Protecting Refugee Children Research
UgandaUzbekistan Afghanistan
SenegalSomaliaHondurasBangladeshNicaraguaIndia HaitiPakistan
Madagascar
Sri
LankaMalawiLaoMozambiqueVietnamZimbabweEthiopiaCameroonSudanCongoNigerNigeria
The UN refugee agency works to protect children of concern in
partnership with children themselves, their communities, national
authorities and relevant local and international groups, including
the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and non-governmental organizations.
This includes, for example, conducting best interest assessments
for vulnerable children, ensuring that unaccompanied or separated
children have access to family tracing and reunification services,
and engaging children through activities and education that build
their skills and capacities.
Children are vulnerable. They are susceptible to disease,
malnutrition and physical injury. Children are dependent. They need
the support of adults, not only for physical survival, particularly
in the early years of childhood, but also for their psychological
and social wellbeing. Children are developing. They grow in
developmental sequences, like a tower of bricks, each layer
depending on the one below it. Serious delays interrupting these
sequences can severely disrupt development. Refugee children face
far greater dangers to their safety and well-being than the average
child. The sudden and violent onset of emergencies, the disruption
of families and community structures as well as the acute shortage
of resources with which most refugees are confronted, deeply affect
the physical and psychological well-being of refugee children. It
is a sad fact that infants and young children are often the
earliest and most frequent victims of violence, disease and
malnutrition which accompany population displacements and refugee
outflows. In the aftermath of emergencies and in the search for
solutions, the separation of families and familiar structures
continue to affect adversely refugee children of all ages. Thus,
helping refugee children to meet their physical and social needs
often means providing support to their families and
communities.
Refugee children face far greater dangers to their safety and
well being than the average child. The sudden and violent onset of
emergencies, the disruption of families and community structures as
well as the acute shortage of resources with which most refugees
are confronted, deeply affect the physical and psychological well
being of refugee children. It is a sad fact that infants and young
children are often the earliest and most frequent victims of
violence, disease and malnutrition which accompany population
displacement and refugee outflows. In the aftermath of emergencies
and in the search for solutions, the separation of families and
familiar structures continue to affect adversely refugee children
of all ages. Thus, helping refugee children to meet their physical
and social needs often means providing support to their families
and communities.
The exception to this general rule is that States may not return
a refugee, in any manner whatsoever, to the frontiers of
territories where his/her life or freedom would be threatened
because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group or political opinion (the principle of
nonrefoulement). This is true even if the refugee entered the host
country illegally. A refugee who poses a danger to the security of
the country or to the community, cannot claim this protection.
To protect refugees, a State must know who they are. A State
must be able to differentiate those in need of international
protection from other people seeking entry to its territory. How a
State does so will largely depend on whether a claim for asylum can
be examined individually or whether people are arriving in
suchlarge numbers that a group determination is the most
practical.
In addition to the Refugee Conventions provision against
refoulement, human rights law sets out the obligation not to return
someone to danger, though in somewhat different language. The
Convention against Torture, which has 131 States parties as of
September 2001, prohibits expulsion or return to a placewhere there
is a substantial danger of torture.
Some countries have established procedures to examine a claim
under the criteria of both the Refugee Convention and the
Convention against Torture at the same time. This can be more
efficient, as long as it is done in the context of a full and
inclusive application of the Refugee Convention. One concern is
that people who receive the benefit of non-refoulement under the
Convention against Torture often fail to receive the rights and
benefits accorded to refugees, since such rights are not set forth
in the Convention against Torture. Therefore, if these persons meet
the refugee criteria, they should be recognized under the Refugee
Convention.
Temporary protection should not continue for too long, even if
the underlying circumstances have not improved, because people
should not be left under minimum conditions of protection
indefinitely. States should either employ their usual asylum
procedures, or regularize the beneficiaries residence. UNHCR can
offer advice on such issues as when to institute temporary
protection, what treatment should be accorded beneficiaries, and
when and how such protection should be ended.
Children with their parentsChildren and their primary caregivers
should not be detained unless this is the only means of maintaining
family unity.
>If children are detainedIt must be as a measure of last
resort and for the shortest possible period of time. Children must
not be held in prison-like conditions, and must be able to play and
to have education
SEPARATED CHILDRENUNHCR works closely with other agencies to
ensure that separated children are identified and registered, and
their families traced. In the Rwanda/Burundi crisis area, for
example, UNHCR has been working with UNICEF, ICRC, Food for the
Hungry and Save the Children (UK), as well as many other NGOs, to
do cross-border tracing for these children. A regional, centralized
database has been established, to register, track and match
separated family members; and local databases support local and
country-based programs. In the first year following the Rwandan
exodus, more than 21,000 separated children returned to their
families throughout the Great Lakes region.
