Suggested background material for 2016 Dialogue on Children on the Move

The numbers

• UNICEF, Uprooted: The growing crisis for refugee and migrant children (2016)

 

Selected UNHCR policy documents on the protection of children

• UNHCR's Framework for the Protection of Children (2012)
• Action against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: an updated strategy (2012)
• UNHCR Education Strategy, 2012 – 2016 (2012)
• Age, Gender and Diversity Policy (2011)
• Guidelines on International Protection No. 8: Child Asylum Claims under Articles 1(A)2 and 1(F) of the 1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees HCR/GIP/09/08 (2009)
• UNHCR Guidelines on Determining the Best Interests of the Child (2008)
• UNHCR and IRC, Field Handbook for the Implementation of UNHCR BID Guidelines (2011)
• UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls (2008)
• Guidelines on Policies and Procedures in Dealing with Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum (1997)
• UNHCR Policy on Adoption (1995)
• Refugee Children: Guidelines on Protection and Care (1994)
• UNHCR Policy on Refugee Children (1993)

 

UNHCR Child Protection Issue Briefs

• Children with Disabilities (2015)
• Mental health and psychosocial well-being of children (2014)
• Child Labour (2014)
• Sexual violence against children (2014)
• Child recruitment (2013)
• Community-based child protection mechanisms (2013)
• Birth registration (2013)

 

Selected UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusions

• Conclusion No. 113 (LXVII) on Youth (2016)
• Conclusion No. 111 (LXIV) on Civil Registration (2013)
• Conclusion No. 107 (LVIII) on Children at Risk (2007)
• Conclusion No. 105 (LVI) on Women and Girls at Risk (2006)
• Conclusion No. 84 (XLVIII) on Refugee Children and Adolescents (1997)
• Conclusion No. 59 (XL) on Refugee Children (1989)
• Conclusion No. 47 (XXXVIII) on Refugee Children (1987)

 

Regional initiatives and reports

Africa

• UNHCR Child Protection Regional Initiative - Live, Learn & Play Safe 2014-2016 (2014) and mid-term update
• UNHCR, UNICEF, LWF, Plan, Save the Children, World Vision, Updated Regional Framework for the Protection of South Sudanese and Sudanese Refugee Children in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. July 2015 – June 2017. 
• UNICEF, Children on the move, children left behind. Uprooted or trapped by Boko Haram, (2016).
• Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat and Save the Children, “Young and on the Move. Children and youth in mixed migration flows within and from the Horn of Africa,” (2016).
• Women’s Refugee Commission, Young and Astray. An Assessment of the Factors Driving the Movement of Unaccompanied Children and Adolescents from Eritrea into Ethiopia, Sudan and Beyond (2013)

Americas

• Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action, “A Framework for Cooperation and Regional Solidarity to Strengthen the International Protection of Refugees, Displaced and Stateless Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean” (2014)
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Advisory Opinion OC-21/14 of August 19, 2014, “Rights and Guarantees of Children in the Context of Migration and/or in Need of International Protection”
• UNICEF, Broken Dreams: Central American children’s dangerous journey to the United States, (2016)
• UNHCR, Children on the Run: Unaccompanied Children Leaving Central America and Mexico and the need for International Protection (2014)
• Center for Gender and Refugee Studies and Kids in Need of Defense, A Treacherous Journey: Child Migrants Navigating the U.S. Immigration System. (2014)
• UNHCR, Arrancados de Raíz: Causas que originan el desplazamiento transfronterizo de niños, niñas y adolescentes no acompañados y/o separados de Centroamérica y su necesidad de protección internacional, 2014 [SPA] [ENG]

 

Asia

• Bali Declaration on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons, and Related Transnational Crime (2016)
• “Regional Guidelines for Responding to the Rights and Needs of Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC)”, Institute for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol University with ECPAT International, University Sains Malaysia and Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia (2013)
• Echavez, C. et al Why do children undertake the unaccompanied journey? Motivations for departure to Europe and other industrialised countries from the perspective of children, families and residents of sending communities in Afghanistan, Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit & United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, (2014).
• UNICEF, Boland, Children on the Move between Afghanistan and Western Countries (2010)

Europe

• UNHCR, “Briefing Note. Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Europe” (2016)
• UNHCR, This is who we are: A study of the profile, experiences and reasons for flight of unaccompanied or separated children from Afghanistan seeking asylum in Sweden (2015)
• UNHCR and Council of Europe, “Unaccompanied and Separated Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Children Turning Eighteen: What to Celebrate?” (2014)
• UNICEF, Danger every step of the way. A harrowing journey to Europe for refugee and migrant children, (2016)
• UNHCR, Protecting children on the move. Addressing protection needs through reception, counseling and referral and enhancing co-operation in Greece, Italy and France (2012)
• UNHCR, Trees only move in the wind: A study of unaccompanied Afghan children in Europe, PDES/2010/05 (2010)
• European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Separated, asylum-seeking children in European Union Member States: comparative report (2010)
• International Organization for Migration, Children and unsafe migration in Europe: Data and policy, understanding the evidence base, Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, Data Briefing Series, Issue 5 (2016)

 

Middle East & North Africa

• UNHCR, Protection of Refugee Children in the Middle East and North Africa (2014)
• UNHCR, The Future of Syria: Refugee Children in Crisis (2013)
• UNICEF, No Place for Children - The Impact of Five Years of War on Syria's Children and their Childhoods (2016)

 

Operationalizing children’s rights (general)

• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 6: Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside their Country of Origin, CRC/GC/2005/6 (2005)
• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 12: The right of the child to be heard, CRC/C/GC/12 (2009)
• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 14 on the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken as a primary consideration (art. 3, para 1), CRC/C/GC/14/6 (2013)
• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Report of the 2012 Day of General Discussion: The Rights of All Children in the Context of International Migration (2012)
• UN General Assembly, Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children: resolution adopted by the General Assembly, A/RES/64/142 (2010)

 

The right to liberty

• UNHCR, Options Paper 1: Options for governments on care arrangements and alternatives to detention for children and families (2015)
• UNHCR, Beyond Detention. A Global Strategy to support governments to end the detention of asylum-seekers and refugees, 2014-2019 (2014)
• UNHCR, Guidelines on the Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum-Seekers and Alternatives to Detention (2012)
• UNICEF, Administrative detention of children: A global report (2011)
• UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez, Report on Children Deprived of Liberty, A/HRC/28/68  (2015).
• Association for the Prevention of Torture, International Detention Coalition and UNHCR, Monitoring Immigration Detention: A Practical Manual (2014)
• Inter-Agency Working Group to End Child Immigration Detention, “Ending Child Immigration Detention” (2016)
• International Detention Coalition, There Are Alternatives: A Handbook for Preventing Unnecessary Immigration Detention (2015)
• International Detention Coalition, Captured Childhood: Introducing a new model to ensure the rights and liberty of refugee, asylum seeker and Irregular migrant children affected by Immigration detention (2012)

 

Right to a legal identity/Birth registration and the right to a nationality

• UNHCR, I Am Here, I Belong: The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness, (2015).
• UNHCR Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child's Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, HCR/GS/12/04 (2012)
• UNHCR, In Search of Solutions: Addressing Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa, (2016)
• United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law: resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council.  A/HRC/RES/28/13 (2015)
• United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. A/HRC/27/22 (2014)
• UNICEF, A Passport to Protection: A Guide to Birth Registration Programming (2013)
• European Network on Statelessness, No Child Should be Stateless (2015)
• Manby, Nonie Bronwen, Identification in tfhe context of forced displacement: identification for development (ID4D). Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group (2016)

 

Securing solutions for children on the move

• UNHCR, Legal avenues to safety and protection through other forms of admission, 18 November 2014
• UNHCR, The Benefits of Belonging: Local integration options and opportunities for host countries, communities and refugees (2011)
• UNHCR and UNICEF, Safe and Sound: what States can do to ensure respect for the best interests of unaccompanied and separated children in Europe (2014)
• UNICEF, Children’s Rights in return policy and practice in Europe (2015)
• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), The need to know: restoring links between dispersed family members, Publication Ref. 4037 (2011)
• Inter-Agency Group on Children’s Reintegration, Guidelines on Children’s Re-integration, (2016)
• Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Experiences of the U.S. Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program Resettling Eritrean Youth (2015)
• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, The United States Unaccompanied Minor Program: Guiding Principles and Promising Practices (2013)
• ECRE and Save the Children, Comparative Study on Practices in the Field of Return of Minors. (2011)
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Resettlement of Children and Adolescents at Risk, June 2016

 

Education

• UNHCR, Missing Out: Refugee Education in Crisis, (2016)
• UNHCR Education Strategy, 2012 – 2016 (2012)
• UNHCR, Refugee Education: A Global Review PDES 2011/10 (2011)
• UNHCR, Improving Access to Education for Asylum-seeker, Refugee Children and Adolescents in Central Europe (2011)
• UNICEF, Education Under Fire (2015)
• Dryden-Peterson, Sarah, The Educational Experiences of Children in Countries of First Asylum, Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute (2015)

 

Protecting Children from Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

• UNHCR, Action against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: An Updated Strategy (2011)
• UNHCR, Sexual and Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response In Refugee Situations in the Middle East and North Africa (2015)
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Too Much Pain: Female Genital Mutilation & Asylum in the European Union - A Statistical Overview, (2013 and 2014 update)
• UN Women, Gender-based violence and child protection among Syrian refugees in Jordan (2013)
• Save the Children, Too Young to Wed. The Growing Problem of Child Marriage among Syrian Girls in Jordan (2014)
• UNHCR, UNFPA and the Women’s Refugee Commission, Initial Assessment Report: Protection Risks for Women and Girls in the European Refugee and Migrant Crisis - Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2016)
• Women’s Refugee Commission, Urban Gender-Based Violence Risk Assessment Guidance: Identifying Risk Factors for Urban Refugees (2015) 

 

Child participation

• UNHCR and Women’s Refugee Commission, We Believe in Youth. Global Refugee Youth Consultations Final Report (2016)
• UNHCR, Listen and Learn: Participatory Assessment with Children and Adolescents (2012)
• UNHCR, Refugee children's participation in protection: a case study from Uganda, New Issues in Refugee Research, Research Paper No. 241 (2012)
• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 12: The right of the child to be heard, CRC/C/GC/12 (2009)
• Save the Children, Guidelines for Children’s participation in humanitarian programming (2013)
• Action for the Rights of Children Resource Pack Module 4 ARC resource pack: Foundation module 4 - Participation and inclusion (2009)