This publication provides an account of historical processes in Spain and Italy which have led to a transformation of social child protection policies and an abandonment of the most widely-used mechanism of social exclusion, namely institutionalization.

La question du placement en France a semblé avoir perdu de son intensité dans les années 1990 sans doute en raison de la baisse progressive du nombre de ceux-ci et des importantes réformes législatives intervenues depuis 1983. Elle est aujourd’hui à nouveau posée par des associations, des mouvements de défense des droits de l’homme et par le gouvernement. 

First published in 1999, this work draws together a multi-national collection of papers, and aims to stimulate the development of policy and practice in this often neglected area.

This report is based on research in the French Department of Hautes-Alpes between January and July 2019 in which Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed fifty-nine boys, one girl, and one adult man who had recently turned 18, all of whom had migrated to France unaccompanied.