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The report documents the baseline study of institutions that provide care and shelter to institutionalized children and adolescents in Guatemala and helped determine the state of children and adolescents that live in those institutions. The following specific objectives were developed in order to achieve the general objective:
- To identify the number of institutions that provide care to institutionalized children and adolescents, the locations of these homes as well as their technical capacity, infrastructure and access to care resources.
- To determine the main…
The principle of the best interests of the child has been the subject of extensive consideration in academic, operational and other circles. Legal documents relating to the protection of children, including those adopted by UNHCR's Executive Committee on children of concern to the Office, systematically refer to it. How to apply this principle in practice, however, often remains challenging for UNHCR and its partners. Limited guidance is available on how to operationalize the best interests principle. UNHCR's Guidelines on Determining the Best Interests of the Child are intended as one step…
Many children have been left as orphans as a result of HIV and AIDS. In much of Africa it is grandparents who have stepped into the care gap. In sub- Saharan Africa the percentage of orphan children estimated to be living with grandparents in 2000 was 61%1. Over 50% of children orphaned by the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Tanzania live with their grandparents. Given this situation it is important for us to begin to understand more about the lived experience of children being brought up by grandparents. The KwaWazee Project provided a unique opportunity to work with groups of children living in…
This report prepared for the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) with financial support from UNICEF Namibia assesses the country’s capacity to manage alternative care systems for children. As requested, the assessment concentrated on existing residential care facilities and standards. It was guided in part by the draft UN Guidelines for the Appropriate Use and Conditions of Alternative Care for Children.
Residential care provides a good entry point for assessing the systems of social protection that support the ideal situation of children living with their families in…
The Centre for Social Science Research has published Challenging Dominant Policy Paradigms of Care for Children Orphaned by AIDS: Dynamic Patterns of Care in KwaZulu-Natal, Republic of South Africa. This paper begins to uncover the complex nature of child care in the context of rising numbers of children orphaned by AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The paper underscores the critical need to continually reexamine the assumptions underlying theoretical understandings of care and family in order to account for unique impacts of HIV/AIDS in different communities. The…
The Children Act, Chapter 59 took effect in Uganda on 1 August, 1997. The purpose of the Act is: to reform and consolidate the law relating to children; to provide for the care, protection and maintenance of children; to provide for local authority support for children; to establish a family and children court; to make provision for children charged with offences and for other connected purposes.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners have a long history of dedicated work to meet the needs of refugee children and of continuing to build on the experience and create ever improved approaches to meeting those needs. From the outset, the best interests principle has been fundamental to UNHCR’s work with unaccompanied and separated refugee children. This has involved the recognition that, in the absence of a parent or customary caregiver, each child requires individual assessment and planning, and that child’s wishes should be considered in all…
The African Network for the Protection and Prevention of Child Abuse's Assessment of AIDS Related Orphans assesses the situation of children without parental care in Korogocho, Kenya. Utilizing responses of over 400 homes caring for children, the study highlights pervasive characteristics among homes caring for children lacking parental care, providing a specified understanding of the educational, financial and supportive environments present for children in foster care arrangements. The assessment indicates that while education and marital status do not influence an…
The UNHCR Guidelines on Formal Determination of the Best Interests of the Child are part of the commitment (Agenda for Protection Goal 6.2.) by UNHCR to disseminate materials on the rights of refugee children, drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international human rights law. Information collected from a variety of reports, including the Annual Protection Reports, as well as through participatory assessments, indicates that there is no consistency among field offices as to when and how Best Interests Determinations should be carried out.
The Guidelines are for…
The First Resort series focuses on the needs and rights of children who, for a wide variety of reasons, are lacking adequate parental care. This third paper in the First Resort series presents practical examples of the range of options available to policy-makers, practitioners and others with responsibilities for the care and protection of children without adequate parental care.
These options fall into two main categories. In the first category are child and family support strategies that may help to sustain girls and boys in their own family environment (set out in Part 1); in the second…