Addressing Gaps in Child Protection

Addressing Gaps in Child Protection 1

The “Addressing gaps in child protection” report was prepared for the UNHCR-ICMC Child Protection Workshop, held in Washington D.C. in May 2012. It points to the challenges that ICMC child protection experts encounter in refugee field operations and proposes a road map for addressing these concerns.

“We are seeing that vulnerable, unaccompanied, and separated minors are facing many of the same protection challenges across the board,” observes Linda Besharaty, Coordinator of the ICMC-UNHCR Deployment Scheme. “The recommendations proposed in our report draw attention to the importance of engaging the necessary resources in addressing the plight of these children.”

The challenges identified in this report are drawn from the first-hand experience of ICMC’s child protection experts in the field and include the need for strengthening the capacity of local partners, improving the identification of unaccompanied minors, deploying child protection experts at the beginning of an emergency operation, prioritizing children for refugee status interviews, establishing a best interest determination panel, clearing backlogs, and prioritizing the cases of these children for resettlement consideration.

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ICMC provides assistance and protection to vulnerable people on the move and advocates for sustainable solutions for refugees and migrants.