|
Unaccompanied and Separated Children in the
Tsunami-affected Countries
Guiding Principles
The earthquake and the tsunami of 26 December 2004, like many other natural disasters and displacements of
population, led to the separation of large numbers of children from their
parents and families. The following guiding principles should apply to their
care and protection.
Even during these emergencies, all children have a right
to a family and families have a right to care for their children. Unaccompanied and separated children should
be provided with services aimed at reuniting them with their parents or
customary care-givers as quickly as possible. Interim care should be consistent with the
aim of family reunification, and should ensure children’s protection and
well-being.
Experience has shown that most separated children have
parents or other family members willing and able to care for them. Long-term care arrangements, including
adoption, should therefore not be made during the emergency phase.
However, action to help separated children does require
a long-term perspective and long-term commitment on the part of the organisations involved.
These organisations must also seek strong
cooperation and coordination, and aim to speak with one voice. All actions should be properly coordinated
with the government authorities.
The following key definitions, principles and good
practices form an agreed platform for partner organisations.
Definitions:
 Separated children are those separated
from both parents, or from their previous legal or customary primary
care-giver, but not necessarily from other relatives. These may, therefore, include children
accompanied by other adult family members.
Unaccompanied children are children who
have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being
cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so.
Orphans are children both of whose
parents are known to be dead. In some
countries, however, a child who has lost one parent is called an orphan.
Preventing separation:
Organizations and authorities must ensure that their
actions do not inadvertently encourage family separation. Separation can be
provoked when families lack the services they need to care for their children
and believe such services would be available elsewhere, or when residential
child care facilities are created which may provide better services than the
family is able to access.
Deliberate
separations can be prevented by:
ensuring that all households have access to
basic relief supplies and other services, including education;
limiting the development of residential care
options, and restricting its use to those situations where it is absolutely
necessary;
avoiding the removal
of children to other countries for any reason unless critical medical care
cannot be provided This should be provided as close as possible to their
home.
Tracing and family reunification:
Identifying,
registering and documenting unaccompanied and separated children are
priorities in any emergency and should be carried out as quickly as
possible.
Registration activities should be conducted
only by or under the direct supervision of Government authorities and
mandated agencies with responsibility for and experience in this task;
The confidential nature of the information
collected must be respected and systems put in place for safe forwarding and
storage of information. Information must only be shared among duly mandated
agencies, for the purpose of tracing, reunification and care;
Tracing is the process of searching for family
members or primary legal or customary care-givers. All those engaged in tracing should use the
same approach, with standardized forms and mutually compatible systems;
The validity of relationships and the
confirmation of the willingness of the child and family member to be reunited
must be verified for every child;
No action should be taken that may hinder
eventual family reunification such as adoption, change of name, or movement
to places far from the family’s likely location until all tracing efforts
have been exhausted.
Care arrangements
Emergency
care
Care for separated children should be provided in a way
that preserves family unity, including of siblings, ensures their protection
and facilitates reunification.
Children’s security should be ensured, their basic needs adequately
met, and assistance provided for their emotional support.
Community care, including fostering, is
preferable to institutional care, as it provides continuity in socialization
and development.
However, children
not in the care of their parents or customary caregivers may be at heightened
risk of abuse and exploitation. The most appropriate carers
may need extra assistance to assure children’s protection and material needs
are met. Provision must therefore be made therefore for monitoring and
support to foster families.
For those children for whom institutional care
is the only solution, centres should be small, temporary and organized around
the needs of the child. It should be made very clear that the objective of
residential care is reunification or placement in the community and rigorous
screening procedures should be in place to ensure only appropriate
admissions.
Removing children from familiar surroundings
will increase their distress and can hinder their recovery. Children should
not be removed to other countries for any reason unless critical medical care
cannot be provided and then, this should be as close as possible to their
home and they should be accompanied by a care-giver known to the child.
Durable
arrangements
During the emergency period permanent care arrangements
other than reunification should be avoided.
Efforts to develop, and to
place children in, long-term residential facilities should be discouraged
Adoption must be avoided so long as there is reasonable hope
of successful tracing and reunification.
Should reunification not be possible within an
appropriate period, or found not to be in the child’s best interests, other
medium and long-term options such as foster care, group homes or adoption
will need to be arranged.
Decisions about long term placements must be
considered and decided individually for each child, in the context of national
child welfare policy, legislation and practice, and corresponding to the
child’s best interests and his/her developmental needs.
At all times, children must be kept informed
of the plans being made for them and their opinion taken into consideration.
In any form of care siblings must be kept
together.
The provision of care should be based on the
best interests of the child and should not be used to promote political,
religious or other agenda.
Communities should be supported to play an
active role in monitoring and responding to care and protection issues facing
girls and boys in their local context.
These
provisions apply to both short and long term care arrangements.
Adoption
Adoption, and particularly inter-country adoption,
should not take place during the emergency phase.
Any adoption must be determined as being in the child’s
best interests and carried out in keeping with applicable national,
international and customary law.
When adoption is deemed in the child’s best interest,
priority must be given to adoption by relatives, wherever they live. If this
is not an option, preference will be given to adoption within the community
from which the child comes, or at least within his or her own culture.
Adoption
should not be considered:
If there is a reasonable hope of successful
tracing and reunification;
If it is against the expressed wishes of the
child or the parents;
Unless a reasonable time has passed during
which all feasible steps to trace the parents or other surviving family member
have been carried out.
These principles represent the views of the following
agencies: the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the
International Rescue Committee (IRC), Save the Children UK (SCUK), the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) and World Vision International (WVI).
Organizations wishing to work on behalf of separated
children are strongly encouraged to endorse these principles.
January
2005
|
