In 2019, the annual UN Resolution on the Rights of the Child focused, for the first time, on children without parental care. The resolution (A/RES/74/133) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 12 November 2019. This resolution calls for governments’ action to realize the rights of children who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care. It supports the fulfillment of all the rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and promotes the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children1 as key reference framework for alternative care. Although there is no legal obligation for governments to implement resolutions, their political value can influence and inform national and international law.
With generous funding from Globalt Fokus, the Child Protection Network will in 2021 and 2022 conduct a series of seminars with the objective of strengthening the capacity of primarily Danish Civil Society Organisations to design and implement projects for children in need of protection, with consideration of the above mentioned UN resolution from 2019. This will be done through a serie of seminars presenting the concept of “quality alternative care. The workshops will be conducted by alternative care specialists and experienced partners of the network members, who all have extensive experience working with de-institutionalisation of vulnerable children and youth.
The overall goal of the project is to ensure that all Danish CSO’s working with vulnerable children and youth are familiar with the 2019 UN resolution, and that they are equipped with knowledge about and tools to work for alternatives to institutionalization.
The immediate objectives of the initiative is:
1) To provide participating CSOs with a deeper professional understanding of working according to the UN Resolution and relating it to other strategic priorities,
2) To ensure that participating CSOs can integrate and institutionalize the new approaches in the organization to improve the quality of care for children and adolescents, and
3) To strenghten existing or create new cooperation between organisations working with this group of vulnerable youth and adolescents.
