Department for the Execution of Judgments
of the European Court of Human Rights

On 11 December, the Belgian authorities submitted an action report reporting important progress in the F.B. v. Belgium case. The case concerns the lack of procedural safeguards during the age-assessment process in 2019 of an unaccompanied minor, leading to the termination of her support. Under the revised practice, whenever there is doubt as to a young person’s minority, an age assessment interview is now systematically conducted by the Guardianship Service. During the interview, the person concerned is informed of the procedure, including the possibility to refuse a medical age-assessment test and the potential effects of such refusal. Where doubts persist, explanatory material is provided in a language understood by the person, informed consent is obtained in writing, and both the lawyer and guardian are duly informed. In addition, decisions to resort to medical testing are subject to review, and a reasonable time is allowed for the submission of additional supporting documents. In order to close the supervision of this case, domestic legislation still needs to be amended to explicitly provide that medical age-assessment tests are used only as a measure of last resort.

 Country factsheet of Belgium