-
« Research
Contact information for accessing resources or for obtaining more information:
Contact person: Oksana Shved
Email address: os@everychild.org.ua
Phone Number: +38 044 457 29 10
Alternative report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Ukraine (2002-2008)
Download>>
Year of publishing (if published): 2009
Number of Pages: 85
Language(s) in which the resource is available: Ukrainian, English
Brief description:
Alternative report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Ukraine is a result of collaboration between experts and professionals from the non-governmental sector working in the sphere of children's rights protection. The report contains an update on the progress in the implementation of the provisions of the Convention made in Ukraine since submission of the Second State Report in 2002 through to the end of 2008.
It has been produced by Ukrainian NGOs following the Guidelines for NGOs preparing alternative reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (The NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. - Geneva, 2006).
The analysis and conclusions presented in the report have been publicly discussed during working group and round tables meetings and using internet resources of the organisations involved in the reporting process. Materials and researches provided by the non-governmental organisations incorporate the opinions and views of the children. Recommendations contain suggestions on how both governmental and non-governmental sectors can improve their work to ensure fulfilment of the obligations under the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child in the most efficient way. In 2009 this report has been submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Childcare: the family and the state. A study of institutional and family-based care in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
Author(s): Richard Carter, EveryChild
Publisher(s): Logos
Year of publishing (if published): 2005
Number of Pages: 88
Language(s) in which the resource is available: Ukrainian, English
Geographical Relevance:
This resource is relevant for CIS countries, CEE countries.
Brief description:
This EveryChild report reviews progress in reforming childcare in the region over the 15 years since the ‘orphanages' of Romania were revealed to the world, following the fall of the Ceauşescu regime in December 1989.
The first part of the report covers the historical background and context of the problem of institutional care in the region, discussing the reasons behind the predisposition for residential care - which exists all across the region, not just in Romania.
Next, the report reviews the literature on the adverse effects on children's physical and emotional development of institutional care. The second part of the report reviews the current state of institutional care in the region, discussing in some detail the reasons why children are admitted to care, based partly on EveryChild's own experience but drawing also on some of the many studies carried out in the region in recent years.
It is concluded that, although poverty plays a very significant part in the causes on institutional use, it is more an underlying reason, and other, social factors, such as family breakdown, the presence of multiple children in a family and other factors such as disability (of either parent or child), unemployment, single parenthood, alcoholism and drug abuse are all precipitating reasons.
There follows a section discussing entry into and exit from the institutional system, discussing particularly the heavy influence of the professionals and the top-down nature of decision-making; the particular problems of the over diagnosis of disability (and the corresponding dominance of the medical model of disability) and the over representation of children from minority groups in the institutions. The report goes on to examine the question of how many children are in residential care.
The data are unreliable, and the reasons for this are discussed: the most reliable source is the data assembled by UNICEF in the TransMONEE project, but even these figures are based on the official statistics and cannot be relied on. Using local surveys and other material, the report provides the most accurate estimate to date: that the number of children in institutions is at least 1.3 million (80% higher than the current official estimate).
However, the methodology used to produce this estimate is very conservative, and it is likely that the true number is larger: at least one and a half million. The conditions for the children in the institutions are then discussed, with the most recent information gathered by EveryChild country offices, and there follows a discussion on how these conditions violate the rights of children as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Abuse, both physical and sexual, is a particularly severe violation of these rights, and this is also discussed.
The third part of the report examines the different responses to the ‘orphanage' crisis in the region, starting with the well-meaning but unwise and unsustainable attempts to improve conditions in the institutions themselves. It goes on to discuss the different alternative methods of providing family-based care, starting with the reintegration of children in institutions with their own families, then foster care and adoption; international adoption is discussed but recommended only in the most extreme circumstances.
The key to removing the need for residential institutions is seen, however, in the provision of preventive social services to support vulnerable families through a crisis so that they do not need to send their children to an institution. Throughout, this part is illustrated from EveryChild's experience of working in almost a dozen countries in the region. But gate-keeping - the control of the mechanisms by which children are admitted - is also a vital part of the preventive process. Lastly in this part, the process of change is also discussed, in particular what lessons can be learned from the moves to reform in the region: what are the main barriers to change and how can they be overcome?
The final part of the report contains conclusions and recommendations. The key emerging issues are considered, including the serious rise of HIV/AIDS in the region - and outside it, particularly in Southern Africa, the Caribbean and in south east Asia. The report also considers particularly the implications for the various actors: governments (both in the West and in the region), NGOs and the major donor groups.
Finally, a full bibliography and list of resources is included.
- Children without parental care
Missing: Children without parental care in international development policy (2009)
Report warning that failure to keep children in families, out of residential institutions and off the streets, will be another barrier to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and condemn a generation of children to a life of abuse and neglect without the support and protection of parents.
Everychild deserves a family (2009)
Download >>
EveryChild's approach to children without parental careSeparationKeeping children safe (2006)
EveryChild's focus on child separation
Why Do Separated Children Matter? (2008)
In the report EveryChild details how separated children are more likely to suffer abuse, be exposed to HIV infection, suffer from mental health problems and go onto abandon their own children.
Social ServicesFacebook
Twitter