Meant to highlight the maxim that every child deserves the best that we all have to give; this book provides a review of the progress made since The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.  It contains reports from 21 countries on the status of the rights of the child.  The countries are:  Australia, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Japan, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Solomon Islands, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, the USA, Uzbekistan and Venezuela. There are no reports from Africa.

This booklet is based on a recent internal desk review of Save the Children’s and partners’ work against physical and humiliating punishment of children, commissioned by Save the Children Sweden. It aims to present best practices, to show what methods have worked around the world, and to spread knowledge about results achieved and lessons learned when it comes to law reform and positive discipline.  

A group of activists who were formerly raised in Romania's communist-era orphanages have created an association called Federeii. The group is pushing Romanian authorities to recognize and apologize for a variety of abuses committed against an estimated 500,000 children in the country's orphanages that existed before the end of the Cold War. The abuse and neglect, including physical and sexual abuse, are discussed in the article. 

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) examined the outcomes for children who were originally placed in institutions; these children were randomized into two groups and followed longitudinally, with some being moved into foster care and others remaining in institutional care. This study reports on the brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram, or “EEG”) of 12-year-old children in this study, in order to examine the impact of movement to foster care after early psychological deprivation as a result of institutionalization. 

This report provides data and background on challenges of placing siblings together in foster families.

This study investigates the correlation over time between international adoption and institutional care.

This study examined psychopathology at age 12 years in a cohort of Romanian children who had been abandoned at birth and placed into institutional care, then assigned either to be placed in foster care or to care as usual.

A recent study from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project has revealed that children who were placed in institutional care have an increased risk of demonstrating behaviors associated with autism, such as impaired social communication, according to the article.

Esta Guía reúne una serie de programas, prácticas y políticas públicas que resultaron en la garantía del derecho a la convivencia familiar y comunitaria de niñas y niños en su primera infancia. En particular, se caracterizan por ser innovadoras o por haber obtenido buenos resultados en la protección y la restitución de este derecho. Las experiencias recopiladas abarcan programas, proyectos e iniciativas públicas, privadas o mixtas de fortalecimiento familiar, provisión de cuidados alternativos, y de reintegración familiar. 

This article presents the findings of a 12-year study, conducted by Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital in the USA, that examined the effects of institutionalization on Romanian children’s brain development.