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FOREWORD
The Best Interest of the Child
by Monica Lundgren, Programme Officer
Radda Barnen/Swedish Save the Children
"I am not a prophet, I can't foresee the future,
but I hope for a future without war, illness, hunger and
powerlessness.
My personal future I imagine to be to have a successful education
in order to become a good professional and a person of some
influence
These are the words of a 16-year old girl - one out of thousands
of children and young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who
had to flee their home country and take refuge in Croatia as
unaccompanied refugee minors. All these children have
experienced separation and bereavement; they were all forced to
leave behind people they loved and trusted, they all had to cope
with unfamiliar circumstances in a foreign country.
Despite their grief and pain, many of them have managed to
adapt themselves to the new situation they have somewhere to
live, they are performing well at school and they have made new
friends. One girl even observes that this war brought her
something good, because living with an aunt and her family
means that she now leads a "normal" life, whereas in her own
family she was constantly neglected and maltreated. Others do
not wish to dwell upon their life in Bosnia or talk about the future.
This book is an attempt to give these children a voice, as well as
to convey to the reader a method of meeting their needs and of
facilitating family reunification. The Croatian organisation Center
for Social Policy Initiatives (CSPI) has more than four years of
professional experience in developing and carrying out a
comprehensive programme for assisting unaccompanied refugee
minors -"Unaccompanied Children in Exile ". One may, of course,
question whether yet another handbook on how best to assist
unaccompanied refugee minors is needed. Isn't there enough
literature dealing with this problem'? Yes, and no: There are
handbooks, manuals, international documents and declarations,
but as a rule they describe the situation in non-European
countries, or minors from other parts of the world arriving in
Europe without a legal guardian. The reason for writing this book
is the very special situation in what was only a short time ago
known to us as Yugoslavia, a former socialist country in Europe,
which has recently undergone the process of partition, followed
by a devastating war. The authors are convinced that these
particular circumstances call for a special approach to the problem
of unaccompanied refugee minors.
One thing, however, the children of former Yugoslavia have in
common with children all over the world: They have a right to -
among other things - a name and nationality, to culture, religion
and language. They have a right to life. All these rights are laid
down in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has
been ratified by a majority of states, including those of the
countries of former Yugoslavia. The Convention has inspired all
the measures and activities carried out by the CSPI. It also
underlies the work and endeavours of Rddda Barnen, Swedish
Save the Children. In the summer of 1996, our two organisations
got to know each other and realised that we have common goals
and interests. Since then Rddda Barnen supports the project
"Unaccompanied Children in Exile" and gets profound knowledge
and new ideas in return.
STOCKHOLM, June 1998.
INTRODUCTION
Why Has This Book Been Written?
Who Is It For?
The aim of this book is to present the efforts of the UCE Project -
Unaccompanied Children in Exile - as a non-governmental
initiative in meeting the needs of unaccompanied refugee children
on the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the period from the
peak of the war hostilities in 1993, to the post-war and
repatriation period in 1997. The book reflects UCE's 4 years of
work experience in developing diverse program components to
meet the needs of unaccompanied refugee minors - ranging from
psycho-social needs, to family tracing and family reunification.
The activities undertaken were inspired both by the CRC -
Convention on the Rights of the Child - and other national and
international treaties regulating human rights. The UCE program
was designed to meet the needs of and to provide emergency
services to unaccompanied refugee minors -but it also has a
strong advocacy component for children's rights - the right of a
child to a family, name and ethnicity. All the activities were carried
out by taking into account the best interest of the child, with a
strong non-discriminatory approach, and with respect for
children's participation in the decision-making process related to
their situation.
The book aims to show HOW the local NGO initiative, assisted by
international humanitarian aid, succeeded in addressing the
UNMETNEEDS of unaccompanied refugee minors. The unmet
needs emerged in the spectrum of general refugee protection,
that did not recognise the special needs and the special situation
of unaccompanied refugee children. The unmet needs fall into the
gaps in SOCIAL and LEGAL protection of children without
adequate parental care.
Unaccompanied refugee minors as the target group of the
program activities are/were refugee children from 0 till 18 years
of age who were separated from their parents because of the
circumstances of war.
In order to fill the gaps and voids in the social and legal
protection of unaccompanied refugee minors, IJCE has registered
and documented unaccompanied refugee minors as the refugee
group with special needs, and assisted in the process of selection
and appointment of legal guardians to the largest number of
identified unaccompanied refugee minors in countries of exile, like
Croatia. Aiming to reduce as much as possible the period of family
separation, in order to meet the best interest of the child and
ensure the right of the child to a family, name and ethnicity, UCE
has facilitated tracing of missing family members, and performed
family reunification of the unaccompanied refugee minors with
their parents and other family members.
In relation to the social aspects of special needs of
unaccompanied refugee minors while in exile, UCE has developed
foster care programs for unaccompanied refugee minors in
Croatia. The foster care programs have targeted children with
severe health problems - the specialised foster care program,
children in transit to be reunited and repatriated - the transit
foster care program, and the kinship foster care program for
refugee children.
The book also aims to show HOW local professionals have
developed the applicable know-how, compatible with local
standards and, at the same time, matched to the international
humanitarian, social and legal standards. Another objective of the
book is to demonstrate how important it is to identify the local
response from the international humanitarian assistance
perspective. On the other hand, the responses that were locally
available had access to the new and applicable know-how that
was offered from the international perspective to the local
subjects. In this respect the UCE Project was given the
opportunity to upgrade the skills and knowledge related to
methods applied and engaged human capacities.
The focus of the book is to present HOW the consequences of
war destruction and war hostilities have affected vulnerable
unaccompanied refugee minors. It will show the enormous human
suffering, pain and emotional traumas of children who were
separated from their parents because of the war. It seeks to
introduce the children who have lost the world of their significant
adults, lost the world of their friends and neighbours.
This book could be interesting and useful for the local
professionals as well as for international relief staff. it could serve
as a guide for the relief staff who work, or are going to work, in
war zones or close to war situations in central and eastern
Europe, or in other geographic areas of the world where the
former communist countries are faced with the armed conflict
situations. The basic social welfare structure in the named
geopolitical zone has similar patterns and in that sense the
methods applied in the UCE project are compatible. We also hope
that the book could serve as a very useful source of information
for the international donor community, not only in raising the
awareness about the unmet needs that refugee children are
faced with in war situations, but also in providing information on
the specific solutions to that problem that the UCE Project
developed in the former Yugoslavia.