46 argument, that collective suicide was a possibility, the pressure from the outside to do just that was very strong. The transfer from the ‘Panchito López’ Center to the Itauguá Education Center represents no progress at all because the authorities have not learned what happens psychologically and socially, and do not understand the methods that should be used with these “mistreated and violated” children. Still, change is possible if the political will is there. Juvenile facilities should have no more than forty inmates. h) Expert opinion of Emilio Arturo García Méndez, former advisor to UNICEF and an expert on the rights of the child. On the international level, the minimum standards can be divided into three different categories: prescriptive or normative; juridical (perhaps the most obvious and the most often cited, since it concerns the material conditions that the deprivation of liberty must meet), and the category that concerns the problem of interpreting the rules relating to deprivation of liberty. At the domestic level, the evolution of doctrine and jurisprudence, as well as each State’s constitution and specific laws on the subject of deprivation of liberty all have to be considered. On the issue of juridical standards, clearly the Convention on the Rights of the Child has and still does influence domestic laws. The Convention recognizes deprivation of liberty and uses that precise language. Extraordinary progress has been made in moving away from the old concepts of the rights of the child, which were generally expressed in somewhat euphemistic terms. The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes deprivation of liberty in the case of minors, but also requires States parties to establish a minimum age below which the consequences of a violation of criminal law will not be applied. As for the problem of interpreting the juridical standards, unambiguous rules have to be established at the domestic level that embody those principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that require that detention be reserved only for exceptional cases, and then be for the shortest appropriate period of time and only as a “measure of last resort.” States also need institutions to ensure that legal guarantees are effectively observed. It is a basic and elementary obligation of the State to ensure to its minors the juridical-institutional and political-cultural conditions necessary so that, at the very least, the mandatory and free public education that is the general norm in every country of the world is available within juvenile detention institutions. Consequently, “institutions of everyday life” have to be an integral part of the deprivation of liberty, so that re-socialization -the goal of which is to re-integrate the minor into his family unit and the normal institutions of the State- can proceed with as little shock and as little trauma as possible. Under the new system, relevance or authority of the law becomes a central criterion, at least from the normative standpoint. In today’s world, the issue of material conditions is entirely relevant and cannot be divorced from the issue of legal