Internal Briefing Version 2

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION / BRIEFING
INFORMATION BRIEF ON THE UN RESOLUTION

ON THE 2019 RIGHTS OF THE CHILD WITH A
FOCUS ON CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE
November 2019
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777 United Nations Plaza 3D

To All SOSCV Federation colleagues interested in the 2019 UN New York, NY, 10017
Resolution on the Rights of the Child USA
Tel.: +1 917 376 4288
from Sofia Garcia Garcia, UN Representative and Project Manager1 www.sos-childrensvillages.org
date 26 November 2019
subject Information brief on the UNGA 2019 Resolution on the Rights of the
Child with a focus on children without parental care
INFORMATION BRIEF ON THE 2019 UN RESOLUTION ON THE 2019 RIGHTS OF

THE CHILD WITH A FOCUS ON CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE
About this document
This document aims to support colleagues across different functions and locations of the SOS Children’s
Villages (SOS CV) federation to become acquainted with the UN Resolution on the Rights of the Child (UN
Res RoC) of 2019 which was adopted on the 18 November 2019 by the Third Committee of the UN
General Assembly (UNGA) as (A/74/L.21). The document will support colleagues in reading the resolution
and understanding its relevance, and most importantly, lays out some initial ideas on how different parts
of our organisation can use the resolution to fulfill our strategic objectives and commitments to children
without parental care or at risk of losing it. This document also includes key instruments, proposals and
guidance for external communications and positioning on the day-of and days immediately following the
adoption of the international agreement by the UNGA. Information meant for internal use only will be
indicated as such.
➢ A first version of this briefing was internally distributed on the day of the adoption of the
resolution by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on the 18th of November 2019
➢ This version (26.11.2019) includes the following new parts: II.C Analysis of the content of the
resolution and VI.C Reaction for using with specialized partners. The section with the link to
photos and visual materials has also been updated.
For updates on the content of this briefing, new materials and for frequently asked questions please visit
the UN RoC 2019 Resolution Workspace at https://soscv.sharepoint.com/sites/WS_001360/SitePages/Welcome.aspx
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This report has been elaborated with the collaboration of Daniela Araya (IOR LAAM) and Andro Dadiani (IOR
EUCB) who at the time of its drafting are temporarily based in the New York office and contributing to different
specific tasks of the UN Resolution project, as well as the support of Manjun Hao, Trainee at the New York Office.
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Index
Index ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
I. GENERAL TECHNICAL BACKGROUND..................................................................................................... 4
A. What is a UN General Assembly Resolution? ................................................................................ 4
B. The Rights of the Child resolution ................................................................................................ 4
C. What are the implications of a UN Resolution? ............................................................................ 4
II. SPECIFIC BACKGROUND ON THE 2019 ROC FOCUSED ON CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE ...... 5
A. What are the different parts of a RoC Resolution? ....................................................................... 5
B. Summary of the core content of the resolution ............................................................................ 7
C. Analysis of the content of the resolution (NEW) ........................................................................... 9
III. SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES AND THE 2019 UN ROC RESOLUTION ..................................................... 14
A. Why we invested in the adoption of a resolution with a focus on our target group .................... 14
B. Relation to Strategy 2030 ........................................................................................................... 15
IV. HOW CAN SOS SUPPORT IN IMPLEMENTING THE RESOLUTION AND USE IT AS A TOOL FOR ITS
GOALS? ................................................................................................................................................. 16
V. WHO CAN I COUNT ON? HOW CAN I LEARN MORE? HOW CAN I PLAN SPECIFIC ACTIONS? ............... 17
VI. COMMUNICATIG ABOUT THE 2019 RoC RESOLUTION ..................................................................... 18
A. Materials for use on social and mass media immediately after adoption ................................... 18
B. Photos and Visuals ..................................................................................................................... 20
C. Reaction for using with specialized partners (NEW) ................................................................... 20
ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................................... 23
Table 1- What is the difference between a UN Declaration, UN Treaty, the UN Resolution and UN
Guidelines? .................................................................................................................................... 24
Table 2- How can SOS Potentially Use Key Paragraphs? ................................................................. 25
Table 3- Chart by function .............................................................................................................. 40
Table 4- Index of Terms ................................................................................................................. 43
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I. GENERAL TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
A. What is a UN General Assembly Resolution?

A United Nations Resolution is a formal expression of will of the United Nations Member States
(government representation at the UN). A resolution represents a political agreement solely and does
not have legal implications. However, it includes recommendations and commitments from
governments to implement policies and put in place programs to achieve development objectives, plan
bilateral or multilateral collaboration on an issue or fulfill the rights of different constituencies.
❖ For more information on what a UN Resolution is and how it is different from other
international documents, please see table 1 in the Annex.
The UN General Assembly2 is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN.
Comprising all 193 Members of the United Nations, it provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion
of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the UN Charter and Human Rights Treaties. It also
plays a significant role in the process of standard-setting and the codification of international law.
The General Assembly has six main committees and it allocates to the “Third Committee” (Social,
Humanitarian and Cultural) the agenda items relating to a range of social, humanitarian affairs and human
rights issues that affect people all over the world. Each year, the Third Committee meets from October to
November to discuss these issues and adopt resolutions that deal with different questions relating to the
advancement of women, the protection of children, indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the
right to self-determination, etc. The Committee also addresses important social development questions
such as youth, family, aging, persons with disabilities or crime prevention. Amongst these, the Committee
annually issues a resolution on “the Rights of the Child”.
B. The Rights of the Child resolution

Since the Convention of the Rights of the Child was adopted by the General Assembly on 20 November
1989, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly has been adopting an annual resolution
evaluating the progress achieved on fulfilling the rights upheld in the Convention. The resolution evaluates
progress on, and recommits to, the Convention and other child-related treaties, highlights areas of focus,
renews the mandates of key figures for child rights (such as the Special Representatives of the Secretary
General) and every year focuses on a “theme” or group of children to which specific commitments are
made or where further focus is needed (this year, ‘children without parental care’).
C. What are the implications of a UN Resolution?

While not legally binding, Resolutions of the UNGA become customary law and are referred to when
assessing countries’ progress and commitments. The topics of the RoC resolutions are retaken every
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http://www.un.org/en/ga/
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four years in an “Omnibus Resolution” where member states evaluate the

progress made on those issues and assess areas needing further effort.
II. SPECIFIC BACKGROUND ON THE 2019 ROC FOCUSED ON CHILDREN

WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE
A. What are the different parts of a RoC Resolution?
Preamble (PPs) List of Conventions and Frameworks, situation of child rights, special groups
of children.
Operational paragraphs (OPs) General OPs (§1-20) defines the actions to be taken by the governments
(§1-35) Theme (§21-35): specific commitments to fulfill and protect the rights of
children deprived of parental care
Follow-up section Set action for the following UNGA session, renewal of mandates, request for
(§36-41) reports, following session’s theme
The Preamble
Preambular paragraphs usually start with an italicized verb ending in -ing (e.g. Recalling...) and are not
numbered.
In the preambular section, member states list and recommit to relevant international frameworks such
as the UDHR, the CRC, other conventions such as CRPD, CEDAW and the Covenants (ICCP, ICESC). They
list and recommit to relevant declarations and plans of action (Beijing Declaration, World Fit for
Children, Indigenous Peoples, migrant and refugee children, eradication of child labor and others). The
preambular section also stresses the importance and valuable work of child rights actors, structures
and instruments such as ombudsman for children, the family, relevant international and regional bodies
and recognizes the valuable role of civil society and multilateral partnerships. They also recognize and
express concern about the general picture of the situation of children and the main threats to their
rights (poverty, discrimination, climate change, migration, military use of schools). It highlights groups
of children whose rights are particularly in danger such as girls, migrant children, children with
disabilities or children without parental care.
In the case of the 2019 RoC Resolution, we can find 24 preambular paragraphs (referred to as PPs). It is
worth noting that the last two preambular paragraphs focus explicitly on recognizing the situation of
children without parental care and the reasons leading to family separation as well as recognizing the
Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children as a set of orientations to help inform policy and
practice for the protection of children deprived of parental care or those at risk of being so.
In terms of usage, these paragraphs do not hold implementation weight, however they can serve as
background and language for policy papers, in our advocacy as a statement of their own (government)
commitments and to show donors and other partners that the issue of children without parental care
has been stated as one of top concern and focus for governments around the world. It can also be used
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to promote and further uphold our use of the Guidelines for the
Alternative Care of Children as a framework for planning and programing.
Operative part
(Paragraphs 1-35 in the 2019 RoC)
This section defines the actions to be taken by the governments. Therefore, this section operationalizes
the resolution. Operative paragraphs begin with verbs in the present tense (e.g., Urges, Decides,
Requests).
The operational section contains the paragraphs related to the theme, in this case the paragraphs on
actions to fulfill the rights of children deprived of parental care or at risk of being so deprived. They
are contained in paragraphs 21 to 35. Within these paragraphs, §34 and §35 contain specific actions
and urge member states to prevent family separation and provide to those children who cannot remain
in the care of their parents to protect them and ensure their wellbeing by amongst others, ensuring a
range of alternative care options, listing actions on how to do so.
❖ In section II B of this document and in tables 2 and 3 annexed, you can find a detailed analysis of
the content of the most relevant operational paragraphs and initial ideas on how they could be
used to better contribute to the improvement of the situation of children deprived of parental
care and/or for our organizational objectives.
Follow Up
(paragraphs 36-41 in the 2019 RoC)
In the follow up section, member states renew the mandates of key actors on child rights such as the
Special Representative on Violence against Children, request reports and documentations for
subsequent Third Committee sessions such as the Report of the Secretary General on the situation of
the rights of the child, establish the theme of focus for the following year (in this year’s case The Rights
of the Child and the Sustainable Development Goals) and invite the Chair of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child to engage in the following year’s UNGA session.
It is worth noting that this year’s resolution in an unprecedented way, calls for the adoption of a new
resolution not on the following year (75th session of the UNGA) but the following (76th session) which
has been referred to as the bi-annualization of the RoC Resolution (should you need more information
on this specific aspect, please contact the UN Representative).
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B. Summary of the core content of the resolution
In the 2019 RoC Resolution, the United Nations member states list and recommit to relevant
international frameworks and plans of action, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
the Convention on the Rights of the Child, reaffirming the general principles of the Convention, including
the best interest of the child, non-discrimination and participation as the framework for all actions
concerning children. Amongst these international texts and frameworks, member states recall the
Resolution welcoming the Guidelines for the Alternative care of Children as a set of orientations to help
inform policy and practice for the protection and well-being of children without parental care or at risk
of losing it.
Governments also stress the importance and valuable work of child rights actors, structures and
instruments including the contributions of civil society. Importantly, they also recognize the work of the
Special Representatives of the Secretary General (SRSG) such as the SRSG on children in armed conflict,
whose mandate renews for one more year, or the SRSG on Violence against Children who member
states encourage to continue implementing the recommendations laid out in her study to end all forms
of violence against children.
Through the resolution, the international community also recognizes and express concern about the
situation of children and the main threats to their rights specifically highlighting poverty,
discrimination, climate change, migration, the military use of schools and the violation of the right to
education for children in armed conflict. It highlights groups of children whose rights are particularly in
danger such as girls, migrant and refugee children, children with disabilities or children without parental
care.
On the theme of focus, children without parental care, member states reaffirm that a child should grow
up in a family environment for the full development of his or her personality (§21) and clearly state that
those who cannot be allowed to remain in their families are entitled to special protection and
assistance by the state (§21). The text of the resolution states cases in which separation by a
competent authority might be necessary such as abuse or violence (§24) as well as those cases in which
a child should never be forced to give up his or her family relations or be removed from his or her
family, explicitly naming poverty or lack of access to care, migration, education or health services, which
must be interpreted as a signal for the need to provide support to the family, (§28, 30, 32). Children
who, for whatever reason, are in contact with the law or the juvenile justice system must be referred to
child protection services and not the justice system (§29).
Member states urge to ensure better coordination and financing of systems and mechanisms based on
multisectoral collaboration (§31) and to improve the capacity of all stakeholders working with children
through training them in child rights considering the Guidelines for Alternative Care of Children.
Amongst the actions that member states commit to take in order to prevent family separation (§34),
member states commit to increase investments (§34 a), allocate budgets, enforce laws and implement
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programs and ensure the necessary resources to support families and communities to effectively take
care of their children (§34 b), taking a systemic approach to prevention of family separation.
As the most effective measures and groups to focus on, member states recognize the importance and
commit to focus on: poverty reduction through cash transfers, employment and gender-sensitive social
protection systems amongst others (§34 g, j), the prevention of violence (§34 c), support to families with
children with disabilities (§34 i) and adolescent mothers (§34 j) and promoting positive parenting and
assisting families and care givers through education and training are listed.
Member states commit to ensure the principle of necessity, i.e., that the removal of a child from his or
her family is a measure of last resort and to strive for swift reintegration should the reasons for
separation be addressed or solved, and when in the best interest of the child (§34 e).
In order to properly meet the principles of necessity and suitability, governments commit to put in place
rigorous and systematic judicial and administrative gatekeeping procedures and to ensure that all
decisions are taken on a case by case basis, by qualified professionals with the best interest of the child
as the primary consideration and in line with the Guidelines for Alternative Care of Children (§34 k, l)
For children without parental care, the General Assembly urges Member states to take action to ensure
(§35a):
• the full enjoyment of their human rights by implementing international frameworks, strengthening
national legislation (§35 a), training relevant actors in the rights of the child and the Guidelines for
the Alternative Care of Children (§35 a, e)- and ensuring accountability for violations (§35 i)
• the provision of a range of alternative care options that is comprehensive, disability inclusive,
properly regulated (licensing, registration…) and regularly monitoring the quality of care, the status
of the child and the circumstances for placement in all alternative care settings (§35 c)
• better data collection to close data gaps and ensure that quality data guides policy making (§35 d)
• the prioritization of quality care options over institutionalization by reforming legislation, allocating
budgets, adopting national plans of action, redirecting resources, training actors (§35g, f)
• their protection by establishing and developing mechanisms for children in alternative care to
report violence or other safeguarding concerns (§35 k)
The resolution also places special focus on children without parental care who experience intersecting
forms of discrimination such as unaccompanied and separated migrant and refugee children (§35 o-s),
children with disabilities, girls (§35 m), street children (§35 n) or victims of child trafficking (§35 t),
ensuring that the care they received is adapted to their specific needs and circumstances.
In an unprecedented paragraph (§35 l), Member States commit to ensure that children and adolescents
in alternative care receive support in preparing for the transition into independent living and have
access to aftercare services in line with the Guidelines for the Alterative Care of Children.
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Other key aspects include the welcoming of the commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the agreement for the theme of the next RoC Resolution,
which will be negotiated in 2021, to be the Rights of the Child and the Sustainable Development Goals.
❖ To find where specific content appears, you can find a list of topics and their corresponding
paragraphs in table 4 of the Annex. For an external reaction with media purposes, please see
section VI of this document.
C. Analysis of the content of the resolution (NEW)
What does the UN resolution achieve?
Elevates the childcare issues onto the overarching child rights discussion
The UN resolution on the rights of the child (RoC) is a “refresher” of the commitments to which the UN
member states signed up under the UN CRC and various other international treaties. By focusing on
children without parental care, the resolution establishes a strong link between child rights and child
care, calling governments to work child care as an essential element for upholding child rights. It opens
opportunities for increased government accountability, triggers political impetus to undertake bold
steps in addressing challenges in childcare and creates opportunities for accessing more financial
resources (especially those grants dedicated to the fulfillment of key human and child rights). The
resolution moves the perception of childcare issues from the constrained prism of social work and
“charity” to the realm of human rights.
Connects the care conversation and the needs of our target group to the overall development
conversation (including the SDGs)
Loss of parental care and need for supporting families are not portrayed as standalone issues. They are
interrelated with failures in the overall development policies of member states. Properly targeted
development policies in areas such as: health (SDG3), education (SDG4) social protection and the
reduction of poverty (SDG1), gender equality (SDG5), decent jobs (SDG8) and even climate change and
disaster risk reduction (SDG13) would directly contribute to improving lives and prospects of children
and young people without parental care and prevent family separation. The resolution recognizes the
impact of poverty on much wider areas of countries’ development. It goes beyond the socioeconomic
prism of poverty and underlines intrinsic interlinkage between poverty eradication, sustainable
development, social protection and child protection, offering a needed contextualization and framing of
the importance and contribution of the work for these children.
Elevates the Guidelines for the alternative care of children as the standard to be followed
when providing and setting up child welfare and childcare systems
The resolution makes references to all international treaties and legal instruments that pertain to and
enable protection of the rights of children. Amongst them, it makes several mentions of the Guidelines
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for the Alternative Care of Children, referring to them as a “set of orientations to help inform policy and
practice for protection and well-being of children deprived of parental care or who are at risk of being
so” and recognizing the progress achieved since adoption of the guidelines. While the formal language
of the UN resolution adopted 10 years ago was: “welcome the Guidelines”, the wording used to
reference the Guidelines in this last resolution is: “adoption of the Guidelines”. Besides stronger
language, it also elevates the importance of the guidelines by practically urging member states to
implement their actions in line with or taking them into account.
Connects loss of parental care to other key child rights violations and makes explicit the links
between loss of care and other vulnerabilities
The resolution recognizes that children without parental care are more vulnerable than others to
experience violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and exclusion, thus opening the door for augmenting
that their protection need more focus, support and investment. Drawing from the Secretary General
report on the Situation on the Rights of the Child, the resolution mentions specific groups of children
that are specially at risk of losing parental care such as children with disabilities, girls or migrant
children, establishing a clear connection between the communities working for, and the actions done, to
address those issues.
There is a clear call that the solution has to be systematic and investments in comprehensive,
coordinated, properly resourced and multisectoral approaches have to be in place
In addressing the challenges faced by children, the states are urged to strengthen efforts to reform their
national child protection, childcare and social welfare systems through a well-coordinated multi-sectoral
collaboration between child welfare, education, health and justice authorities. Such efforts should also
include training of these professionals in the Guidelines, alongside with building their capacity in other
relevant areas pertinent to childcare and protection. The resolution explicitly spells out these sectors
thus recognizing that quality childcare and effective child protection is never construed to social sector
and must be seen as a core tasks of all these other actors and sectors involved.
Governments recognize the importance of investing and organizing gatekeeping systems
That would ensure the necessity and suitability of solutions to children in need of support or alternative
care in line with the Guidelines. Such mechanisms should ensure that in processes affecting their lives
children participate in decision-making and that such participation is organized in a way that would
ensure true representation of their wishes and opinions.
Preventing unnecessary separation needs further focus to comply with the principles of last
resort and necessity. Poverty should never be the sole reason for family separation
Recognizing that many children that could be with their parents are still unnecessarily separated,
member states are urged to prioritize investments in services to support families and strengthen
communities. States are to ensure putting in place programs and policies with appropriate budgets and
workforce to address the root causes of separation. Social protection policies and programs should be
child, gender and disability sensitive and aim at improving positive parenting abilities alongside with
equipping families with knowledge and skills to confront poverty and social exclusion.
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The resolution reaffirms that no child should be separated from parents solely due to poverty of the
family or against the will of a child, unless it is deemed by the mandated professionals that such is in
his/her best interest. Removal is to be used only a last resort and it should be based on a comprehensive
assessment by the professionals.
In care planning for the child, reintegration with parents should be considered as a primary option, if the
mandatory periodic case-review deemed that all the reasons for removal have been resolved or have
disappeared.
There is a clear need for transformation of childcare systems. A range of quality alternative
care options that ensure the principle of suitability needs to be in place. One size doesn’t fit all.
For cases when children can’t remain with their parents, the states are urged to ensure availability of
quality and disability-inclusive range of alternative care services for emergency, short- and long-term
care in line with the Guidelines. These services should be regulated by the states and be overseen to
comply with relevant standards, licensing, accountability and child safeguarding requirements.
Workforce employed by these services and professionals of the allied sectors (justice, health, education,
interior) need to be undergoing systematic adequate training in child rights, the Guidelines and other
relevant country-specific procedures.
Institutionalization is never in the best interest of the child.
The resolution recognizes harms of institutional care on the development of children and openly
discourages its use for all children, including migrant children, children living and working on the street
or children with disabilities.
Clear recognition of the need for more resources and efficiency
The resolution urges governments to prioritize investments into child protection, social services for
children and alternative care. Member states are called to adopt the needed regulatory frameworks that
ensure entitlement of children to the needed support services within their communities equipped with
sufficient budgets and qualified human resources. In efforts to reform the child welfare systems the
resources are called to be redirected from institutional care towards services preventing separation and
family and community-based care services, thus progressively replacing institutionalization with quality
alternative care.
Alternative care must be oversighted and monitored to ensure accountability and protection
The child welfare systems must include continued public awareness on matters related to rights and
wellbeing of children, capacity building of staffs directly involved in care for children and mechanisms
for swift response to violations and abuse in all care settings, with particular focus to ensuring
accountability of those responsible. Monitoring, enforcement and justice mechanisms for child
safeguarding, which must be brought to the attention of all children in care, be confidential and child
friendly are recognized in the resolution as essential for effective child protection.
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Appeal to the need of better and more comprehensive data and the link to the development of
sound national policies. Recognition of existing data gap that must be filled
Lack of data on children without parental care in all setting remains to be a challenge addressing which
is essential for states’ ability to plan investments, budgets, develop policies and programs based on
sound and reliable baselines.
Explicit recognition of the link between investments in childhood and success in adulthood and
the importance of supporting transition into adulthood for sustainable return on investment
The resolution urges the member states to take measures to support children in transitioning from care
into independent life approaching the issue holistically, creating a positive and much needed narrative
for the continuum of life. It stresses key areas of focus for the protection of youth including continued
education and training, access to housing, gainful employment and psychosocial support.
Commitment to keep supporting key child rights figures
The mandates of the Special Representatives on Violence against Children (Ms. Najat Maalla M'jid),
Children and Armed Conflict (Ms. Virginia Gamba) and the SR of the Human Rights Council on the sale
and sexual exploitation of children (Ms. Maud de Boer-Buquicchio) were extended. They, and the Chair
of Child Rights’ Committee were requested to continue their work and report progress to the UN.
Disruptive players and contentious issues
Undermining of child rights and protection instruments, undermining of multilateralism
Some powerful member states, such as Russia and the USA clearly demonstrate attempts to undermine
international Child rights and child protection instruments. These attempts are represented by proposed
changes to the drafts of the resolution in the process of negotiations aiming to diminish the strength of
the language referring to CRC or the Guidelines and delete any reference to the need for application of
the standards established by these documents. Others member states and groups of member states
such as EU, GRULAC or the Africa Group (with few exceptions) however, resist to such attempts and
defended the strengthening of language and references to these important international treaties and
framework standards. ** Please note this information is for INTERNAL USE ONLY and we strongly
recommend not to point fingers at specific member states in our communications.
Skipping next year’s Rights of the Child Resolution
Governments decided to call for the next resolution to be drafted during the 76th session of its General
Assembly, i.e. in 2021 (instead of 2020 i.e. 75th session). Opening the door for the Resolution on the
Rights of the Child to go form an annual exercise to a biannual activity. The rationale behind this
decision is to optimize the workload of the Third Committee and the member states participating in
negotiations. This, however, clearly diminishes the priority placed on children’s rights on the agenda of
the member states, as many other resolutions within the mandate of the Third Committee will continue
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to be adopted annually. SOS will try to maximize the collateral

opportunity of maximizing the fact that governments have committed to put the focus in to ensuring
implementation, but will also try, in coordination with other partners in NY to reverse the trend and
have the Resolution on the Rights of the Child be called on an annual basis again.
Confusion and different understanding of the term institutionalization
During the negotiations, some member states (across regions and groups) were very strongly calling to
“end institutionalization” while others where calling to “end unnecessary institutionalization”. The
discussion and arguments used, revealed that the disagreement was not based on some member states
thinking that institutionalization is good or necessary, but that there is different understandings of what
institutional care is. For some institutions include small group homes and residential care, which, they
argue, are in very limited and specific situations necessary or the one suitable option. For others,
institutions always refer to large scale facilities with institutional features and thus are never necessary
or in the best interest of the child. Through advice and calling to refer to the guidelines for definitions
and in order to find some common ground to find consensus, the situation was solved. We transformed
this situation into an opportunity to steer the understanding of some key actors. Nevertheless, more
awareness on the Guidelines and clarity and consensus on terminology is still needed.
Education on sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). Some member states strongly
oppose committing to promote such education and actively water down language that calls upon the
states to act in this direction.
Child Rights versus family “rights”. Some governments attempt to represent parents as a group
with rights (instead of responsibilities) and as the primary -or sole- authority to determine the best
interest of the child in the process of their upbringing. While parents and families do have the primary
role in upbringing of children, determination of their best interest is the realm of mandated and
qualified statutory authorities, especially in cases of protection of children from parental abuse.
Ensuring rights of children to participation in matters affecting their lives. The right to be
heard and participate proved to be very polemic. Here too some governments call for the parents to be
the key vehicle for ensuring participation of children, even when it is proven that sole discretion of
parents for ensuring the participation to serve the best interest of the child would be counterproductive
to the aim of participation.
Migrant children are still seen as different in their rights. Are still seen by some member states
as different - second in line when it comes to the commitments to upholding their rights. As the
positions of the specific countries or the groups of countries is largely informed by the pragmatic
realities and by a prioritization of national security arguments over the fulfillment of the rights of these
children, the language of the resolution pertinent to unaccompanied and separated migrant children is
weak and vague. Detention is still seen as a last resort for the shortest period possible and not
something that needs to be eliminated and violates the best interest of the child.
The mandate of the Independent Expert on Children Deprived of Liberty (Mr. Manfred Novak)
was not extended by this resolution despite the proposal of a member state. This is a clear indication of
the lack of interest of member states to tackling the key issue of deprivation of liberty of children and to
committing further funding for it.
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III. SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES AND THE 2019 UN ROC RESOLUTION
A. Why we invested in the adoption of a resolution with a focus on our target group
(PLEASE NOTE: this section is for internal information only)
Every year, a Resolution on the Rights of the Child is negotiated and adopted by the General Assembly of
the United Nations. SOS CV identified that the annual resolution had never addressed children without
parental care, so we decided to advocate and advise governments to have the 2019 Resolution on the
RoC focusing its thematic section on the rights of children without parental care. The external goals
pursued included:
• To raise awareness and create knowledge on our target group, and the issues that affect their lives,
among key government officials and decision makers in the international and national arenas.
• Strengthen the narratives of the relation between the overall child rights and the development
agendas with the needs of children without parental care and at risk of losing it.
• Achieve an ambitious and comprehensive legal text to further push governments to fulfill the rights
of children without parental care and those at risk of losing it and foster a recognition and urgency
of the needs of our target group, addressing a lack of political attention in the international arena to
this group of children.
• Provide our MAs and Regional Offices with a powerful legal tool to support and foster their national
advocacy efforts for better care systems and investments, by holding governments accountable to it
and programmatically supporting them to deliver.
• Create “agreed language” to be used for further advocacy efforts in the international arena.
(Agreed language is typically easier to incorporate in future resolutions and UN official documents.)
• Strengthen SOS’ position as leader and expert in alternative care and family separation prevention.
• Strengthen and cultivate relations with governments and other key decision makers in the areas of
child rights and development.
Based on the analysis and the objectives listed above, and building on the momentum created by the
10th anniversary of the Guidelines for the Alternative care of Children in 2019, the New York Office
started a project to raise awareness about this issue and bilaterally advocate with government
representations at the UN Headquarters in New York to propose and select the theme of focus during
the 2018 session for the 2019 Rights of the Child Resolution.
After having succeeded in making this happen, Regional and several member associations as well as key
IO stakeholders, advised government representatives on the content that the resolution could include,
in order for it to be ambitious and implementable. A set of recommendations of aspects that could be
included, the technical paper for the UN resolution, was created in collaboration and consultation with
federation-wide stakeholders and shared through bilateral meetings with government representatives
at the UN of more than 70 countries. A group of civil society partners in the alternative care and child
14
rights community that included UNICEF, Better Care Network, Hope and Homes, Save the Children and
Lumos was created and a document with key advocacy asks, supported by 250 organizations (including
donors such as the Oak Foundation or Optimus Foundation) was also convened by SOS CV.
❖ An evaluation of the project will be available from the 6th of December, including timeline of the
project, activities that were put in place, challenges and strengths as well as key learnings. It can
be found in the UN RoC 2019 Resolution Workspace or requested to the UN Representative in
NY, Sofía García García sofia.garcia-garcia@sos-kd.org
B. Relation to Strategy 2030
In Strategy 2030, the federation plans to innovate in Alternative care (SI1.) By calling member states
to provide with a wide range of alternative care options, the resolution opens a unique opportunity
to find partners and funding to innovate in our programs and expand and diversify our services.
Equally in SI 2, the federation recognizes the importance of family strengthening programs. The
resolution outlines a set of actions that governments commit to undertake to prevent family
separation; SOS can partner with governments to help them implement such ventures in a locally
relevant way.
In an unprecedented paragraph, the UN Resolution highlights the necessities of adolescents and
young people transitioning out of the care system. It recognizes how adequate support, guidance
and preparation for independent living is necessary, including through access to employment,
education, training, housing, psychological support as well as after care services. SI 3 shares the
same goals and could build on the need of governments for knowledge and good practices on
serving young people in care by promoting programs like Youth Can, Youth Links and a myriad of
great practices and programs on youth participation and empowerment run by our Mas across the
globe.
The 2019 RoC resolution sets a range of commitments that governments are ready to make for
children without parental care. Our advocacy efforts could contribute to help them put their words
into practice, by advocating to align national legislation and public policies to the resolution and
holding governments and other key actors accountable.
The resolution frames the alternative care conversation and raises its importance in the
development and child rights arena. Having been a leader in the drafting process, SOS can mobilize
different partners for its implementation and raise awareness with the general public about the
rights of children without parental care, triggering the interest needed for a comprehensive
movement to emerge (SI5)
In SI7, the organization sets an objective to ensure the sustainability of our operations. The UN
resolution stresses the importance of national and international financial resources to be dedicated
for the proper functioning of the children protection mechanisms and the alternative care services
as well as family support. SOS can build on this momentum to tap into a diverse pool of funding
sources, including governmental subsidies, cooperation agencies and large foundations.
15
IV. HOW CAN SOS SUPPORT IN IMPLEMENTING THE RESOLUTION AND USE IT
AS A TOOL FOR ITS GOALS?
International legislation sets the standard and focus of governments, UN agencies, donors and other
actors triggering actions at the national level. The 2019 UN RoC resolution states government
commitments in key areas of our work and focus.
For example, a UN resolution can strongly support colleagues who fundraise with institutional donors to
make the connection between our target group and key development topics to which large amounts of
funding are traditionally dedicated. Some such examples include the gender dimension of violence, the
loss of care due to humanitarian situations or climate related disasters, the need to eradicate poverty
(SDG1) and ensure decent jobs (SDG8) for families to prevent unnecessary separation or calls to
strengthen child protection systems.
The resolution includes several calls to use the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children as a
reference to train care and other professionals in the rights of children without parental care. We can
use this commitment to position our organization as a key expert in the Guidelines and convince
governments of the importance of allocating funds for these trainings; this will not only bring funds to
our organization but also improve our relations and image with governments at all levels, helping us to
become a key contributor to the good functioning of the care system and building our brand not only as
a service provider but also a system-wide, rights-based stakeholder.
Paragraphs such as the one stating the need to support adolescents in their transition into adulthood
and calling to ensure after care services for all young people, create a need for good practices and
knowledge that SOS can very well fill through positioning and partnership building, thereby lifting our
organizational profile as a key partner for the fulfillment of child rights, the youth agenda and
contributing to the well-functioning of systems and societies.
❖ In table 2 (annexed below), we have highlighted the paragraphs most relevant to our work and
target group. It clarifies what the paragraphs are about as well as some initial ideas on how the
government commitments stated in them can improve the power of our advocacy, helps us
make the case with donors to increase the funding available for programs to serve our target
group, fine-tune the language we use in our research, policies and external communications and
to frame and plan our programmatic contribution to fulfill the rights of children without
parental care in a contextualized narrative and strategic way. Table 3 offers similar knowledge,
organized by functional area and location. Tables 2 and 3 are drafts and an initial brainstorm to
support colleagues across the federation think about how they are going to use the resolution
and envisage how it can help meet their objectives. We encourage you to share with us your
ideas as to how SOS could support governments and other stakeholders achieve the
commitments laid out in the text. We can then add them to our charts and share the wealth of
knowledge with all colleagues.
16
V. WHO CAN I COUNT ON? HOW CAN I LEARN MORE? HOW CAN I PLAN
SPECIFIC ACTIONS?
Contact: We are here to help! For any questions related to the resolution, the work we did to make it
happen or how to maximize its impact, please don't hesitate to contact Sofia Garcia, Representative to
the UN in NY and Head of Strategic Partnerships at Sofia.Garcia-Garcia@sos-kd.org
We encourage all colleagues to have internal discussions about the UN resolution and think about how
this tool for fund development, communication, advocacy, partnerships and others can best serve you in
achieving your goals. The implementation of the UN Resolution and child rights is the responsibility of
governments and, with proper planning, this can be used in many as an opportunity for our federation.
Workshops: To support you with this planning, we have organized a series of face to face workshops
during the first months of 2020. These will take place in different regions and with different functional
focuses. The goal of these workshops will be to support you in familiarizing with the resolution and its
process and, more importantly, to support different colleagues in reflecting on how you can use this
international instrument to achieve your goals. If you are interested, please contact Daniela Araya at
Daniela.araya@sos-kd.org
Webinars: If you have specific questions or plan actions before a workshop that you could attend is
organized, please reach out to us. We will also be organizing on-line webinars for Q&A and sharing of
pilot and best practices.
Workspace: The dates and venues for each workshop will be announced in our workspace , so please
take a look once in a while for that and much more info.
Materials: a user-friendly version of the resolution will be produced and other materials such as a FAQ
section in our workspace will be produced in the coming months. If there is anything that you think
would help you and other colleagues in using the resolution, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Knowledge management: We will regularly publish articles with learnings and past or upcoming
activities around the resolution. And we would like to build our news section together. Please keep us
posted of any activities, ideas or experiences you have when using resolution for planning, fundraising,
communicating or advocating using the resolution. We will post articles in the news section to ensure
we can all learn from each other across the federation and maximize efficiencies.
17
VI. COMMUNICATIG ABOUT THE 2019 RoC RESOLUTION
A. Materials for use on social and mass media immediately after adoption
Social media
@sos_children welcomes the @UN member states commitment to #children without parental
care with their adoption of a new #UNresolution committing to ensure support to families to
prevent separation and quality alternative care to all children #lnob #WorldChildrensDay
#iseeyou #CRC30
Today marks a historic moment in our work: The @UN just adopted a resolution on the rights of
#children without parental care. #UNresolution #WorldChildrensDay #iseeyou #CRC30
Congratulations to the #UNGA for stepping up their efforts to make children without parental
care visible & to provide quality #alternativecare solutions #UNresolution #WorldChildrensDay
#iseeyou #CRC30
We are celebrating! 30 years of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 10 years of the
UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children & today welcome a new #UNresolution on
#children without parental care
Data needs to inform policy: New #UNresolution on children without parental care calls for
disaggregated data on the situation of #children who live without their parents. @UNstats
#iseeyou #CRC30
Governments need to invest in #FamilySupport to prevent unnecessary separation of #children
from their #parents according to a newly adopted #UNresolution @ilo_newyork
@soc_protection
There is no one size fits all: Each child has different needs requiring different types of
#AlternativeCare, confirms new #UNresolution #WorldChildrensDay #iseeyou
Young people leaving #AlternativeCare need to be prepared early and receive all necessary
support, confirms new #UNresolution #WorldChildrensDay #iseeyou
A trained social workforce protects the right of young people leaving #AlternativeCare to walk
their own life paths, confirms new #UNresolution #iseeyou #CRC30 #humanrights
#UNGA steps up efforts to call on governments to provide #gatekeeping mechanisms and
quality #alternativecare solutions #UNresolution #CRC30 #bestinterestsofthechild
#humanrights
@sos_children welcomes the @UN’s commitment to #children without parental care: The third
committee today adopted a new #UNresolution #CRC30 #bestinterestsofthechild
#soschildrensvillages
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Reaction Statement for the general public
The UN General Assembly adopts Rights of the Child resolution with milestone commitments for children
without parental care
On November 18, 2019, the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee finalised negotiations and adopted its annual
resolution on the Rights of the Child (A/C.3/74/L.21/Rev.1). This year, the resolution focuses on children without
parental care – one of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
In the resolution, UN member states express concern about the particular vulnerability of millions of children
around the globe due to the lack of both adequate support for families at risk and a range of quality care options
for children who have lost parental care. The resolution also outlines a series of actions and commitments to
improve the situation and fulfill the rights of this group of children.
Member states reaffirm their commitment to implement key systemic actions such as training for authorities who
work with children using the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. They call out for improved data
collection to inform policies and programming for this group of children. They also recognise that a range of quality
care options is needed in order to meet the principles of necessity and suitability of care placement and to avoid
institutionalization, ensuring that every child can be provided with an individualised care solution in his or her best
interest.
In addition to the language adopted in the resolution, member states reaffirmed key international human and
child rights documents such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities and the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.
SOS Children’s Villages is pleased to see the recognition that multiple vulnerabilities often intersect to cause family
separation and values the commitment to take a holistic approach to ensuring the fulfilment and protection of the
rights of every child. A series of actions towards strengthening parents’ ability to take care of their children and
improve the economic and social situation of families is a welcome focus of the resolution as it will ensure that
alternative care is always a measure of last resort.
Through its presence in 136 countries and territories and with its 70 years of experience serving children without
parental care, SOS Children’s Villages stands ready to support the UN and its member states in implementing this
resolution in the coming years and looks forward to their continued commitment, in both words and actions, to
protect the rights of children without parental care.
Notes to editors:
The full text of the UN resolution on children without parental care is available here. (A/C.3/74/L.21/Rev.1) is
scheduled to be formally adopted in December.
The UN Secretary General’s annual “Status on the Convention on the Rights on the Child” 2019 focusing on children
without parental care is available here.
For more information on types of quality alternative care, click here.
19
Quotes for General Use

“We welcome the new UN resolution on the Rights of the Child as an historic milestone for the care
community. Children without parental care and at risk of losing parental care have often been overlooked.
The childhood of many children is cut short due to a lack of care and protection. Implementing the new
UN resolution is an imperative for governments to deliver on all children’s rights,” said SOS Children’s
Villages President Siddhartha Kaul.
“Through this international agreement, governments from all around the world recognise the grave
situation in which many children grow up, with their rights violated and the development of their full
potential compromised. But most importantly, they lay out a set of solutions and commitments to put
into place the mechanisms, investments and systems to fulfill and protect the rights and meet the
protection needs of children without parental care,” said SOS Children’s Villages Representative to the
United Nations, Sofia Garcia Garcia.
“In this Rights of the Child resolution, governments have committed to put programmes, policies and
investments in place to better fulfill the rights of children without parental care, ensuring that the
professionals and systems serving them do so from a rights-based and participative approach,” said SOS
Children’s Villages Representative to the United Nations, Sofia Garcia Garcia.
“With the adoption of this resolution, governments have built momentum to improve the situation of
millions of families and children around the world. SOS Children’s Villages, as a leader in the child rights
international community and a care provider with decades of experience, stands ready to support
governments and other authorities in translating the resolution into concrete steps and actions in their
country so that every child grows up with quality care,” said SOS Children’s Villages President Siddhartha
Kaul.
B. Photos and Visuals
In this link you can find photos related to the UN resolution project, Visuals and GIFs as well as
template for external papers and PPP presentations
https://soscv.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/sites/WS_001360/Public%20Documents/1911%20UN%20Res%20Ro
C%20Visuals?csf=1&e=avWes5
C. Reaction for using with specialized partners (NEW)

The narrative included in this section can be used as statements or hand-outs for knowledgeable
members of government, parliamentarians, ministries or relevant local authorities as well as to include
in briefings for specialized media outlets, for donors, members of the Board, etc.
❖ For a ready to print formatted version please download the PDF here. For a Word document to
add a contact address please click here.
20
In December 2019, the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution on Rights of the Child (RoC) with a
focus on children without parental care. On the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on
Rights of the Child (CRC), the resolution indicates global governmental commitment to implement
systematic policies with the best interests of the child as the guiding principle. SOS Children’s Villages
welcomes this milestone and identifies the following as key takeaways from the resolution:
Elevates childcare issues onto the overarching child rights discussion
By focusing on children without parental care, the resolution establishes a direct link between
child care and child rights. In such case, providing quality care is a key tool to fulfill and protect child
rights.
Connects Children without Parental Care to the overall development conversation
Properly targeted development policies in areas such as: health (SDG3), education (SDG4), social
protection and the reduction of poverty (SDG1, SDG10), gender equality (SDG5), decent jobs (SDG8),
climate change and disaster risk reduction (SDG13) directly contribute to improving lives of children and
young people without parental care and preventing family separation. Therefore, policies on children and
adolescents without parental care and preventing family separation constitutes implementation of the
2030 Agenda.
Elevates the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children as the standard for systematic policy
change and implementation
The resolution makes references to international treaties and legal instruments that pertain to and
enable protection of the rights of children. Amongst them, it refers to the Guidelines for the Alternative
Care of Children as a “set of orientations to help inform policy and practice for protection and well-being
of children deprived of parental care or who are at risk of being so”.
Connects the loss of parental care to key child rights violations and shows the connected nature of
loss of parental care and other vulnerabilities
The resolution recognizes that children without parental care are more vulnerable than others to
experience violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and exclusion, thus calling for focus on protection,
support and investment for children without parental care.
Also drawing from the Secretary General report on the Situation on the Rights of the Child 2019,
the resolution mentions specific groups of children who are specially at risk of losing quality care, such as
children with disabilities, girls, or migrant children and refugees. The identification of specific groups
urges to tailor the support and protection provided.
Calls for systematic solutions and comprehensive, coordinated, properly resourced and
multisectoral coordination
In addressing the challenges faced by children, states are urged to strengthen efforts to reform
national child protection, childcare and social welfare systems ensuring a well-coordinated and multi-
sectoral collaboration between child welfare, education, health and justice authorities and actors. Such
efforts also include training of professionals in sectors explicitly spelled out in the Guidelines for
Alternative Care of Children. Quality childcare and effective child protection should not be limited to the
social sector and must involve a wide range of stakeholders.
Recognizes the importance of investing and properly organizing gatekeeping systems
Decisions must be taken by competent authorities after informed on thorough assessment of the
individual situation of the child. Such mechanisms must ensure that in processes affecting their lives
21
children can participate and be heard, in a way that guarantees true representation of their wishes and
opinions.
Reaffirms that poverty should never be the sole reason for removal of a child and family separation
should be the last resort
Member states are urged to prioritize investments in services to support families and strengthen
communities. Governments commit to put in place programs and policies with appropriate budgets and
train workforce to address the root causes of separation.
The resolution also reaffirms that no child should be separated from family solely due to poverty.
Removal is to be used only as a last resort, only when in the best interests of the child, based on a
comprehensive assessment by professional, and be regularly reassessed. In addition, in care planning for
the child, reintegration with parents should be aimed for.
Calls for a range of quality alternative care options to ensure the principle of suitability is met
One size does not fit all. For children who can’t stay with their parents, states are urged to ensure
availability of quality and disability-inclusive range of alternative care services for emergency, short- and
long-term care in line with the Guidelines. Workforce employed by these services and professionals of the
allied sectors (justice, health, education, interior) need to undergo systematic adequate training.
The resolution recognizes the harms of institutional care on child development and openly
discourages its use as it is never in the best interests of the child.
Calls for systematic oversight and monitoring of alternative care setting to ensure accountability
Child welfare systems must include continued public awareness on matters related to rights and
wellbeing of children, capacity building of staff directly involved with the child, and mechanisms for
swift response to violations and abuse in all care settings, with a particular focus on ensuring
accountability of those who are responsible. Monitoring, enforcement and justice mechanisms for child
safeguarding should also be confidential and child friendly.
Recognizes existing data gaps and calls for disaggregated quality data for evidence-based
policymaking
Lack of data on children without parental care in all setting remains to be a challenge. Addressing
the data gaps is essential to states’ ability to plan investments, budgets, develop policies and programs
based on sound and reliable baselines.
Explicitly recognizes the strong link between investments in childhood and success in adulthood
The resolution urges the governments to take measures to support children who transition from
alternative care into independent life in a holistic approach. It stresses key areas of focus for the
protection of youth including continued education and training, access to housing, gainful employment
and psychosocial support.
SOS Children’s Villages is ready to support governments in implementing the 2019 Resolution on the
Rights of the Child by sharing our programmatic expertise on child care. We will also create and join
partnerships to raise awareness of key child protection topics and engaging with experts and decision
makers to foster common and clear understanding of alternative care solutions by decision makers at the
international and national levels.
22
ANNEXES
Table 1: What is the difference between a UN Declaration, UN Treaty and a UN Resolution?
Table 2: Uses by paragraph
Table 3: Uses by Function
Table 4: Index of terms
Table 5: List of Key Documents
23
Table 1- What is the difference between a UN Declaration, UN Treaty, the UN Resolution and UN Guidelines?
Element Treaty Resolution Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children
Countries Between two counties as minimum, to all Adopted by consensus or a vote from all 193 The Guidelines can be used by all countries, but they
Involved countries in the world a maximum. nations UN member states were not voted or agreed upon through the United
Some countries can have reservations in Some countries can have reservations (that are Nations mechanisms.
application. kept on the record)
Procedure of Adopted by signature and ratification Adopted by consensus or a vote The only expression to the Guidelines from the United
adoption Nations member states was to “welcome” them through
a Third Committee Resolution. They don’t constitute a
resolution themselves.
Legal Legally binding Not legally binding, a resolution is a formal The Guidelines set out desirable orientations for policy
implications expression of opinion of the will of the United and practice for governments, but they do not have legal
Nations. or political implications, because they were not voted or
agreed upon at the United Nations.
Political Implies a political Commitment Implies a political Commitment Do not imply a political commitment. This is the reason
Implication why a resolution focused on Children without parental
care was necessary. A commitment from governments
to our target group was necessary in order to motivate
them to apply the Guidelines at the national level.
Obligations Obliges the state to take actions to It is not legally binding. Does not oblige the state to take any actions
adopt/modify their domestic laws and
policies, report and monitor advances
Indirect Could serve as a source for the development of Although the Guidelines do not represent legal or
implications customary law (laws adopted by their use or political obligations. They have been recognized
modifications to the law because of the worldwide as the standard for all practices related to
application in practice) children without parental care. The Guidelines are
mentioned in this resolution in several occasions, which
Some tribunals in the countries that do not ratify will have an impact in furthering their recognition and
treaties, do look at the customary law practices of
application by the governments.
other countries when making decisions related to
human rights
Hierarchy of Hard law /Strong importance and Soft law but strong representative weight and Optional guidelines
importance significance peer to peer accountability mechanism
24
Table 2 – How can SOS Potentially Use Key Paragraphs?3
Expressing concern that millions of children worldwide continue to grow up deprived of parental care, separated from their families for many reasons,
including but not limited to poverty, discrimination, violence, abuse, neglect, trafficking in persons, humanitarian emergencies, armed conflict, natural
disaster, climate change, migration, death or illness of a parent and lack of access to education, health and other family-support services.
Meaning:   Use and resources:
Recognition of key development ➢ Raise awareness of the connection between development topics and the loss of care.
related topics as root causes of ➢ Contextualize our work and build narratives related to these development issues.
family separation ➢ Offer collaboration and appeal to decision and policy makers to jointly undertake efforts with our expertise. Use
as context to establish strategic partnerships with development multilateral and civil society organizations
Expressing concern, they declare a
first commitment to put more • Hidden in plain sight publication
focus on the topic stressing is • Let Children be Children publication
something that requires diligent • Climate change policy paper by the Child Rights Now! initiative
action.  
Recalling its resolution 64/142 of 18 December 2009, which contained the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in its annex, which serve as a set of
orientations to help inform policy and practice for the protection and well -being of children deprived of parental care or who are at risk of being so, and
acknowledging the progress that has been achieved since its adoption.
Meaning:   Use and resources:
Governments highlight the value ➢ Raise awareness of the Guidelines and promote them as the standard to guide governments’ and care providers’
of the Guidelines as the guidance planning of care services.
to the development of policies ➢ Ensure the Guidelines’ implementation by promoting tools and expertise such as the implementation handbook,
and practice pertaining to child and the TPI.
care and protection. ➢ Advocate for quality in alternative care and raise UN Guidelines SOS booklet Implementation handbook MOOC
• Massive online open course (MOOC) on the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children
• Tracking Progress Initiative
• Moving Forward: Implementation handbook
3
This is a draft meant to be completed in conversation with different colleagues and to support thinking and planning
25
OP21 Recalls that the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that a child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality and potential, should
grow up in a family environment and that a child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to
remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State, and that States parties shall, in accordance with their national laws
and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, ensure safe and appropriate quality alternative care for such a child
Meaning:   Use and resources
Recognition of children without parental care as a ➢ Advocate for the obligation to put in place all elements for well-functioning protection
subject of rights and the conversation on alternative mechanisms and systems for children without parental care, including but not limited to
case as a child rights as well as a child protection issue alternative care.
➢ This paragraph helps us position our target group in the rights-based conversations;
Stresses the importance of family upbringing; ➢ Diversify our programs to ensure that the government can count with diverse forms of care to
meet the need of appropriateness of every child.
➢ Strengthen our brand using the connection to CRC to better contextualize our work from a
Recognition that family separation is in specific cases
child rights organization perspective.
in the best interest of the child
➢ Lobby governments to increase their allocations for the social protection system and
specifically for children without parental care via subsidies.
Principle of suitability. Recognition of obligation to
provide quality alternative care for children without Convention on the Rights of the Child
parental care
OP22 Urges all States parties to intensify their efforts to comply with their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child to preserve the identity of children,
including their nationality, name and family relations, as recognized by law, to protect children in matters relating to birth registration, family relations and adoption or other
forms of alternative care, recognizing that every effort should be directed to enabling children to remain in or swiftly return to the care of their parents or, when appropriate,
other close family members and that, where alternative care is necessary, family and community-based care should be promoted over placement in institutions;
Meaning:   Use and resources
Prevention of family separation and importance of ➢ Support judiciary and other authorities in the decision-making process related to
family relations. reunification. Materialize family reunification and reintegration in our programs.
➢ Advocate for universal birth registration.
Promote family and community-based care over ➢ Promote and expand our family strengthening programs.
institutions. ➢ Motivate the government and other donors to invest more in family and community-based
Family reunification must be addressed and supported care.
26
OP23 Recalls that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires all States parties to ensure the full enjoyment by children with
disabilities of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children, including with respect to family life;
Meaning Use and resources
Recognition of the special vulnerabilities of children ➢ Improve our existing programs to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities
with disabilities and the equality of their rights. participating in them are upheld.
➢ Take in consideration the intersections of disabilities when planning our programs and services.
OP24 Reaffirms that children shall not be separated from their parents against their will except when competent authorities, subject to judicial review, determine in
accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child, and that such determination may be necessary in a
particular case such as one involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents, or one where the parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the child’s
place of residence;

Need for competent authority to be involved in ➢ Advocate for strengthening and allocating enough resources for judicial/gatekeeping
the separation process. systems. Fundraise for projects to support governments in setting gatekeeping laws and proceses
Principle of necessity ➢ Support and partner with the government in building capacity in determining best interests of the
Factors that could justify cases of separation. child.
OP25 Reaffirms that a child shall not be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily and that the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity
with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and that every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with
humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age;
Need for due process in cases pertaining to the justice ➢ Partner with the government to offer care and support services to address the needs of
and migration sectors underlining that detention children in the context of juvenile justice and migration.
should only be used as a last resort. ➢ Build narratives around quality alternative care systems as a rights-respecting alternative to
detention in cases of unaccompanied and separated children
OP26 Notes that children without parental care are more likely than their peers to experience human rights violations, such as exclusion, violence, abuse, neglect and
exploitation, and in this regard expresses deep concern on the potential harm of institutionalization and institutional care to children’s growth and development
➢ Partner with governments to develop strategies and plans for deinstitutionalization, community-
based care and FS service development.
27
Recognition of extra situation of vulnerability and • DI planning methodologies and know-how. Needs assessment and service planning
risk of rights violations of children without methodologies. SOS expertise.
parental care
Negative effects of institutional care on children
OP27 Recognizes that many children living without parental care have families, including at least one parent alive and/or relatives, and in this
regard encourages actions to achieve family reunification unless it is not in the best interests of the child;
Majority of children living in care have parents and ➢ Advocate for making case reviews a consistent practice during care planning process,
many of them could and should be reintegrated to assistance to the families for materializing reintegration where possible.
their families, when in the best interest of the child. ➢ Fundraise for SOS provided FS services and Social Workforce support and training services.
➢ Advocate for making of child participation a regular practice in the case review processes and
timely decision-making.
➢ Improve our programs to include rigorous and systematic possibility for reunification
assessment
• Case management instruments including family needs assessment methodologies.
OP28 Stresses that no child should be forced to give up family connections in order to escape poverty, or to receive care, comprehensive, timely
and quality health services or education, or because they are in contact with the law;
Poverty is never a reason for family separation ➢ Offer FS services focusing on supporting families get out of poverty
Contact with the las should never imply separation ➢ Advocate for strong social protection systems to prevent family separation
from their families for children. ➢ Advocate for innovative ways to access education and entitlements to health services for
children.
• SOS FS service descriptions and family needs assessment methodologies.
• SOS parental skills training methodologies.
• SOS expertise in FS and education.
OP29 Recognizes that poverty, all forms of violence, including mental and physical violence, domestic violence, structural violence and survival
activities may lead children into the criminal justice system, including the juvenile justice system, and that detention in the criminal justice
system is sometimes used as a substitute for prevention and referral to child protection authorities and services;
The Member states recognize the link between ➢ Advocate with the governments on increased focus on developing and delivering family
poverty, violence and crime committed by and against assistance services in order to prevent crime and VAC.
children. And that juvenile justice system is often used ➢ Offer methodologies for devising programs to address VAC in various settings.
28
instead of child protection and family assistance • SOS Anti-bullying methodology

services. • SOS Positive parenting methodologies and trainings and subsequent materials
• Trauma informed care.
OP30 Also recognizes that financial and material poverty, or conditions directly and uniquely imputable to such poverty, should never be the
only justification for the removal of a child from the care of his or her parents or primary caregivers and legal guardians, for receiving a child
into alternative care or for preventing his or her reintegration, but should be seen as a signal for the need to provide appropriate support to
their family, benefiting the child directly;
States should never allow removal of children from ➢ Lobby for the financing of SOS FS programs and services.
parents solely due to poverty of the family thus ➢ Advocate for child sensitive targeted cash and non-cash social assistance schemes for
making family strengthening and assistance families in need/poverty.
intervention programs essential.
OP31 Urges States to strengthen child welfare and child protection systems and improve care reform efforts, which should include increased
multisectoral collaboration, inter alia, between child welfare and health, education and justice sectors, active coordination among all relevant
authorities, improved cross -border systems and improved capacity-building and training programmes for relevant stakeholders;
Importance of multi-sectoral approaches to planning ➢ Position ourselves as experts and a key partner to build government and other child
and implementation of childcare and welfare systems’ protection authorities capacity
reforms. ➢ Position and describe our programs in a contextualized and rights and system embedded
Call for capacity building for all relevant parties as an way to become a relevant piece in the government’s efforts
essential part of the reforms.
OP32 Expresses deep concern regarding the large and growing number of migrant children, particularly those who are unaccompanied or separated from
their parents or primary caregivers, who may be particularly vulnerable along their journey, and expresses the commitment to protect the human rights of
migrant children, given their vulnerability, in particular unaccompanied migrant children and migrant children with disabilities, to ensure that they receive
appropriate protection and assistance and to provide for their health, education and psychosocial development, ensuring that the best interests of the child
are a primary consideration in policies on integration, return and family reunification;
Migrant children as equal rights holders. ➢ Partner with governments in developing the needed support services using SOS global
Access to basic services in equal basis and meet their experience of working with migrant children, including unaccompanied and separated
psychosocial, health and education needs. children.
➢ Build partnerships with other civil society stakeholders to advocate for the provision of
services to the groups of vulnerable migrant children and their families.
29
• SOS service contents and provision experience to migrant children and unaccompanied
minors from LAAM and EUNA and EUCB.
• Psychosocial assistance methodologies for displaced and migrant children
• Position paper on refugee and migrant children
OP34 title Urges States to take effective action to provide support to families and to prevent the unnecessary separation of children from
their parents, including by:
Prevention of family separation. Sets the framework
for the actions listed in the subparagraphs below
OP34 a) Prioritizing investments in child protection services and social services to support quality alternative care, including families and
communities in order to prevent the separation of children from their families, with the best interests of the child as the primary consideration;
Prioritize investments in increasing effectiveness of ➢ Advocate to governments to increase their allocations for alternative care and child protection.
services, including protection and social assistance ➢ Fundraising for quality alternative care programs
services, and quality alternative care. • Family strengthening manuals, program descriptions
• AF7.3 Toolkit
• Social return of investment
OP34 b) Adopting and enforcing laws and improving the implementation of policies and programmes, budget allocation and human resources
to support children, particularly children with disabilities, and children living in disadvantaged, stigmatized and marginalized families, to
address the root causes of unnecessary family separation and ensure that they are cared for effectively by their own families and communities;
This paragraph emphasizes the elements of a ➢ Advocate for changes in the legislation to improve the effectiveness of the programs, increase
systemic program, including human resources public investments, augment the number of professionals and their continued training.
to address the root causes of family separation ➢ Take in consideration the root causes of family separation and the possible intersectoral aspects in
in order it. the design and execution of our programs and services.
➢ Lobby for government subsidies in line with the advocacy actions for budget increase.
• Same as above.
OP34 c) Taking all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or
mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of
parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child;
30

This paragraph call states to promote child ➢ Advocate for strengthening the child safeguarding procedures
safeguarding and protection from violence against ➢ Child safeguarding procedures manual
children while at home, in families, or alternative care
OP34 d) Recognizing the right of a child who has been placed by competent authorities for the purposes of care, protection or treatment of
his or her physical or mental health, to a periodic review of the treatment provided to the child and all other circumstances relevant to his or
her placement;
Periodic reviews of the placements in alternative care ➢ Advocate to governments to seek for family reunification or implement other forms of care.
and other settings. ➢ Collaborate with the governments reviewing the placement of children in SOS care.
• SOS case management methodology.
• SOS expertise for developing various elements of the system (decision-making,
child/family/community needs assessment, service planning and management,
monitoring/supervision and support, licensing and regulation, standards setting and
compliance
OP34 e) Ensuring that removal of children from the care of their family should be seen as a measure of last resort and should, whenever possible, be
temporary and removal decisions should be regularly reviewed and the child ’s return to parental care, once the causes of removal have been resolved or
have disappeared, should have the best interests of the child as a primary consideration and be based on comprehensive assessment;
Periodic review of the judicial decisions based on the ➢ Advocate for improvement of statutory mechanisms for decision making and refusal of
principles of necessity; and address the need for placement
regular assessments ➢ Partner with governments to offer expertise on assessments.
• Case management methodologies.
OP34 f) Developing and strengthening inclusive and responsive family -oriented policies and programmes for poverty reduction, also designed to promote
and strengthen parents’ ability to care for their children, and to confront family poverty and social exclusion, recognizing the multidimensional aspects of
poverty, focusing on inclusive and quality education and lifelong learning for all, including initiatives to promote involved and positive parenting, health and
well -being for all at all ages, equal access to economic resources, full and productive employment, decent work, social security, livelihoods and social
cohesion and promoting and protecting the human rights of all family members;
Family oriented policy examples and ➢ Promote our employment programs for both parents and young people
commitments ➢ Promote our parental skills programs and advocate to governments’ support of such programmes.
31
➢ Advocate for comprehensive social assistance and social welfare programmes.

• Care takers training manuals
• Virtual training for caregivers and other virtual resources
• YouthCan! and YouthLinks resources
• SOS paper on SDGs employment
OP34 g) Providing gender-sensitive and child-sensitive social protection systems, which are key to ensuring poverty reduction, including, as appropriate,
targeted cash transfers for families in vulnerable situations, as can be the case of families headed by a single parent, in particular those headed by women
or by children, and which are most effective in reducing poverty when accompanied by other measures, such as providing access to basic services, high-
quality education, affordable quality childcare services and health-care services;
Child sensitive protection systems ➢ Advocate to governments to align their welfare ministries and policies to be child sensitive and
resources channeled to the child gender sensitive.
➢ Apply the gender policy in all our programmes and services.
➢ Build narratives inspired by the resolution that connect gender issues with our target group
• Child sensitive social protections paper
• Gender policy
OP34 h) Supporting and assisting families’ and caregivers’ capacities regarding child development, including through comprehensive education
and training, and the promotion of involved and positive parenting to enable them to provide children with care in a safe environment;
Positive parenting, caregiver training and the ➢ Support governments in the implementation of parenting skill programs by sharing our expertise.
need for education and training to support child Partner with community-based organizations to put these programs in place. Get government
development. subsidies to run these programs. Link training in parenting skills to our work towards family
reunification
OP34 i) Providing early and comprehensive information, services and support to children with disabilities and their families with a view to preventing
concealment, abandonment, neglect, discrimination and segregation and to ensuring they have equal rights with respect to family life;
Necessity for early childhood development and ➢ Design and implement new programs, services, and funding for early childhood development and
intervention for children with disabilities intervention programmes for children with disabilities.
➢ Build narratives to inform and help parents and families of children with disabilities.
• ECD service description
32
OP34 j) Designing and implementing programmes to provide pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers with education, including access to quality education, social
services and support, to enable them to continue and complete their education, care for their children, and protect them from discrimination, as well as to ensure healthy and
safe pregnancy;
Adolescent mothers and address the intersections of ➢ Design and implement targeted family strengthening programmes for adolescent mothers.
gender and maternity of children. ➢ Fundraise for resources for gender focused programmes
OP34 k) Ensuring that all decisions, initiatives and approaches related to children without parental care are made on a case -by-case basis, by
suitably qualified professionals in a multidisciplinary team, through a judicial, administrative or other adequate and recognized procedure,
with legal safeguards, taking into account the best interests of the child, and regularly reviewed, with a view to ensuring the child ’s safety,
security and participation, and grounded in the best interests of the child concerned, including through incorporating a gender perspective
and in conformity with the principle of non-discrimination;
Gatekeeping systems ➢ Advocate to governments to assure participation of the child in the decisions made in all
stages of the gatekeeping process
Multidisciplinary approach to decisions pertaining the ➢ Develop narratives about the accountability of children’s well-being, tools and actors involved
placement to care and the implementation of family ➢ Share and improve our child participation knowledge
strengthening • Child friendly version of the Guidelines
Necessity and suitability
Children’s right to be heard
OP34 l) Putting in place rigorous and systematic judicial and administrative “gatekeeping” procedures that are designed to ensure that quality alternative
care for children is used only after consideration of the best interests of the child as a primary consideration and that children receive the most appropriate
care for their needs, in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and taking into
account the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children;
Gatekeeping procedures ➢ Ensure that our programmes are aligned with the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of
Direct reference to the Guidelines for the Alternative Children.
Care of Children, the CRC, and the CRPD as the ➢ Advocate to Governments to make sure that when they design care and protection statutory
standard for gatekeeping systems and all the related elements, they take these considerations into account as well as
the Guidelines as the standard.
33
• The Guidelines for Alternative care of children

• The implementation handbook
OP35 Title Also urges States to take action to ensure the enjoyment of human rights for all children without parental care, in accordance with the international
human rights framework, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, not least the rights to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standards of
physical and mental health, education, to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age and maturity of the child, and
also to take action to provide a range of alternative care options and to protect all children without parental care, including by:
Setting specific actions on alternative care
OP35 a) Promoting the implementation of international frameworks, notably the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, including
through training on the Guidelines for care staff and others working with children, and strengthening national legislation, regulations and
policies to protect the rights of children without parental care;
Implementation of the Guidelines for ➢ Partner with the government and other actors to provide training on the guidelines for social service
the alternative care for children and workforce, and others working with children
alignment with national legislation, ➢ Advocate to align national legislation, policies and regulations to the guidelines
regulations, and policies as well as to • Massive online open course (MOOC) on the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children
provide training of care professionals. • Tracking Progress Initiative
• Moving Forward: Implementation handbook
OP35 b) Ensuring the availability of a comprehensive range of quality accessible and disability-inclusive alternative care options, in the best
interests of the child and on a case-by-case basis, in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities and by taking into account the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, for emergency, short -term and long-
term care;
➢ Advocate for a wide variety of services, a range of care options.
34
Ensure the availability of a range of quality inclusive services ➢ Promote the diversity of our programmes.
and specifically recognizes the need for disability inclusiveness
OP35 c) Strengthening regulation, including registration, licensing, oversight and accountability mechanisms, promoting development and dissemination of
evidence - based methods, and monitoring and assessing the quality of care and status of children and all other circumstances relevant to the placement in all
alternative care settings, including kinship care settings, through a periodic review, to ensure that the rights and the best interests of the child are upheld and
that children are able to report violence, abuse and other concerns;
Licensing and monitoring alternative care settings. ➢ Preparing our programs and calling for more exhaustive monitoring
• Drumming together for change report.
OP35 d) Improving data collection, information management and reporting systems related to children without parental care in all settings and
situations in order to close existing data gaps and develop global and national baselines, including by investing in quality, accessible, timely and
reliable disaggregated data through capacity - building, financial support and technical assistance and ensuring that quality data guides
policymaking;
This paragraph highlights the necessity of data ➢ Advocate to governments to improve official data collection and do evidence-based
collection and evidence-based policymaking for policymaking
children without parental care. ➢ Partner with governments and other stakeholders to use the TPI for identification of the
system and data gaps, as well as policy planning
➢ Partner with ICT and data visualization companies to improve and expand the use of database
to compliment governments’ data
• The care of Children in Data report
• Tracking Progress Initiative
• SOS database (PDB)
OP35 e) Ensuring adequate and systematic training in the rights of the child, including by encouraging States to take the Guidelines for the
Alternative Care of Children into account for professional groups working with and for children, including with children without parental care,
including specialized judges, law enforcement officials, lawyers, social workers, medical doctors, care professionals, health professionals and
teachers, and coordination among various governmental bodies involved in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child;
Member states recognize the urgency of training on ➢ Partner with the government and other actors to offer training on the Guidelines for social
the Guidelines of all relevant professionals and the work, social service workforce, and others working with children,
media to have a better understanding of the rights of ➢ Increase our image as alternative care experts designing and offering training to position SOS as
the child. a desirable partner for child rights and wellbeing implementation.
35
• Training care professionals
OP35 f) Prioritizing quality alternative care options over institutionalization with the best interests of the child as the primary consideration, and,
where relevant, adopting policies, strategies and comprehensive plans of action in that respect, including by implementing relevant reforms,
developing or reforming legislation, budget allocation, awareness-raising campaigns, training, and increasing the capacity of all relevant actors;
Put in place care reform plans of action properly ➢ Partner with governments on creating action plans and deinstitutionalization strategies.
funded. ➢ Advocate for specific legal and policy reforms related to care reform.
Prioritization of alternative care options over ➢ Development, adaptation, regularization and promotion of our alternative care services.
institutionalization.
• Towards the right care for children report
OP35 g) Progressively replacing with quality alternative care, including, inter alia, family and community-based care and, where relevant, redirecting resources
to family and community-based care services, with adequate training and support for caregivers and robust screening and oversight mechanisms;
Redirect resources from institutions to quality ➢ Review our internal practices and progressively replace any institutional practices in our
alternative care in order to progressively replace services
them. ➢ Advocate to influence budget allocations to replace institutionalization and fund alternative
care options.
➢ Re-shape our narratives in fundraising to fund community-supporting programs.
OP35 h) Undertaking every effort, where the immediate family is unable to care for a child with disabilities, to provide quality alternative care
within the wider family, and, failing that, within the community in a family setting, bearing in mind the best interests of the child and taking into
account the child ’s views and preferences;
Family and community care should be provided to ➢ Same as subparagraph 35.b).
children with disabilities
Importance of child participation
OP35 i) Protecting the human rights of children in alternative care and ensuring swift accountability for human rights violations or abuses,
including by protecting children from all forms of violence and abuse, including bullying, in all care settings;
➢ Advocate for intersectoral mechanisms for child protection.
➢ Advocate for well-functioning protection mechanisms.
36
Accountability for violations, enforcing legislation and ➢ *paragraph especially relevant to safeguarding, legal and compliance colleagues.
strengthening mechanisms related to child protection • Child Safeguarding materials
in all care settings. • Child Protection Intersectoral cooperation documents.
Child protection reporting systems
OP35 j) Recognizing the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination faced by children in vulnerable situations such as those living in child -headed
households, unaccompanied and separated children, girls, children with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses, children with disabilities, children in detention,
children who exceed the age limit for care systems as established by national legislation, children belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities
in vulnerable situations, indigenous children and children of African descent and the necessity to increase the support for children in this regard;
This paragraph spells out especially vulnerable groups ➢ Put in place targeted and specific programs that meet the needs of the most vulnerable and at-
of children that need to be taken in consideration by risk children without parental care. improve our knowledge on different groups of children.
the member states. ➢ Develop narratives and partnerships with other NGOs working on those groups of children to
scale up and strengthen our work
OP35 k) Establishing and developing safe, well-publicized, child-friendly, confidential and accessible and effective mechanisms to enable children in alternative
care settings or their representatives to seek counselling, to report violence against children or other safeguarding concerns and file complaints on incidents of
violence and to ensure that all children have access to such mechanisms;
This paragraph calls governments to address ➢ Present proposals to the global partnership on violence against children
VAC and reporting mechanisms for victims of ➢ Improve our safeguarding mechanisms and train our care workers on prevention of violence
violence ➢ Collaborate with relevant authorities to put in place and promote child safeguarding mechanisms and
complaint reports
• Hidden in Plain Sight report
OP35 l) Ensuring that adolescents and young people leaving alternative care receive appropriate support in preparing for the transition to independent livin g,
including support in gaining access to employment, education, training, housing and psychological support, participating in rehabilitation with their families
where that is in their best interest, and gaining access to after-care services consistent with the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children;
Support to care leavers in their transition our of ➢ Promote our YouthCan!, YouthLink and other youth focused programmes as good practices for
care. government, partnerships for donors
Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children as ➢ Explore and encourage youth focused donors to focus efforts on care leavers.
the standard to work with adolescents and care ➢ Link our effort to other existent strategies on youth employability and connect to the SDGs.
leavers • Preparing for Leaving care project
After care services • Service descriptions, programms, care leavers’ needs assessment
• Equal job opportunities report
37
OP35 m) Mainstreaming a gender perspective in all alternative care policies, and implementing gender-responsive measures that address the
specific needs of girls in alternative care settings;
Meaning Use and resources-- Same as 34 g)
Governments commit mainstream a Gender ➢ Take consideration of intersections related to gender in our services
perspective in all alternative care policies and services. ➢ Raise our internal capacities in a gender responsive approach
➢ Partner with the government and other donors to fund gender specific strategies.
➢ Link narratives to gender and maximize funds such as the Spotlight Initiative
OP35 n) Ensuring appropriate care and protection of children who work and/or live on the street without any parental contact or supervision, including through
measures to support their sustainable reintegration into their families and, when family reintegration is not possible or appropriate, through a case -by-case
approach to provide quality alternative care that is appropriate and in the best interests of the child;
Children working and living in the street) ➢ Advocate for putting in place proper policies addressing the needs of street children.
OP35 o) Protecting unaccompanied and separated children at all stages of migration through the establishment of specialized procedures for their identification,
referral, care and family reunification, and provide access to health-care services, including mental health, education, legal assistance and the right to be heard
in administrative and judicial proceedings, including by swiftly appointing a competent and impartial legal guardian, as essential means to address their
particular vulnerabilities and discrimination, protect them from all forms of violence, and provide access to sustainable solutions that are in their best interests;
OP35 p) Ensuring that child protection authorities are promptly informed and assigned to participate in procedures for the determination of the best interests of
the child once an unaccompanied or separated child crosses an international border, in accordance with international law, including by training border officials
in the rights of the child and child-sensitive procedures, such as those that prevent family separation and reunite families when family separation occurs;
OP35 q) Taking measures to ensure that all children who are separated from their parents in accordance with applicable law and procedures, and where such
separation is necessary for the best interests of the child, are promptly referred to child protection authorities and provided with appropriate and quality
alternative care, inter alia, family and community-based care;
OP35 r) Promoting alternatives to detention for children and taking steps to minimize the risk of violence against children in detention, as well as encourage and facilitate
frequent family visits and regular contact and communication between children and their family members unless it is in the child ’s best interest not to do so, as well as with the
outside world, and to ensure that no child should be subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment or that disciplinary sanctions for detained
children do not include a prohibition of contact with family members;
OP35 s) Taking appropriate measures to prevent and respond to the separation of children from their families in humanitarian contexts, inter alia, by giving priority to family
tracing and family reunification and reintegration, and, where appropriate, to cooperate with international humanitarian and refugee organizations, including by facilitating
their work, in line with their obligations under international law;
38

Unaccompanied migrant children ➢ Promote and put in place emergency services for unaccompanied migrant children
and the urgency of developing ➢ Position our work as a key element to address issues related to unaccompanied and separated migrant children
specialized procedures to provide • SOS service contents and provision experience to migrant children and unaccompanied (LAAM, EUNA, EUCB)
them with safeguards. • Psychosocial assistance methodologies for displaced and migrant children
• Position paper on refugee and migrant children
OP35 t) Taking appropriate measures to protect children who are victims of trafficking and are deprived of parental care, as well as enacting and enforcing legislation to prevent
and combat the trafficking and exploitation of children in care facilities, and supporting children who are victims of human trafficking in returning to their families and in
receiving appropriate mental health and psychological assistance that is victim-centred and trauma-informed and taking appropriate measures to prevent and address the
harms related to volunteering programmes in orphanages, including in the context of tourism, which can lead to trafficking and exploitation;
Trafficking of children ➢ Advocate for regulation of the staff work in care and access to care services.
Orphanage volunteerism
39
Table 3: Chart by function4

Communications Programs Advocacy Fund development Others
MA Generate content specific about the Seek for innovations in programs Raise awareness about the issues Seek to increase public allocations Internalize what the resolution
resolution in our local website, seizing the political momentum of
of children without parental care and subsidies for our target group entails and take a stand about our
social media networks and the resolution *Adv. to the decision makers, the media *AF 7.3 *Adv. possibilities in light of the resolution
newsfeeds. and the general public *Comms *Management
Promote our services and programs Negotiate initiatives with
Promote national campaigns about in alternative care and family Advocate for legislative or policy governments such as covenants, Check our internal compliance with
the resolution *Adv strengthening inspired by the reforms for our target group MOUs, letters of understanding or licensing, registry and monitoring
references in the resolution. inspired by the resolution. projects. *AF 7.3 *IPD *Adv systems. *Legal / Operations /
Planning/ Management
Organize a press conference to Expand our after-care services, Develop or deepen SOS Involve stakeholders in strategic
connect the media to the UN specific services for vulnerable partnerships with government events to raise their capacities in Protect the data and sensible
Resolution *Adv children within the children without officers and public entities using children without parental care and information of our participants *ICT
parental care group and emergency the resolution. *AF 7.3 the resolution such as knowledge
Raise awareness of the press and shelter programs. breakfasts, forums, seminars, and Generate safe, efficient and
work with specific journalists Develop or deepen SOS good practices sharing ( AF 7.3-IPD- innovative
covering children’s affairs about the Provide capacity buildings to partnerships with UN bodies and Corporate) * Adv, *Comms mechanisms to collect, store and
resolution and the issues of children different stakeholders about the UN cooperation agencies with local share data with the social protection
without parental care *Adv Resolution, the Guidelines on the presence.*IPD Tailor grant proposals using the UN systems *ICT
Alternative Care of Children, resolution as narrative.* IPD
Include in our narratives key issues alternative care and others. *Adv Raise capacities about the UN Tailor subsidies requests, and Cascade all information about the
like alternative care, prevention, Resolution to other CSOs and proposals using the UN resolution as UN resolution to all co-workers, even
family strengthening and others in Review our internal programs and within children rights networks narrative AF7.3 in those remote locations, and
order to align them to the UN services and modify any “institution” and coalitions prepare internal capacity buildings,
resolution. features, procedures and works to Reshape our narratives to donors including a trainer of trainers in the
operate. Use the UN resolution to build and raise their awareness about the UN Resolution. *Management /
Mainstream a child-rights and legitimized advocacy arguments in importance of funding alternative *Adv *PD
gender sensitive approach to our Standardize the gender-sensitive alternative reports of the care and prevention for the
narratives approach to all of our programs and Universal Periodic Review, the wellbeing of children. *IPD
services. Committee on the Rights of Child *Coporate *Individual
and other reports. Giving/Spornsorhips
Take in consideration the
interceptions of gender, race, Mainstream a child-rights and Seek for government agreements to
ethnicity, disabilities, HIV and others, gender sensitive approach to our grant access of our beneficiaries to
as key factors to assess the cases of arguments public services such as education and
the participants or communities in health and other social protection
tandem with our interventions. benefits. AF7.3
4
This is a draft meant to be completed in conversation with different colleagues and to support thinking and planning
40
RO Promote regional campaigns about Review our offer services and Develop a regional strategy and Review our fundraising/ fund Internalize what the resolution
or inspired by the resolution *Adv programs and identify opportunities set targets about the UN development strategies and identify entails and take a stand about our
posed by the political momentum of Resolution *AF 7.3/IPD/COR, opportunities posed by the political possibilities in light of the resolution
Mainstream a child-rights and the resolution. *Adv *Comms *PD momentum of the resolution *Management CVIR/IDR
gender sensitive approach to our
narratives Review our internal programs and Advocate before regional bodies Cascade all information about the
services and modify any “institution” to promote the issues of children UN resolution to all co-workers, even
features, procedures and works to without parental care such as the in those remote locations, and
operate. African Union, the Inter-American prepare internal capacity buildings,
Commission and the European including a trainer of trainers in the
Union, among many others. UN Resolution. *Management /
*Adv *PD
Inspire coalitions and networks in
children rights to deepen their Generate safe, efficient and
work for children without parental innovative mechanisms to collect,
care store and share data with the social
protection systems *ICT
Mainstream a child-rights and
gender sensitive approach to our
arguments
IO Generate content about the Advocate before global bodies to Internalize what the resolution
resolution in our global website, promote the issues of children entails and take a stand about our
social media networks and without parental care, such as the possibilities in light of the resolution
newsfeeds. the UN headquarters, ECOSOC *Management
commission, etc.
Mainstream a child-rights and
gender sensitive approach to our Mainstream a child-rights and
narratives gender-sensitive approach to our
arguments
41
PSA Generate content specific about Consider to prioritize in funding Raise awareness of children Seek to increase public allocations Internalize what the resolution
the resolution in our local website, those programs seizing the political without parental care to the and subsidies for our target group entails and take a stand about our
social media networks and momentum of the resolution for decision makers, media and the *Adv. possibilities in light of the resolution
newsfeeds. innovations general public *Comms *Management/ Directors
Negotiate initiatives with
Promote national campaigns about Promote and prioritize to fund Develop or deepen SOS governments such as covenants, Check our internal compliance with
the resolution *Adv services and programs in alternative partnerships with governmental MOUs, letters of understanding or licencincing, registry and monitoring
care and family strengthening officers and public entities using projects. *IPD *Adv systems. *Legal / Operations /
inspired by the references in the the resolution. Planning/ Management
Organize a press conference to resolution. Involve stakeholders in strategic
connect the media to the UN Develop or deepen SOS events to raise their capacities in Protect the data and sensible
Resolution *Adv Expand or consider to fund after-care partnerships with UN bodies and children without parental care and information of our participants *ICT
services, specific services for cooperation agencies with local the resolution such as knowledge
Raise awareness of the press and vulnerable children within the presence.*IPD breakfasts, forums, seminars, and Generate safe, efficient and
work with specific journalists children without parental care group good practices sharing ( AF 7.3-IPD- innovative mechanisms to collect,
covering children’s affairs about the and emergency shelter programs. Corporate) * Adv, *Comms store and share data with the social
resolution and the issues of children Influence governments and protection systems *ICT
without parental care *Adv Provide capacity buildings to cooperation agencies to include Tailor grant proposals using the UN
different stakeholders about the UN children without parental care, resolution as narrative.* IPD Cascade all information about the
Include in our narratives key issues Resolution, the Guidelines on the alternative care, prevention or UN resolution to all co-workers, even
like alternative care, prevention, Alternative Care of Children, related to their calls for grants and Tailor subsidies requests or in those remote locations, and
family strengthening and others in alternative care and others. *Adv priorities for funding. *IPD proposals using the UN resolution as prepare internal capacity buildings,
order to align them to the UN narrative including a trainer of trainers in the
resolution. Standardize the gender-sensitive Raise capacities about the UN UN Resolution. *Management /
approach in our programs or Resolution to other CSOs and Reshape our narratives to donors *Adv *PD
Mainstream a child-rights and consider to fund specific project within children rights networks and raise their awareness about the
gender sensitive approach to our related to gender and children and coalitions importance of funding alternative
narratives without parental care. care and prevention for the
Use the UN resolution to build wellbeing of children. *IPD
Take in consideration the legitimized advocacy arguments in *Coporate *Individual
interceptions of gender, race, alternative reports of the Giving/Spornsorhips
ethnicity, disabilities, HIV and others, Universal Periodic Review, the
as key factors to assess the cases of Committee on the Rights of Child Seek for government agreements to
the participants/communities in and other reports. grant access of our beneficiaries to
tandem with our interventions. public services such as education and
Mainstream a child-rights and health and other social protection
gender sensitive approach to our benefits.
narratives
Engage with other unexplored
donors, such as the OECD, OFID and
others through the resolution. *IPD
42
Table 4: Index of Terms
Term Paragraphs
Access to services PP23, OP10, OP12, OP17, OP 34 f), g), j), OP 35 k), l), o)
Best interests of the child PP6, PP9, PP13, PP21, OP4, OP10, OP13, OP17, OP19, OP21, OP24,
OP27, OP32, OP34 [a), e), k), l)], OP 35 [b), c), f), h), n), o), p), q)]
Care professionals OP13, OP 34 k), OP 35 e)
Cash transfers OP34 g)
Child protection OP29, OP31, OP34 a), OP35 [p), q)], OP40
Community OP22, OP 35 [g), h), q)]
Detention OP19, OP25, OP29, OP 35 [j), r)]
Disability PP5, PP17, PP22, OP8, OP10, OP14, OP17, OP23, OP32, OP34 [b), i),
l)], OP35 [b), h), j)]
Discrimination PP5, PP6, PP16, PP18, PP22, PP23, OP4, OP8, OP9, OP10, OP11, OP14,
OP34 [i), j), k)], OP35 [j), o)]
Education PP16, PP23, OP8, OP10, OP12, OP13, OP14, OP17, OP18, OP28, OP31,
OP32, OP 34 [c), f), g), h), j)], OP 35 title, OP 35 [l), o)]
Family/families PP12, PP13, PP23, OP8, OP17, OP21, OP22, OP23, OP27, OP28, OP30,
OP32, OP34 [b), e), f), i)], OP35 [g), h), n), o), p), q), r), s)]
Family-based care OP22, OP35 [g), h), q)]
Gatekeeping OP34 l)
Girls/gender PP17, PP20, PP22, OP10, OP13, OP14, OP16, OP18, OP34 [g), k)],
OP35 [j), m)]
Guidelines Alternative Care PP24, OP34 l), OP 35 [a), b), e), l)]
of Children
Institutionalization OP22, OP 26, OP35 f)
Justice OP8, OP29, OP31
Mechanisms/systems PP14, OP16, OP29, OP31, OP34 g), l) OP35 [c), d), e), g), j), k)], OP40,
OP41 c)
Migrant children PP9, PP21, PP23, OP8, OP10, OP17, OP28, OP32, OP 35 [o), p)]
Parental skills OP34 [f), h)]
Parents OP13, OP22, OP24, OP30, OP32, OP34 title, OP 34 f), OP 35 q)
Participation/right to be heard PP6, OP4, OP12, OP34 k)
Poverty PP18, PP19, PP23, OP8, OP12, OP14, OP28, OP29, OP30, OP34 [f), g)]
Prevent/Prevention PP5, PP16, PP18, OP8, OP11, OP13, OP16, OP18, OP29, OP30, OP33,
OP34 [a), i)], OP35 [p), s), t)], OP36, OP41 [c), e)]
Quality alternative care OP21, OP28, OP 34 [a), l)], OP 35 [b), c), f), g), h), n), q)]
Refugee children PP5, PP9, OP10, OP 35 s)
Reintegration/reunification PP16, OP17, OP18, OP19, OP27, OP30, OP32, OP35 [n), o), s)]
Separation/separated PP9, PP23, OP24, OP32, OP34 title, OP34 [a), b)], OP35 [j), o), p), q),
s)]
Trafficking PP5, PP10, PP23, OP16, OP35 t)
Training OP31, OP 34 h), OP 35 [a), e), f), g), l), p)]
Youth/care PP12, OP13, OP14, OP34 j), OP35 l)
leaver/adolescents
43
Table 5: Link to Key Documents
❖ UN Resolution on Rights of the Child 2019

❖ Language Versions: Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Chinese
❖ SG Report in all languages

❖ Analysis of the SG Report
❖ SOS technical inputs to the UN Resolution
❖ Updated version of this briefing
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INTERNAL COMMUNICATION / BRIEFING

INFORMATION BRIEF ON THE UN RESOLUTION

777 United Nations Plaza 3D

INFORMATION BRIEF ON THE 2019 UN RESOLUTION ON THE 2019 RIGHTS OF

About this document

I. GENERAL TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

A. What is a UN General Assembly Resolution?

B. The Rights of the Child resolution

C. What are the implications of a UN Resolution?

four years in an “Omnibus Resolution” where member states evaluate the

II. SPECIFIC BACKGROUND ON THE 2019 ROC FOCUSED ON CHILDREN

(Paragraphs 1-35 in the 2019 RoC)

(paragraphs 36-41 in the 2019 RoC)

B. Summary of the core content of the resolution

C. Analysis of the content of the resolution (NEW)

What does the UN resolution achieve?

Governments recognize the importance of investing and organizing gatekeeping systems

Institutionalization is never in the best interest of the child.

Clear recognition of the need for more resources and efficiency

Commitment to keep supporting key child rights figures

Disruptive players and contentious issues

Undermining of child rights and protection instruments, undermining of multilateralism

Skipping next year’s Rights of the Child Resolution

to be adopted annually. SOS will try to maximize the collateral

Confusion and different understanding of the term institutionalization

III. SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES AND THE 2019 UN ROC RESOLUTION

(PLEASE NOTE: this section is for internal information only)

B. Relation to Strategy 2030

VI. COMMUNICATIG ABOUT THE 2019 RoC RESOLUTION

Reaction Statement for the general public

For more information on types of quality alternative care, click here.

Quotes for General Use

B. Photos and Visuals

C. Reaction for using with specialized partners (NEW)

Table 1: What is the difference between a UN Declaration, UN Treaty and a UN Resolution?

Table 2: Uses by paragraph

Table 3: Uses by Function

Table 4: Index of terms

Table 5: List of Key Documents

Table 2 – How can SOS Potentially Use Key Paragraphs?3

Meaning Use and resources

instead of child protection and family assistance • SOS Anti-bullying methodology

Meaning Use and resources

➢ Advocate for comprehensive social assistance and social welfare programmes.

Necessity and suitability

Children’s right to be heard

• The Guidelines for Alternative care of children

• Training care professionals

Meaning Use and resources

Table 3: Chart by function4

Table 4: Index of Terms

Table 5: Link to Key Documents

❖ UN Resolution on Rights of the Child 2019

❖ SG Report in all languages

❖ SOS technical inputs to the UN Resolution

❖ Updated version of this briefing

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