Intercountry adoption and new surrogacy procedures should not be initiated in the first phase of an emergency. Save the Children is calling for states to support a Moratorium on intercountry adoption and emergency surrogacy procedures in relation to Ukraine until the appropriate safeguards can be reinstated. While adoption can provide a safe and loving home for a child that needs a family, it must be regulated to ensure the best possible solution for each and every individual child.

This information note from the Hague Conference on Private International Law | Conférence de La Haye de droit international privé (HCCH) outlines the framework for the protection of children in emergency situations. It provides guidance on protecting children who are internationally displaced from Ukraine as well as intercountry adoption in armed conflict. 

The Government of Ukraine released this updated procedure for border crossing for orphans and children without parental care.

This report aims to provide the first estimate and profile of newborns in care proceedings in England using national population-level data and provide a critical discussion of the findings for further consideration and development by family justice stakeholders.

Separating a baby from his or her mother at birth when there are safeguarding concerns is traumatic for birth parents and painful for professionals. This report presents findings from a study that analysed qualitative data from the lived experiences of parents and professionals where the state intervened at birth. The aim was to identify key challenges and to surface good practice examples with a view to developing a draft set of best practice guidelines for piloting with partner research sites in England and Wales.

These are the closing remarks of Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, at a side event in the context of the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. 

These opening remarks were delivered by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at 49th session of the Human Rights Council 9 March 2022. The focus of her remarks was on the alarming numbers of children who are torn apart from their families due to a number of reasons.

This is the concept note for the 49th session of the Human Rights Council which is an annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child. The focus of this year's meeting was to  identify the implications of a child rights approach to family reunification, paying particular attention to preventing the separation of children from their families, and to children affected in cross-border situations. 

The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 45/30, in which the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on the rights of the child and family reunification. All children have the right to family life, yet millions worldwide are suffering preventable separation from their families and associated violations of their rights. In the present report, the High Commissioner recommends that States move to develop global, child rights-based guiding principles and a global strategy for family reunification.

This policy brief draws attention to Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which notes that a child has a right to identity including a name, a nationality and family relations. Whenever a child is deprived of one of these elements, States have an obligation to restore the child’s identity speedily. At the heart of any intercountry adoption (ICA) is the modification of a child’s identity given at birth. The brief also includes recommendations for policymakers.

This policy brief aims to foster an understanding that the provision of quality alternative care, requires that the child’s right to identity is safeguarded. 

The Russian Federation launched a military offensive against Ukraine on 24 February 2022. In three weeks, more than 3.2 million refugees have been forced to flee Ukraine, while an additional 6.5 million people have been displaced internally within the country.

The Russian Federation launched a military offensive against Ukraine on 24 February 2022. In three weeks, more than 3.2 million refugees have been forced to flee Ukraine, while an additional 6.5 million people have been displaced internally within the country. Over 12 million people have been affected in the areas hardest hit by the war within Ukraine. In these weekly updates, the UNHCR continues to call for the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, respect for international humanitarian law, and appealed to neighbouring countries to continue keeping their borders open to those fleeing.

Протягом 24 лютого – 16 березня 2022 року через гарячу лінію було надано 12 083 консультацій у відповідь на 2 473 отриманих дзвінка.
Національна безкоштовна гаряча лінія з консультування мігрантів та протидії торгівлі людьми функціонує на базі неурядової організації “Відродження нації”. Гаряча лінія працює в межах Програми захисту і допомоги вразливим мігрантам Міжнародної організації з міграції (МОМ) в Україні за щедрої підтримки американського народу через проєкт Агентства США з міжнародного розвитку (USAID).

During 24 February–16 March 2022, there were 12,083 consultations in response to 2,473 calls were provided through the hotline. The National Toll-Free Counter-Trafficking and Migrant Advice Hotline is run by the NGO ”Revival of the Nation”. It operates within the framework of the Migrant Protection and Assistance Programme of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mission in Ukraine.

This is a market study conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into children's social care provision in the UK. The study found that there is a shortage of appropriate places in children’s homes and with foster carers, meaning that some children are not getting the right care from their placement. Some children are also being placed too far away from where they previously lived or in placements that require them to be separated from their siblings.The authors recommend the development of national and regional bodies to support local authorities with getting suitable placements for children in the UK.

This document is intended to provide concrete advice on how to put the guiding principles common to most child protection actors into practice. Though cultural traditions and customs may require the advice to be adapted to the specific context, the authors believe that the advice provided is grounded in sufficiently broad experience to guide measures that ensure children under five are not separated when this can be avoided, and, if separated, can be reunited with their families as quickly as possible.

This paper hopes to contribute to a sorely under-documented field of how to reintegrate institutionalized children back into the community in a post-conflict environment. It provides a brief description of IRC Rwanda’s Reunification and Reintegration Program for Unaccompanied Children, emphasizing its innovative nature and promising field methodologies. It includes a review of core principles and a programmatic overview of center and community-based work, outlining key steps in the process. It also provides a brief review of good practices and offer some points of reflection for future work with children in post-conflict situations.

This factsheet shares the experiences and advice of families who have had relatives in
kinship care arrangements to highlight the dynamics and steps that can support reunification.

This bulletin outlines the importance of disaster planning in child welfare and discusses how caseworkers, with the help of their supervisors, can prepare themselves and the children, youth, and families on their caseloads for emergencies. It also provides direction for child welfare staff on response and recovery strategies they can use should disasters occur in their communities.

This rapid training was designed to provide information to Moldovan foster families in preparation for fostering unaccompanied and separated children from the Ukraine. The training package includes a PPT and facilitator’s guide. Content provided during the six-hour training program includes basic information on childhood trauma, Adverse Childhood Experiences, key elements of PFA including Look, Listen and Link, and understanding how to both identify and support children who have lived through trauma and how it might manifest at different ages and stages of development.

11 березня 2022 року Кластер захисту оприлюднив першу оцінку внутрішньо переміщених осіб (ВПО) в Україні від початку військового наступу 24 лютого. Оцінки були засновані на попередній методології, розробленій у консультації з OCHA, МОМ, УВКБ ООН та REACH. У зв’язку з відсутністю достовірних джерел даних про ВПО на той момент, і в той час як урядова централізована система реєстрації не застосовувалася, Кластер втрутився, щоб забезпечити доведення до відома міжнародної спільноти попередньо оцінених масштабів внутрішнього переміщення в Україні.