Better Care Network highlights recent news pieces related to the issue of children's care around the world. These pieces include newspaper articles, interviews, audio or video clips, campaign launches, and more.
Historically, the needs of LGBTQ+ youth in child welfare systems have mostly not been addressed or, worse, have been invisible to those charged with caring for them.
One council worker said they had to ‘beg, borrow and steal’ to get the right support
Children as young as two are stuck living in state-run homes with paid carers despite a royal commission calling seven years ago for an end to the practice. Over the Christmas and New Year period there were hundreds of children living in these homes after being removed from unsafe families.
Beginning this month, Washington officials have new authority to root out abuse and neglect of children housed in private boarding schools, residential treatment centers and the state’s school for the deaf. Senate Bill 5515 tasks the Department of Children, Youth and Families with investigating allegations and approving licenses for facilities that had previously been beyond the scope of the child welfare agency.
The former Scottish prime minister has said poverty rather than alcoholism, drug addiction or abuse is resulting in children being handed over to social services.
Ukraine has condemned a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin making it possible to confer Russian citizenship on Ukrainian children moved to Russia. Last March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin over Russia's policy of forced child deportations. The Ukrainian foreign ministry called the decree illegal.
Even though the prevalence of child marriage declined in India from 49.4% in 1993 to 22.3% in 2021, a Lancet Global Health study revealed that one in five underage girls and one in six boys are still getting married off before the age of 18. By 2021, researchers estimated that more than 13.4 million women aged 20 to 24 were forced into marriage during childhood.
Italy and Libya signed on December 20 an agreement allowing the evacuation of 1,500 vulnerable migrants from Libya to Italy, over the next 3 years.
TALLINN, Estonia — Belarus' authoritarian president on Thursday attended a government-organized meeting with children brought from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, openly defying an international outrage over his country's involvement in Moscow's deportation of Ukrainian children.
Since 2021, migrant children have been traveling alone to the United States in record numbers: Nearly 400,000 children have crossed the southern border by themselves, most of them fleeing extreme poverty.