Children without parental care: urgent need for action
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 7 October 2010
(35th Sitting) (see Doc.
12345, report of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee,
rapporteur: Mr Omtzigt). Text adopted
by the Assembly on 7 October 2010 (35th Sitting). See
also Recommendation 1939
(2010).
- Thesaurus
1. At a time when the world is celebrating
the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child, adopted in November 1989, the Parliamentary Assembly
invites member states to renew the attention paid to the rights
of children without parental care and urges them to better co-ordinate
and strengthen relevant policies at European and national level
and to follow the “best interests of the child” as the main guiding
principle.
2. The biological family is under normal circumstances the best
place for a child. Public policies undertaken with a view to the
well-being of children should therefore, above all, aim at maintaining
the child within his or her birth family context. Only if circumstances
do not allow for this stability should alternative care arrangements
be made along the lines set out below.
3. With regard to the plight of children without parental care,
the Assembly notably welcomes the recent adoption, in November 2009,
of the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children,
which emphasise the necessity of ensuring that children have a stable
home. The guidelines also restrict the use of residential care to
cases where it is necessary and appropriate for the individual child,
whilst recommending that alternative care for young children be
provided in family-based settings.
4. At Council of Europe level, the Parliamentary Assembly welcomes
the strong commitment of member states to children’s rights, notably
through the programme Building a Europe for and with Children, and
its 2009-2011 strategy, as well as through current specific activities
on child-friendly social services, health-care and justice systems.
It also welcomes the pragmatic approach followed in certain country-specific
joint programmes with the European Commission and considers that
they should be pursued and multiplied wherever appropriate.
5. Despite far-reaching efforts made with a view to improving
the situation of children without parental care at national, European
and international level, the Assembly considers that there should
be a renewed sense of urgency for the matter in various contexts,
and that two challenges in particular need to be addressed: first,
the increasing number of children facing “new risks” in a globalised
world and in a situation of economic crisis, such as child trafficking,
children left behind by migrating parents, or street children; and
second, the lack of committed action for the continuation and reinforcement
of the de-institutionalisation process of childcare arrangements.
6. The Assembly therefore calls on member states to:
6.1 follow and support a comprehensive,
co-operative and innovative approach at national and European level,
based on a thorough analysis of all possible situations of abandoned
children in a globalised context;
6.2 promote alternative childcare arrangements of high quality
in a differentiated manner and notably those which are as close
as possible to a family environment and therefore considered as
most favourable for a child’s personal development, such as foster
care;
6.3 address the issue of children without parental care at
all possible levels of intervention by:
6.3.1 implementing
new international standards, such as the recent United Nations Guidelines
for the Alternative Care of Children, through the development of
national action plans;
6.3.2 continuing to implement existing European standards, notably
the Committee of Ministers Recommendation Rec(2005)5 on the rights
of children living in residential institutions, through relevant
national action;
6.3.3 preparing the definition of national policies in favour
of children without parental care by ensuring a systematic collection
of data at national level;
6.3.4 efficiently implementing adequate and innovative policies
at national level by drawing upon “best practice” experience of
other countries and by regularly monitoring and reporting on progress
made;
6.3.5 actively contributing to the development of new standards
at European level, where required.
7. As regards the two main challenges identified, namely the
“new risks” children are facing and the process of further de-institutionalisation
of childcare arrangements, especially when it comes to the implementation
of common standards through national policies, the Assembly calls
on member states to:
7.1 give appropriate
attention to recently increasing phenomena, such as child trafficking,
children left behind by migrating parents, or street children, by
undertaking specific national studies regarding the issues identified
as priorities by each member state;
7.2 facilitate co-ordinated European action and follow-up
regarding various situations threatening children by actively participating
in relevant exchange mechanisms at European and international level (Council
of Europe, United Nations bodies, European Union bodies, non-governmental
organisations), also with a view to identifying the need for joint
action involving several member states, or by participating in joint
programmes of these bodies dedicated to the situations of individual
countries;
7.3 as an integral part of national action plans for the implementation
of the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children,
follow systematic and innovative approaches to de-institutionalisation
based on a broad understanding of this concept, by:
7.3.1 taking
into consideration the different dimensions of the concept in national
de-institutionalisation processes:
7.3.1.1 as part of prevention
strategies;
7.3.1.2 as a way of re-structuring residential care systems;
7.3.1.3 as a way of removing children from residential care into
more favourable childcare arrangements;
7.3.2 drawing on recent and very substantial work regarding
the design and management of national processes of de-institutionalisation,
notably the approach suggested in the good practice guide on “De-institutionalising
and Transforming Children’s Services” published by the European Commission’s
Daphne Programme in February 2010;
7.3.3 undertaking national studies on the progress made on de-institutionalisation
of childcare arrangements in recent years, ensuring a continuous
follow-up of future policies and their impacts and actively contributing
to any exchange of information and future standard-setting activity
to be undertaken at Council of Europe level;
7.3.4 developing effective national strategies preventing children
from being separated from their biological families by strengthening
the families’ capacity to care for, protect and empower their children,
by providing relevant training to professionals in social services
and by strengthening the participation of children and families
in decisions concerning them;
7.3.5 developing national policies with a view to restructuring
residential care systems towards increasingly small-scale, family-type
units found to be more beneficial for a child’s development in comparison
to large-scale institutions;
7.3.6 promoting national policies with a view to strengthening
alternative care arrangements such as foster care, which are considered
more favourable to a child’s development.
8. The Assembly further invites the national parliaments to:
8.1 raise awareness, in their respective
countries, of the various threats concerning children without parental
care and the political challenges identified above, and stimulate
governmental action in this field;
8.2 promote, in particular at national level, the proposals
to undertake specific national studies concerning certain categories
of children at risk, and to develop national action plans for the implementation
of the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children
with a view to launching systematic processes of de-institutionalisation
at national level.
