person conditionally subject to criminal liability, etc.
The term "child" also uses the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The EU institutions, including the European Commission, in their communication on the rights of the child are often referred to it as the basis of standards for all Member States. UN Convention in Art. 1 states that a child is "any human being under the age of eighteen years, unless by law he or she has acquired the age of majority."
But, how to define "minor"? It seems that in the absence of a single criterion, a definite age of criminal liability in the individual EU Member States is a good solution.
England and Wales are the lowest in the statistics, where a person at the age of 10 is punishable. Then Scotland should be listed, where the penalty is now 12 years old, but it was 8 years before 2010. Great Britain has set the limit of criminal liability the lowest in Europe. Other countries have the following age limit: France 13 years, Italy, Spain or Germany 14, Denmark 15, Belgium 18. In Poland, according to the rules of penal code and according to the Criminal Procedure Code, persons aged 17 and over are exceptionally respected - persons aged 15 and over only for specific crimes.
Best regards!
Many EU laws have the structure that first the reasons why the new law was created are given. There are laws with more than 50 reasons. The second part contains the definition of important notions. The new rules are declared only in the third part. I found the definition of "minor" several times, as a person younger than 18 years old of age. However I never found the definition of "child", although they use the term.
According to The Council Conclusions on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child (December 2014) and Council Conclusions on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child – Council conclusions (3 April 2017) the EU policy on the rights of the child is strongly guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children (1989). All EU Member States are party to the UNCRC. I suppose, that is why we can agreed EU defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years, exactly as UNCRC do.
Best regards!
In the context: with the term 'minor' means a person (juvenile) who is below the legal age of responsibility or accountability, and 'a child' refers to a son or daughter from the parent, that is more consistent in the definition of the UNCRC.
Article 1
For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.
Convention on the Rights of the Child, ANNEX, 61st plenary meeting 20 November 1989
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