New Project & Vacancy! Human Rights in Alternative Care
The goal of drastically reducing numbers of children living in institutions around the world has been a key focus of coherent efforts to realise children’s rights for over a decade, with important advances being made.
Progress is visible through strengthened international standards and greater attention by the Committee on the Rights of the Children, alongside changes in domestic legislation, systems and practices, as well as greater attention to the voices of children and adults impacted by the harms of institutionalized alternative care.
Together, these are all helping to strengthen the fulfilment of children’s rights, not least through greater promotion of positive parenting approaches and wider kinship family support, keeping families together safely, and nurturing quality, community-based alternative care, close to home.
The Gaps
Despite important shifts, there remain urgent actions needed to accelerate progress for our current generation of children. Structural inequalities, discrimination, and a lack of accountability in service provision all work against these efforts.
We know that evidence and data are strategic levers that can drive change in this area. Yet, there remain serious gaps in our knowledge about the children living in alternative care globally.
Our Partnerships
To support this drive for evidence, UNICEF, Child Identity Protection, the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures at the University of Strathclyde and SOS Children’s Villages form part of a Taskforce to help generate new insights into rights-respecting, community-based alternative care for children.
With generous support from the Danish Government and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Taskforce hosted an International Expert Advisory Group meeting and have agreed to move ahead to develop a research proposal on fulfilling the human rights and well-being of children and young people in alternative care. The expert group viewed this initiative as necessary to build on existing reforms, and to contribute to important initiatives on prevention of family separation.
Our Working Questions
These working questions are driving the development of an international research project:
What can the link between human rights, quality of care, and children’s outcomes tell us about how community-based care can be best provided?
How can we learn from children themselves to drive the research approach?
Join Us!
We are building partnerships to advance this initiative. Here are three ways to join us:
Please share widely and encourage researchers to apply: We are inviting researchers with experience in measuring child development outcomes within a human rights framework to apply for a new part time researcher post, based at the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures at the University of Strathclyde. Knowledge of participatory research approaches will also be highly desirable. The advert is open for applicants until 31 July 2023.
Call to networks and other partners for exchange of ideas: We are seeking resources, and information about projects, as well as links to other efforts, to strengthen synergies. Please send us your tips for lesser-known related projects we should know about.
Funders welcome: We are actively seeking funding partners to support participatory child and young people workshops to inform the research methodology from the start, as well as the development of a researcher advisory group. Please send us suggestions of trusts and foundations that may be interested!
Thank you for your interest and please click here to keep in touch!