To read the full report, visit: http://www.crin.org/docs/UNICEF_AtHomeorinaHome1.pdf

The annual European Social Services Conference is our flagship event intended for all those concerned with planning and delivering European social care and health. Through top-quality plenary presentations and a highly topical workshop programme, the conference offers strategic and practical learning and networking opportunities to all those responsible for planning and implementing services in different European regions: planners, politicians, managers and professionals.

The conferences attracted over 400 delegates from over 30 different countries.

Our last 18th European Social Services Conference ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Social Services in Europe: promoting care and inclusion in a difficult economic environment’ took place in Barcelona from 21-23 June 2010 and was organized in cooperation with the Spanish European Council Presidency. It brought together Over 450 professionals, managers, researchers and policy-makers from 33 European countries.

Widespread poverty, conflicts, HIV and AIDS and climate change as well as violence in the home are forcing more and more children to leave their homes to live and work on the streets, exposed to harm and exploitation. Many others end up in less visible exploitative situations, working in households, on farms, in mines or even in armed groups.

In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 50 million children have lost one or both parents, almost 15 million of them due to AIDS. Some of them are forced to grow up on their own, with limited or no support from adult caretakers. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of child labour in the world with more than one-third of children aged 5-14 being engaged in the hardest forms of labour.

“The issue of children working and living on the streets in African towns and cities is only the visible face of large-scale violations of rights,” said Agnès Kabore Ouattara, Chairperson of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. “It is a consequence of socio-economic factors such as poverty, demographic explosion, rural-urban migration, political crises, as well as inter-personal problems such as violence and rejection at home in dysfunctional families.”

These challenges reinforce the need to strengthen the role of families and communities in promoting and protecting the wellbeing of children. As a consequence, governments, with support from partners, need to invest adequate resources in the disadvantaged rural or provincial communities, to reduce disparities between regions and income groups as well as to fight discrimination based on sex, age, ethnicity amongst other factors.

Over the past years, a number of African countries have achieved important gains in the implementation of the child rights framework. Many countries have introduced social protection mechanisms including cash transfers, which play a key role in supporting vulnerable families and preventing children from leaving their homes to secure some income on the street or in other exploitative labour conditions.

UNICEF is collaborating with governments throughout the continent to create a protective environment by both fostering social welfare programmes and engaging in advocacy efforts to protect children from exploitation and abuse.

Source: UNICEF.org

When Becky Fawcett and her husband Kipp adopted their first child in 2005, they paid about $40,000.

Following a conversation with her adoption attorney, Becky came up with an idea to start helpusadopt.org, a national nonprofit that would provide families with grants ranging from $500 to $15,000 to help offset the often hefty costs of adopting.

The program is open to all prospective adopters regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, marital status, and sexual orientation, and can be for an type of adoption (private or agency, domestic or international, or foster care).

For more information, please visit http://www.helpusadopt.org.

The results are now in Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Center.According to the new data, at the end of 2009, there were 423,773 children in foster care in the United States, 120,530 fewer than there were in 2000. However, despite the decline in the number of children in foster care, the type of setting in which a child is placed has remained largely unchanged at the national level since 2000.48 percent of children in foster care in 2009 were with non-relative foster families; 24 percent were with relatives; 16 percent were in group homes or institutions and 13 percent were in other settings.

Other includes supervised and independent living, pre-adoptive homes, trial home visits and runaways. In general, the data showed that younger children are much more likely to be living with foster families, whereas older children are more likely to be in group homes or institutions. Thirty-three percent of children ages 1 to 5 are placed with relatives compared to just 11 percent of those 16 years and older. Additionally, only about 1percent of children ages 1to 5 are placed in group homes or institutions, compared with about 36 percent of those ages 16 and older. In 2000, the percentage of children who were in foster care who were Hispanic was 15 percent, but it had grown to 20 percent by 2009. Conversely, the percentage of children who were black was 39 percent in 2000, but had dropped to 30 percent in 2009. The percentage of foster children who were white was largely unchanged between 2000 and 2009.In 2009, 276,266 children exited the foster care system. Of this number, 66 percent were reunited with their parent or a primary caretaker, relatives, or a guardian. 20 percent of children who exited the system were adopted and 11 percent of children aged out of the system. The remaining 3 percent of children were either transferred to another agency or were runaways.

Source http://news.adoption.com/

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_INDIA_SEX_SELECTIVE_ABORTIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-24-06-48-11

The International Day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and increase the knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.In its resolution, the General Assembly also noted that the family-related provisions of the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits of the 1990s and their follow-up processes continue to provide policy guidance on ways to strengthen family-centred components of policies and programmes as part of an integrated comprehensive approach to development.The 2011′s commemoration of the International Day of Families focuses on the “Confronting Family Poverty and Social Exclusion.”

Many governments have gone even further, enacting legislation, creating mechanisms and putting into place a range of creative measures to ensure the protection and realisation of the rights of those under the age of 18. In article 1, the CRC defines children as “all human beings below the age of 18″. As stated in article 3 and repeated throughout the text, the CRC is geared towards ensuring that the “best interest of the child” is safeguarded. Under article 4, States are obliged to do all it can to ensure the rights set out in the CRC.

In November 2002, the Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted General Comment No. 2 on “The Role of Independent National Human Rights Institutions in the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of the Child,” which was an elaboration on article 4. Additionally, the Committee adopted General Comment No. 5 one year later on “The General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Right of the Child,” which outlined more generally what States should do to implement the CRC, as: State reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Recommendations made to States by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and NGO alternative reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

http://www.crin.org/

Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said “a world of 7 billion is both a challenge and an opportunity,” according to a press release issued yesterday. Dr. Osotimehin noted that around the world people are living longer and choosing to have smaller families than in the past. “Reducing inequities and finding ways to ensure the well-being of people alive today – as well as the generations that follow – will require new ways of thinking and unprecedented global cooperation,” he said. “The population projections underscore the urgent need to provide safe and effective family planning to the 215 million women who lack it. Small variations in fertility – when multiplied across countries and over time – make a world of difference.“We must invest the resources to enable women and men to have the means to exercise their human right to determine the number and spacing of their children.”

“UNICEF urges all parties to meet their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international humanitarian law, and to take all necessary steps to protect children from the direct and indirect effects of violence,” Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement.

He noted that in Libya, the ongoing conflict has claimed children’s lives and deprived many more of their basic needs. In Misrata alone, at least 20 children have been killed and countless others injured. Meanwhile, at least 26 children have been killed and more than 800 injured or exposed to tear gas since early February in Yemen, while in Syria, reports indicate that nine children were killed and many injured over the last few weeks. Children continue to suffer amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Lake pointed out. In southern Israel, rocket attacks from Gaza continue to affect children, and this week, a 16-year-old Israeli boy died from injuries after a rocket hit a school bus.