Protecting Children in UNHCR’s Population of Concern

1. Protecting Children in UNHCR’s Population of Concern Terre des Hommes Advocacy Meeting 24 November 2010

2. The Spectrum of Protection What does child protection mean to UNHCR? • Prevention of, and response to, all forms of violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect • 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees • Non-refoulement • Access to territory • Non-discrimination • Human Rights Law & International Humanitarian Law

3. Children in UNHCR’s Population of Concern Who are ‘children of concern’? • Refugees, asylum seekers, returnees • Stateless persons • Internally displaced due to conflict • Internally displaced in natural disasters when UNHCR has a previously established presence and no one else can intervene

4. Children on the Move Who are ‘children on the move’? • Refugees, IDPs, asylum seekers, returnees • ‘Mixed migration flows’ • Mixed population, mixed motives • Unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) • Tripartite: UNHCR/UNICEF/IOM

5. UNHCR’s Strategic Directions • Mainstreaming child protection concerns • Taking a systems approach to protecting children • Continuing targeted action • Enhancing child protection through education • Building partnerships and capacities

6. Mainstreaming Child Protection Concerns • Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming • Participatory assessment • Community mobilization • Guidelines on child asylum claims • Principle of the best interests of the child

7. Best Interests Principle • Actions affecting children collectively or individually • Best interest assessment • Best interest determination (BID) • Durable solutions for UASC • Temporary care for UASC in exceptional situations • Possible unwilling separation of a child from parents

8. Child Protection Systems:Thinking Differently about Child Protection • Non-discriminatory access of children of concern to national child protection systems • Strengthen national capacities where they exist • Ensure minimum standards of protection for children of concern where national child protection systems are inexistent or inaccessible • Enhanced partnerships and coordination at all levels

9. Components of a Child Protection System Prevention & Response Services Capacity: Human & Financial Coordination Advocacy & Awareness Legal & Policy Framework Knowledge & Data

10. Why a Systems Approach? • Increases protection for all children, not just specific categories of at-risk children • Connects children of concern to wider systems • Sustainability • Draws attention to multiple points for intervention, both ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ • Emphasizes the importance of partnership

11. Targeted Action • Directed towards specific categories of children • GBV prevention & response • Out-of-school youth • Best Interest Determination (BID) • Birth registration

12. Prevention of Childhood Statelessness Prevention & Response Services Capacity: Human & Financial Coordination Meeting with partners & planning Advocacy & Awareness Training & funding Lobbying & campaigning Legal & Policy Framework Convention ascension, implementation Setting up a process for birth registration Knowledge & Data Profiling, data collection, IM & KM

13. Protection through Education • Enhancing self-reliance, can contribute significantly to empowering children of concern • Helping reintroduce a sense of normality; address psychosocial needs; and provide safe environments where children can be shielded from exploitation and abuse • Life-saving and other important messages can also be disseminated through educational activities on issues such as nutrition; sexual and reproductive health; HIV and AIDS; landmine security; water and sanitation; and the environment • Involvement in future reconstruction and economic development upon return or support their local integration

14. Protection, Education & UNHCR • Establish & expand safe learning environments, including monitoring & reporting on violations of SCR 1612 • Strengthen linkages with UNHCR livelihood and child protection programmes • Promote education as a protection tool & increase protection interventions at all phases of displacement • Continue dedication to primary education • Rise to the challenge of improving post-primary opportunities

15. Enhancing Partnerships & Capacities • Communities • National authorities • UNICEF and other UN agencies • Standby partners and deployment schemes • International, regional and local NGOs • Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and country-level task forces in the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1612 and 1882

16. Ongoing Challenges • Ensuring that children’s issues and concerns are fully mainstreamed into policies, practice, and broader processes and getting mainstreaming right • Operationalizing the child protection systems approach • Ensuring that BID is part of broader child protection and not an isolated process • Balancing competing priorities with very limited capacity dedicated to child protection • Ensuring protection for children in mixed migration flows

17. Protecting Children of Concern to UNHCR Protecting Children of Concern to UNHCR

18. Application of the best interests principle by UNHCR The Best Interests Principle Actions affecting individual children Actions affecting all or groups of children Best Interests Determination Best Interests Assessment Temporary care for UASC in exceptional situations Possible separation of a child from parents against their will Durable solutions for UASC refugee children

19. UNHCR & Education • Primary level education a priority • Post-primary to the extent of resource availability • Formal and non-formal education, life-skills and vocational training *Data from reporting operations only