The international guidelines seek to ensure that, on the one hand, children do not find themselves in out-of-home care unnecessarily and, on the other, out-of-home care provided is of a type and quality that corresponds to the rights and specific needs of the child concerned. They are designed to promote, facilitate and guide the progressive implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in this particular area of concern. The Guidelines address not only governments but also international bodies and organisations, civil society, professionals, voluntary organisations and the private sector to the extent that they are directly or indirectly involved with organising, providing or monitoring out-of-home care for children.
The development of international standards for improving the protection of children without parental care began in 2004 with UNICEF and International Social Services research and advocacy program calling for these standards. This resulted in the Committee on the Rights of the Child 2005 Day of General Discussion recommendations calling on the UN, Governments and civil society partners to produce international standards for the protection and alternative care of children without parental care for the UN General Assembly to review and adopt.
Following these recommendations, a first draft of the guidelines was developed by an NGO Working Group on Children without Parental Care. The Better Care Network's advisory group reviewed and commented on the guidelines. In May 2006, the draft guidelines were submitted for consultation at the CRC. The Committee reviewed and strengthened the guidelines in preparation for informal technical review by UN member states.
In August 2006, in Brasilia, the Brazilian government hosted an inter-governmental meeting of over 40 technical experts to further refine and strengthen the guidelines. As a result of this meeting, a 15-country "Group of Friends" — led by the Government of Brazil — was established to host a series of intergovernmental consultations to further strengthen the guidelines. These consultations culminated in a resolution of the Human Rights Council in June 2009 to submit the "Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children" to the UNGA with a view to their adoption in November 2009.