20 years on from the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC),evidence suggests an alarming lack of progress in achieving children’s fundamental rights to grow up in a loving family environment.Research,particularly from less developed regions, shows a substantial and growing number of children without parental care, with devastating impacts on children’s rights. In recognition of this problem,child rights activists have campaigned for the 20th anniversary to coincide with the agreement of UN guidelines aimed at preventing family separation, and ensuring appropriate care for girls and boys who are without parental care.
The full implementation of these guidelines is urgently needed as governments,and many of those working in international development,are not doing enough to address the pressing problem of children without parental care. EveryChild has made a strategic decision to focus all of its work on this vulnerable group.This paper draws on EveryChild’s programmes in 17 countries, and on an extensive literature review and consultations with over 400 children.It argues that children without parental care must be mainstreamed,rather than missing from the international development agenda.
