The 2019 Resolution on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 2019. The Resolution focuses specifically on children without parental care. It emphasizes the importance of growing up in a family environment and the right of the child to a family, highlights the rights of children with disabilities with respect to family life, opposes the unnecessary separation of children from their families and the unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of liberty of children, encourages efforts to reunify families where in the best interests of the child, and stresses that children should not be separated from their families solely due to poverty or lack of access to resources. Please see p. 3 of the Report of the Third Committee on Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children for the complete list of Member States that co-sponsored the resolution.
The Resolution urges States to strengthen child welfare and child protection systems and improve care reform efforts, expresses concern regarding the large and growing number of migrant children, particularly those who are unaccompanied or separated from their parents or primary caregivers, calls upon States to provide support to families and to prevent the unnecessary separation of children from their parents, and urges States to provide a range of alternative care options and to protect all children without parental care, among other recommendations.
The Resolution also calls upon States to take action to prevent the trafficking and exploitation of children in care facilities or otherwise deprived of parental care. This includes addressing the harms related to volunteering programs in orphanages, including in the context of tourism, which can lead to trafficking and exploitation.
The Resolution reflects several of the Key Recommendations for the 2019 UNGA Resolution on the Rights of the Child with a focus on children without parental care, developed and endorsed by a broad coalition of children's advocates at the local, national, regional, and global levels.
Read also: the Resolution on the Girl Child
