This briefing note, produced by an Interagency Working Group on children without parental care, was designed to highlight the special vulnerability of children with disabilities who are in alternative care and to encourage members of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Committee to consider the potential added value of reference to the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in developing their arguments and recommendations, especially when revising State Party reports. The paper offers descriptions of the specific vulnerabilities and conditions of children with disabilities who are placed in alternative care settings, the current protections set in place by international conventions such as the UN CRPD, as well as the UN Guidelines on Alternative Care, which serve as supplementary international guidelines for the protection of children with disabilities.
The document also includes a recommendation from the Working Group which suggests that the CRPD consider the Guidelines for Alternative Care when examining State Parties’ reports and reflect the Guidelines in their Concluding Observations, as is being regularly done by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The briefing note goes on to state that, since the CRC does not always explicitly address the issue of children with disabilities in alternative care, such an initiative on the part of the CRPD would constitute a vital step towards ensuring that children with disabilities are less discriminated against in alternative care matters.
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