Further steps towards the UN Guidelines on Children without Parental Care
11/06/2008 - In 2004 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child gave the impulse for the development of guidelines on the protection of children without parental care. A group of NGOs, including SOS Children's Villages, prepared the first draft guidelines and since August 2006 the guidelines are being discussed by government experts under the leadership of the Brazilian government.
On 6 June, we moved one step closer towards the adoption of the UN Guidelines on the appropriate use and conditions of alternative care for children by the United Nations. Brazil and the Group of Friends (member states who are engaged in promoting the guidelines) hold a high-level panel discussion at the Human Rights Council in Geneva to present the guidelines and to rally support of more countries for their adoption.
In addition to presentations of the four panelists, who included representatives of the Brazilian government, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF and civil society, SOS Children's Villages and the International Social Service (ISS), took the opportunity to provide the two interventions in the programme allotted to NGOs.
Kersti (left), Alan Kikuchi-White, representative of SOS Children's Villages in Geneva, and Christina Bagliotta (ISS) - Photo: SOS Archives