Registration, Documentation and Tracing

Registration and documentation of separated and unaccompanied children are essential steps towards tracing and reunifying children with their families. Such separation can be highly traumatic and requires immediate action by a designated body to expedite the process. This is particularly vital when children are very young and far less able to cope without parental care or to remember essential details about their home and parents.

Registration, documentation and tracing should be done in a co-ordinated fashion throughout a particular emergency situation, with all involved agencies using the same forms in order to avoid confusion and errors and ensuring that all documentation forms are included in a central, confidential database. The affected population should be given clear guidance on the process for registration and should be supported throughout the process.

All separated children should be registered as soon as they are identified. Their basic information must be collected, photograph taken, and medical screening done. All belongings and clothing should be listed and retained with the child. Particularly for young children, the registration process must include gathering information from any adults or older children who may be able to provide relevant information. In some situations rapid action can permit immediate reunification with parents or relatives, and such action should not necessarily wait until full documentation has been completed.

Parents and caretakers who have lost children should also be able to submit tracing requests. Children and adults should be kept fully informed of the process and reunited or in contact with located family members or relatives as quickly as possible.

Tracing of family members is the next step, even if family reunification is not immediately possible. The priority is to locate parents, other family members, or relatives in the area who may be able to provide interim care for children without adequate care. Precautions should be made when sharing information for tracing purposes to ensure the child or their family members are not placed at risk.

The literature in this section includes procedural guidance and documentation forms for registering and tracing children and parents, as well as descriptions of documentation and tracing programs.

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Earthquake in Haiti: Intercountry Adoption Cases

International Social Service , 21 Jan 2010

Discusses risks associated with using adoption in emergency settings. Additional consideration given on where adoptions can be safely and appropriately facilitated for children with adoptions underway prior to the earthquake.

http://www.crin.org/docs/haiti_position%20CIR_ENG(1).pdf

Psychosocial Care and Protection of Tsunami Affected Children: Guiding Principles

Inter-Agency Group, 21 Jan 2010

Guidance on use of early psychosocial interventions in humanitarian responses to help to mitigate the effect of trauma, alleviating psychological distress, and strengthen resiliency.

Intercountry Adoption in Emergencies: The Tsunami Orphans

Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, 20 Jan 2010

The Adoption Institute offers this policy brief, with the purpose of examining the role of intercountry adoption in situations such as the one caused by the tsunami – that is, during natural disasters, armed conflicts, and other complex human emergencies

Information Note to States and Central Authorities: Haiti Earthquake and Intercountry Adoption of Children

Hague Conference on Private and International Law , 20 Jan 2010

In this Information Note, the Hague Convention urges that the focus in emergencies should first be on child protection, rather than adoption. In the spirit of this Recommendation, it is clear that in a disaster situation, like that brought about by the earthquake, efforts to reunite a displaced child with his or her parents or family members must take priority. Premature and unregulated attempts to organise the adoption of such a child abroad should be avoided.

Child Protection Working Group Guiding Principles: Unaccompanied and Separated Children Following the Haiti Earthquake January 2010

Child Protection Working Group, 19 Jan 2010

Address key messages and considerations for preventing separation; ensuring identification, tracing and family reunification is prioritized; and facilitating interim care, alternative care and adoption where necessary.

Misguided Kindness: Making the Right Decisions for Children in Emergencies

Save the Children UK , 2010

Using lessons learnt in emergencies, from the genocide in Rwanda to the Asian Tsunami and the earthquake in Haiti, our new report, Misguided Kindness, demonstrates what action is needed to keep families together during crises and to bring separated children back into a safe and nurturing family life.

Inter-Agency Child Protection Information System: Sample Documents

IRC, Save the Children and UNICEF, 26 Nov 2008

Sample documents to the Information Management System

Strategic Analysis on Civil Registration and Children in the Context of HIV and AIDS

Isabel de Bruin-Cardoso & Ruth Mampane, IATT Working Group on Children Affected by HIV and AIDS, 01 Jun 2008

Examines dynamics between achievements in universal birth registration and enhanced protection of children.

UNHCR Guidelines on Determining the Best Interests of the Child

United Nations High Commission on Refugees, 01 May 2008

Provides a formal mechanism to determine the best interests of the child as a mechanism within a child protection system

Toolkit Child Protection in Emergencies: A Guide for Field Workers. Section 4 Separated and Unaccompanied Children

UNICEF Indonesia , 31 Dec 2007

Contains an overview of programming to prevent and respond to separated and unaccompanied children, including care arrangements. Includes a training program.