With the formal adoption of a resolution on the rights of children on December 18, 2019, the United Nations General Assembly has taken an important step towards addressing the difficult challenges of caring for children with and without parental support around the world.
Children’s Emergency Relief International (CERI) has joined more than 250 international organizations in supporting this important agreement. The resolution includes many recommendations made by these groups including calls for improved data collection to find ways to avoid the unnecessary separation of children from their families and to protect them from trafficking and abuse.
“This is a victory for children without families and those at risk of losing them,”said Connie Belciug, PhD, Executive Director of CERI. “It is also important for child and family advocates from the member states, who now have bigger voices and an increased access to resources that will benefit those they fight for. CERI is proud to join other organizations in advocating for this resolution and we look forward to the outcomes it will produce.”
The 2019 Resolution on the Rights of the Child commits the 193 member nations to gradually shift support away from older systems of child institutionalization and focus instead on organizations that use family and community-based care models. There is also a commitment to ensure that young people leaving alternative care receive adequate support for their transition. With this new consensus language, children’s advocates can approach UN member states to welcome the commitments they have made in this resolution and urge that they follow through with them.
Children’s Emergency Relief International (CERI) works with children, families, communities and governments to provide a family environment as the first and best option for children to grow in. CERI helps create a path to family for children, works with at-risk youth to achieve independence and strengthens families to provide the best home environment for their children.
