The 6th BICON Conference on Alternative Care for Children in Asia will be held on 15 and 16 October 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since 2014, BICON has been a significant event focusing on the rights of children and young people without par

Research across Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka shows that climate change is intensifying drivers of family separation—including poverty, food insecurity, child migration, early marriage, and trafficking—while placing children with disabilities at heightened risk. The study calls for family strengthening to be a central pillar of climate adaptation strategies, emphasizing resilience-building, child and community engagement, and advocacy for both emission reductions and reparations for affected communities.

This study examines the challenges faced by child protection professionals in Turkey when addressing refugee child marriage, highlighting issues in identification, assessment, and residential care due to cultural acceptance and systemic weaknesses. The findings emphasize the need for culturally informed, system-wide interventions to better protect at-risk refugee children.

This article explores China’s Child Directors System, a nationwide initiative that appoints trained community members to safeguard vulnerable children and connect them with essential services. It highlights the system’s strengths—such as early intervention, broad coverage, and multi-sector collaboration—while noting its potential as a model for other countries.

This study examines the transition experiences of 25 care leavers in Vietnam through semi-structured qualitative interviews. While many showed resilience and made progress, they also faced significant challenges related to housing, work, education, social relationships, and stigma, highlighting the crucial role of external support in sustaining their agency.

China’s decision to end its international adoption program after 30 years affects over 160,000 children, many with disabilities, raising concerns about increased institutionalization and developmental risks. This commentary highlights the need for reforms such as expanding domestic adoption, improving foster and kinship care, enhancing institutional quality, and strengthening cross-sector collaboration to create a more family-centered child welfare system.

This article traces the evolution of Cambodia’s system for caring for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), shaped by political stabilization, emerging child protection concerns, international advocacy, and gradual state engagement. While Cambodia now has a solid policy framework, weak government prioritization, poor interagency coordination, and limited local capacity hinder implementation, leaving proponents to push for broader political commitment, balanced international support, and stronger responses to root causes such as poverty and migration.

Among Syrian migrants who have settled in Türkiye through mass migration, informal kinship care remains insufficiently clear due to gaps in registration and regulatory frameworks stemming from religious and cultural factors. This study expands the literature on informal kinship care among migrant families.

This statement by UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations Ted Chaiban notes how the rapid pace of returns to Afghanistan—peaking at over 50,000 arrivals in a single day—has overwhelmed fragile communities.

Strengthening Families in India: Framework & Guidance, jointly developed by India Alternative Care Network (IACN) and Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC), aims to consolidate existing knowledge, interventions, and promising practices led by government bodies and civil society organizations across India.