OBJECTIVE

Sponsored by: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): Inter-American Children’s Institute of the OAS (IACI-OAS); International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO); UNESCO’s Chair in Bioethics; Lvmen Hvmanitas Publishing; Buckner; SOS Children’s Villages Argentina; El Tránsito Winery; Buenos Aires City Council on Children’s Rights; Hague Conference on Private International Law; International Social Service; Argentina’s Secretariat for Human Rights of the National Ministry of Justice, Security and Human Rights; Argentina’s Secretariat for Childhood, Adolescence and Family of the National Ministry of Social Development; the Office of the President of Argentina.

Declared of interest by

Buenos Aires City Legislature; Faculty of Social Science, University of Buenos Aires.

Basis

Latin American countries have ratified international human rights instruments that oblige them to take the necessary actions to defend the right of children to live in a family and a community. The most important of these instruments is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The CRC has been ratified by all countries of the region. Regarding the children’s right to a family, it is necessary to advocate for the creation of public policies to safeguard it. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has drawn the attention to the need of protecting children from the numerous risks of rights violations to which they are exposed when deprived of family care. That is why the global discussion revolves around the creation of human right standards that aim to protect children placed in alternative care.

RELAF works with the purpose of promoting a dialogue that can lead to the search for forms of family-based alternative care in Latin America, in the framework of the fulfilment of all the rights of the child. We believe that the practice of foster care under certain parameters is a way to guarantee the right to live in a family and a community, and we present this Seminar as an opportunity to meet, learn, and exchange experiences. Likewise, we intend to finish the Seminar with a commitment to define and implement new public policies on alternative care with a children’s rights-based approach.

RELAF intends for this Seminar to provide a setting to advocate for the preparation of a Regional Agenda to tackle the issue of family deprivation. It also aims at boosting the establishment of new commitments subject to future monitoring in order to verify the effective progress achieved in the region regarding the provision of family support.

Overall goal:

To provide a space for reflection and exchange regarding the efforts, learnt lessons, strengths and challenges in the fulfilment of the right to family and community life in the countries of the region.

Specific goals:

To discuss and clarify the role of the main actors involved in the provision of alternative care, particularly foster care: public institutions, non-governmental organisations and other social organisations (media, universities, families, etc.).

To strengthen the regional network with clear commitments and objectives in order to promote the creation of public policies in the region within the next five years. These commitments will make it possible to advance in the priority topics that will be discussed during the meeting:

                · The new challenges to implement the CRC within the framework of family deprivation.

                · The innovative initiatives in the provision of alternative care.

                · The obstacles that comprehensive child protection systems have in the adoption of practices with a rights-based approach and in the deconstruction of institutional isolation systems.

                · The application of the standards set by the CRC for the restoration of the right to family and community life.

To advance, at a regional level, in the identification of obstacles and facilitators of the practice of foster care in the framework of the guarantee of the right to family life.

To debate and exchange successful experiences carried out in LAC that can be replied in other countries of the region.

SEMINAR

“The right of children and adolescents to family and community life”

The fulfilment of the right to family and community life, in its different forms and manifestations, as well as in its violations, is starting to appear in the public agenda of the governments of the region. Several countries have started to survey the number of children deprived of family care in their territories, in the two most visible ways: homeless children and institutionalised children. However, in every country –and in the region as a whole-, the experiences carried out that aim to fulfil this right are minimal. There is a long way to go before they can turn into public policies sustained over time.

At the Seminar, we will focus on discussing the theory and practice of foster care. The context will be broad and will articulate concepts and interrelated practices, always taking the social, political and historical realities into account. At RELAF, we hope that this Seminar is a sphere in which the following topics can be discussed and reflected on:

1. A children’s rights-based approach, foster care.

Challenges faced by the comprehensive child protection systems in the creation of standards to fulfil the right to family and community life.

The responsibilities of the entities in the implementation of foster care with a rights-based approach.

2. Foster care and its articulation and interconnection with practices aimed at guaranteeing the right to family and community life.

Foster care and family strengthening.

Foster care and adoption.

3. Foster care in a context of paradigm shift

Deinstitutionalisation processes.

The adaptation of foster care programmes inherited from children’s shelters.

4. Vicissitudes of the practices

Lessons from experience: failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Systemisations and reflections on different aspects of the foster care practice.

5. Innovations in foster care

Experiences and conceptualisations.

Foster care and the “new” issues that have an impact on children.

Expected results

• To have a preliminary exposition text to be presented at the event.
• To produce a final document that includes the discussions, conclusions and recommendations emanating from the Seminar.
• To strengthen the regional network of key actors.
• To train new organisations so that they can work to fulfil the right to family life in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Participants

The Seminar’s objectives necessarily draw different kinds of organisations that must advocate for the creation of a regional agenda to be executed in the short and medium terms to move forward in the fulfilment of the right of children to family and community life.

• Participants from governments. Government representatives with different levels of responsibility in the decision-making and execution of public policies related to the protection of children’s rights will be invited to the Seminar.
• Non-governmental organisations. Many NGOs and other social organisations are involved in the provision of alternative care. RELAF will call its current contacts to take part in the Seminar, as well as those civil organisations that are starting to become involved in the issue.
• Researchers, academicians, media. University of Buenos Aires.
• International organisms. The Inter-American Children’s Institute (IIN/OAS), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), UNESCO: Bioethics Course.
• International organisations. IFCO (International Foster Care), Buckner International.