Chiara Tamponi Centre for the Rights of Children Deprived of their Family

1. What More Can be Done to Protect Children’s Best Interests?The UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and their implementation Chiara Tamponi Centre for the Rights of Children Deprived of their Family International Social Service (ISS/IRC) April 6th, 2011

2. International Social Service International NGO, General Secretariat based in Geneva (Switzerland) Created in 1924 to: “Offer assistance to individuals - especially children – who, as a result of migration, internal displacement or other circumstances, have been separated from their families in an international context”. Areas of competence: family mediation, child abduction, family tracing and reunification, alternative care. Active in around 120 countries through a network of national branches, affiliated bureaus and correspondents.

3. International Reference Centre for the Rights of Children Deprived of their Family(ISS/IRC) • Promotion and dissemination of information and good practice on intercountry adoption and prevention of family separation • Country missions to assess the childcare adoption system and provide technical support to States • Contribution to the development and implementation of international child rights instruments (The 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, UN Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children)

4. UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (I) • Historical background • ISS involvement in the development and implementation of the Guidelines • Purpose: • Concrete standards for the implementation of art. 20 UNCRC • Sets out desirable orientations for policy and practice, in particular for governments • Focus on supporting efforts to keep children in, or return them to the care of their family • Focus on having recourse to alternative care only when it is really needed and only in suitable forms that promote the child’s wellbeing

5. UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (II) • Main aspects, issues and chapters: • Purpose • General principles and perspectives • Scope of the Guidelines • Preventing the need for alternative care • Framework of care provision • Determination of the most appropriate form of care • Provision of alternative care • Care provision for children outside their country of origin • Care in emergency situations • How could these Guidelines be implemented via legislation, public policies and practice at domestic and international level in order to respond to previously-discussed issues?

6. The necessity principle Preventing separation and discouraging unwarranted recourse to alternative care by: • Consulting with family and child • Upgrading family support and family reintegration • Preventing avoidable relinquishment • Stopping unwarranted removal • Addressing negative societal factors • Ensuring effective gate-keeping • Regulating private care providers

7. The appropriateness principle ‘Appropriate/Suitable conditions’ of alternative care • Does the care option meet certain general standards? • Human resources • Access to basic services • Contact with parents/family • Protection from violence/exploitation • Does the care option meet the specific needs of the child concerned? • Case-by-case basis • Catering to his/her characteristics and situation • Promoting appropriate long-term stable solution(s)

8. Informal care: any private arrangement provided in a family environment, whereby the child is looked after on an ongoing or indefinite basis by relatives or friends (informal kinship care) or by others in their individual capacity, at the initiative of the child, his/her parents or other person without this arrangement having been ordered by an administrative or judicial authority or a duly accredited body. Formal care: all care provided in a family environment which has been ordered by a competent administrative body or judicial authority, and all care provided in a residential environment, including in private facilities, whether or not as a result of administrative or judicial measures Guidelines on the Alternative Care for Children, para 28

9. FORMS OF ALTERNATIVE CARE • Kinship care: family-based care within the child’s extended family or with close friends of the family known to the child, whether formal or informal in nature • Foster care: situations where children are placed by a competent authority for the purpose of alternative care in the domestic environment of a family other than the children’s own family, that has been selected, qualified, approved and supervised for providing such care • Other forms of family-based or family-like care placements • Residential care: care provided in any non-family based group setting, such as places of safety for emergency care, transit centres in emergency situations, and all other short and long-term residential care facilities including group homes • Supervised independent living arrangements for children Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, Para 28

10. Family-based care vs residential care • “Use of residential care should be limited to cases where such a setting is specifically appropriate, necessary and constructive for the individual child concerned and in his/her best interests.” (Para. 20) • “In accordance with the predominant opinion of experts, alternative care for young children, especially those under the age of 3 years, should be provided in family-based settings. (Para 21) • “While recognizing residential care facilities and family-based care complement each other in meeting the needs of children, where large residential care facilities (institutions) remain, alternatives should be developed in the context of an overall deinstitutionalization strategy, with precise goals and objectives, which will allow for their progressive elimination.” (Para. 22) • Emergency situation: “Use of residential care only as temporary measure until family-based care can be developed.” (Para. 154c)

11. PRINCIPLES ON FORMAL CARE (I) • Children should not be placed in alternative care unnecessarily. • Efforts should primarily be directed at enabling children to remain in, or return to, the care of their parents or, where necessary, of other close family members. • The removal of a child from his or her family should be considered an option of last resort and for the shortest possible duration. • The State is responsible, for ensuring appropriate alternative care only where the family is unable, even with appropriate support, to provide adequate care for the child. • Any alternative care placement should therefore be decided and provided on a case-by-case basis, by qualified professionals, and should respond to the best interests of the child concerned, in consultation with the child.

12. PRINCIPLES ON FORMAL CARE (II) • Assessment, planning and review: all children in care should have a care plan that is subject to formal review. • Child’s right to meaningful participation, to be informed about their rights, to be consulted and to have his/her views duly taken into account in accordance with his/her evolving capacities • Accreditation, monitoring and supervision of care providers • Info-sharing amongst agencies • After care

13. IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES (I) • Incorporation of the Guidelines into the domestic and regional • framework: • Moldova: Promotion of the incorporation of the Guidelines into domestic legislation. • Latin-America: Development of a child- friendly version of the UN Guidelines for the alternative care of children, as well as a professional handbook. • Germany: Direct mention of the Guidelines in the country’s response to the situation of children in Haiti. • Spain currently reforming its child care policy to include the principles of the Guidelines • Namibia: Reference to the Guidelines in the drafting of the country’s minimum standards for residential care facilities. • Liberia’s regulations mirrored the UN Guidelines.

14. IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES (II) Explicit reference to the Guidelines (international arena): • UN Committee on the Rights of the Child • Human Rights Council • NGO documents and translation in several languages

15. Thank you for your attention!