Unaccompanied and Separated Children Following the Haiti Earthquake January 2010

Child Protection Working Group Guiding Principles

The January 12 earthquake and multiple aftershocks created enormous devastation and loss of life in the heavily populated city of Port-au-Prince, and outlying areas. Devastation on this scale is likely to lead to the separation of large numbers of children from their families. The following guidelines should be applied to their care and protection.

Separated children are among the most vulnerable; however, separation should not be considered as the only risk to children, and programming should address the wider range of risks facing children within this context.1

Even during emergencies, all children have a right to a family and families have a right to care for their children. Unaccompanied and separated children should be provided with services aimed at reuniting them with their parents or customary caregivers as quickly as possible. Interim care should be consistent with the aim of family reunification, and should ensure children’s protection and well-being.

Experience has shown that most separated children have parents or other family members willing and able to care for them. Long-term care arrangements, including adoption, should therefore not be made during the emergency phase of the crisis.

However, action to help separated children does require a long-term perspective and long-term commitment on the part of the organizations involved. These organizations must also seek strong cooperation and coordination, and aim to speak with one voice. All actions should be properly coordinated with the government authorities, with the aim of building back a stronger child protection system.

The following key definitions, principles and good practices form an agreed platform for partner organizations.

Definitions:

Separated children are those separated from both parents, or from their previous legal or customary primary caregiver, but not necessarily from other relatives. These may, therefore, include children accompanied by other adult family members.
Unaccompanied children are children who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so.
Orphans are children both of whose parents are known to be dead. In some countries, however, a child who has lost one parent is called an orphan.

Preventing separation:

Key Message: It is always preferable for children to be cared for by their parents or other usual caregivers. Separating children from their parents or usual caregivers increases the likelihood of emotional and developmental problems.

Organizations and authorities must ensure that their actions do not inadvertently encourage family separation. Separation can be provoked when families lack the services they need to care for their children, and believe that such services would be available elsewhere, or when residential child care facilities are created that may provide better services than the family is able to access, enticing families to leave their children in care facilities.

1. This may include children used for domestic purposes by non-legitimate caregivers, unofficial institutions, children in conflict with the law, children in camp settings, children with disabilities, etc.