Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse

Children without Parental Care

© UNICEF/ HQ96-1400/ Pirozzi

Kibera Day Care Centre, Nairobi, Kenya.

• Lost their caregivers or guardians (orphans).
• Lost contact with their caregivers. For example, street children, unaccompanied displaced or refugee children.
• Been separated from their parents. For example, where parents are detained or children are abducted.
• Been placed in alternative care by their caregivers. For example, children with disabilities or children from poor families who are placed in institutions.
• Been kept in prolonged hospital care. For example, on grounds of health status, such as HIV status.
• Been detained in educational, remand, correctional or penal facilities as a result of an administrative or judicial decision. For example, suspected or convicted offenders or child asylum seekers.

Although the reasons vary greatly, separation from parents and family is usually detrimental for the overall well being and development of the child. In addition, placement in institutions is often not the best solution for separated children.

Children without the guidance and protection of their primary caregivers are often more vulnerable and at risk of becoming victims of violence, exploitation, trafficking, discrimination or other abuses.  In conflict situations, involuntary separation from both family and community protection, sometimes across national borders, greatly increases the child's risk of exposure to violence, physical abuse, exploitation and even death. Surviving children face malnutrition, illness, physical and psychosocial trauma, and impaired cognitive and emotional development. Unaccompanied girls are at especially high risk of sexual abuse.  Meanwhile, unaccompanied boys are at high risk of forced or 'voluntary' participation in violence and armed conflict.

• In Central and Eastern Europe alone, almost 1.5 million children live in public care
• In Russia, the annual number of ‘children left without parental care’ has more than doubled over the last 10 years, despite falling birth rates.
• Conflict has orphaned or separated 1 million children from their families in the 1990s. 
• An estimated two to five per cent of the refugee population are unaccompanied children. 
• An estimated 143 million children are orphaned by one or both parents. (‘Children on the Brink 2004. A Joint Report of New Orphan Estimates and a Framework for Action. UNICEF/UNAIDS/USAID. July 2004).
• The number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS is expected to jump to more than 25 million. In 12 African countries, projections show that orphans will comprise at least 15 per cent of all children under 15 years of age by 2010.