Child and Family Welfare Policies
Until very recently, the whole area of child protection in Romania was dealt with in accordance with a variety of ever-changing legislation, which was subjected to continual amendments and abrogations. While various articles in disparate laws referred to children, no holistic approach existed to address the issues. By law the child was basically not regarded as a whole: some issues were dealt with according to laws on education, others according to health, labor or unemployment laws, and still others referred specifically to disadvantaged children. Various institutions were responsible for portions of the provisions of the law, making the entire process of dealing with children very complicated, slow, and sometimes confusing. Another problem was the fact that somehow issues concerning children were seen as unconnected to those of the family as a whole. ACTION UNICEF is one of the most powerful and credible voices when it comes to the best interest of the child. It has been successful in lobbying for reform, in documenting the situation, and in providing the instruments needed by the government to design strategies and legislation. As the situation in Romania began changing, so did the actions of UNICEF in the area of child protection. Its activities have shifted from the crisis-management of the beginning of the 1990s to policy development and advocacy. While the input of the European Union in the area of child protection reform in Romania has been very important, because of its provision of major financial contributions and its promotion for the right measures to be taken, UNICEF was the organization that first raised the issues and has advocated consistently for the reforms. With appropriate and well documented studies, UNICEF provided the information and guidance that both the government and donors have used as instruments in deciding where the greatest needs lie, where the money was most needed, and where this could have the greatest impact. UNICEF has provided support and expertise to the government in drawing up the new legislative package on child protection, which was approved by the Parliament in June, 2004. Once the new package is implemented, it is expected to change the whole mechanism of dealing with the situation of the vulnerable child. Each child’s situation will be treated in an inclusive manner, which means that all institutions will work together to solve the respective case. For instance, the situation of a child who drops out school will be assessed in order to identify all determinant causes: attitudes of the child and family with regards to education and school attendance, unemployment of parents, violence at home, community based services, effective and efficient assistance, etc. While the new approach that shifts strategies of intervention from individual cases of rights violation towards all children and from them to the family looks very good on paper, it still remains to be seen if the system can actually work, if there are managerial and organizational problems that are yet to be resolved. RESULTS UNICEF • Contributed to the revision of current legislation and law enforcement institutions dealing with trafficking and juvenile justice, in order to determine compliance with international standards; it developed projects to help childrens victims of trafficking and youngsters in conflict with the law be reintegrated into society. • Provided training for thousands of professionals active in child protection and social welfare. These included psychologists counseling abused children, hospital staff working with HIV/AIDS children, teachers from ordinary and special schools, foster parents working with disabled children, social workers dealing with street children, and teachers working with adolescents leaving institutions. • Developed a system of quality standards for placement centers, family-type group homes, apartments and services offered to children by various organizations; and contributed to the methodology for licensing and accreditation for service providers. These are very important instruments for mapping the minimum standards that must be met by every unit dealing with children to successfully offer the services provided. • Evaluated the projects aimed at the prevention of child abandonment in maternity wards and worked on a national study that assessed the causes and magnitude of abandonment. It also evalutated the practices and norms with in the juvenile justice system with the aim of providing evidence based information for the new steps in this particular sectoral reform. • Organized a series of surveys and research studies on issues such as the current situation of adolescents with disabilities, and protection and care given to children with HIV/AIDS; it also carried out a national study on the abuse of children in institutions.
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