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Promoting unaccompanied Children’s Access to Fundamental Rights in the European Union Co-funded by the European Union’s Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme
http://www.pucafreu.org MSHS, Bâtiment A5 5, rue Théodore Lefebvre 86000 Poitiers - France +33(0)5 49 36 62 20
International Conference
UNPROTECTED UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN IN EUROPE:
Which reasons lead to their lack of protection?
Poitiers, 23-24
thOctober 2012
The situation of unaccompanied children who do abandon, refuse or are excluded from institutional care and therefore remain unprotected is still barely addressed in the academic, professional and public spheres. A first reason lies in the difficulties in studying this group. Its assessment faces a double obstacle: if existing statistics are based on estimations with respect to the total number of children being cared for (between 50 to 60% of all received children), an indefinite proportion of unprotected children are invisible to the protection and/or immigration authorities of European Union Member States. The reasons for their abandonment, refusal or exclusion from care are many:
lack of knowledge and difficulties to assert their rights recognized by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, lack of adaptation of care provisions to their specific situation, gaps and obstacles within existing protection systems, etc.
Unprotected unaccompanied children may therefore be living in situations of “errance”, traffic or exploitation. Despite this, so far neither European institutions nor national authorities have effectively taken into consideration the situation of unaccompanied unprotected children. Currently, there only exists a very limited common European Union legislation. National frameworks do not provide a global care system guaranteeing unaccompanied children’s protection from their arrival in the territory to the identification and implementation of a durable solution.
The European project PUCAFREU (“Promoting unaccompanied children’s access to their fundamental rights in the EU”) is coordinated by the French National Centre for Scientific Research- CNRS, through its Research Unit MIGRINTER based at the University of Poitiers. This project aims to reach a better understanding of the situation of unprotected unaccompanied children and to identify the reasons for their exclusion from institutional protection in five European Union Member States (Belgium, France, Italy, Romania and Spain). If Belgium, France, Italy and Spain are destination or transit countries, Romania is considered to be as a country of origin of this particular kind of migration.
This conference will present and spread the results of exploratory research conducted within the five EU Member States that constitute the scope of PUCAFREU and will propose an open platform of discussion on relevant topics regarding this particular category of migrant children. Specifically, the conference will enable exchanges between academics, institutional actors, practitioners, advocates and the general public and will propose a cross- and multi-disciplinary analysis of local, national and international frameworks. This approach aims to develop further knowledge on this insufficiently studied group and to open new perspectives of reflection and action to promote unprotected unaccompanied children’s access to their fundamental rights.
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Promoting unaccompanied Children’s Access to Fundamental Rights in the European Union Co-funded by the European Union’s Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme
http://www.pucafreu.org MSHS, Bâtiment A5 5, rue Théodore Lefebvre 86000 Poitiers - France +33(0)5 49 36 62 20
CALL FOR PAPERS
On behalf of all institutions involved in the implementation of the PUCAFREU Project, the research centre MIGRINTER hereby invites academics, advocates, institutional and field practitioners from different disciplines to submit their proposals of communication (an abstract of 350 words maximum and a brief résumé) relating to one of the following areas:
o Analysis of the current legal framework. This topic will focus on the legal treatment and status of unaccompanied children through three different levels of analysis:
- International framework: The interpretation of the contents of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its application to the situation of unaccompanied children; particularly best interest determination processes and the identification and implementation of durable solutions;
- European Union framework: The pertinence of European Union’s scheme to build a common legal approach ruling the situation of unaccompanied children living in European Union Member States;
- National framework: Identification of the shortcomings, obstacles and gaps in Belgian, French, Italian and Spanish legal provisions and practices leading to unaccompanied children’s exclusion, refusal or abandonment from institutional care.
o Unprotected unaccompanied childrens’ living conditions and access to fundamental rights in the EU space. This area will gather research describing living conditions and obstacles to access to the fundamental rights of children belonging to one or several of the following hypothetical categories:
- Children living by their own means- either alone or with a group of peers- whether in a situation of “errance” or not- and practising different activities- whether illegal or not- to ensure their survival;
- Children falling under the control of networks of adults putting them under constraint to commit crime and/or other lucrative activities (whether illegal or not depending on the national context);
- Children staying within private fostering arrangements, sometimes under the custody of other members of their enlarged family, other members of their national or ethnic community, particularly when fostering hides situations of domestic labour exploitation or other kinds of exploitation.
o Diversity of contexts in countries of origin and of migratory situations. This topic will underline all decisive factors playing a role in the child’s decision to migrate from his/her country of origin as well as the migration routes and the encountered risks during the migration journey.
Specifically, an analysis of the Romanian context will be presented.
o Training needs of practitioners working with unaccompanied children. This final subject aims to open a discussion on the daily difficulties and training needs of the various professionals (social workers, educators, psychologists, lawyers, etc.) working with unaccompanied children.
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Promoting unaccompanied Children’s Access to Fundamental Rights in the European Union Co-funded by the European Union’s Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme
http://www.pucafreu.org MSHS, Bâtiment A5 5, rue Théodore Lefebvre 86000 Poitiers - France +33(0)5 49 36 62 20
International Conference
UNPROTECTED UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN IN EUROPE:
Which reasons lead to their lack of protection?
Poitiers, 23-24
thOctober 2012
Invited Keynote Speaker
Jacqueline Bhabha, Director of Research- François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University. University Advisor on Human Rights Education
Ravi K S Kohli, Professor of Child Welfare, University of Bedfordshire, UK.
Organisation Committee
Maurad Haimaidi (Migrinter, France)- Co-ordinator Lélia Tawfik (Migrinter, France)- Co-ordinator
William Berthomière (Migrinter, France) Dominique Mathieu (Migrinter, France)
Rémy Coopman (Migrinter, France) Malika Delenne (Migrinter, France) Ousmane Elh Cissé (Migrinter, France) Daniel Senovilla Hernandez (Migrinter, France)
Scientific Committee
William Berthomière (Migrinter, France)- Co-ordinator Daniel Senovilla Hernández (Migrinter, France)- Co-ordinator
Kamel Doraï (Migrinter, France) Ionut Jugureanu (Parada, Romania) Jyothi Kanics (UNICEF, Switzerland) Philippe Lagrange (Cecoji, France)
Céline Lageot (Cecoji, France) Nick Mai (London Metropolitan University, UK) Vicente Ortola (La Merced Migraciones, Spain)
Olivier Peyroux (Hors-la-rue, France), Enrico Pugliese (Université Sapienza, Italy)
Elena Rozzi (ASGI, Italy) Lélia Tawfik (Migrinter, France) Francesco Vacchiano (CRIA, Portugal) Marie-Françoise Valette (Cecoji, France) Benoit Van Keirsbilck (Service Droit des Jeunes, Belgium)
The two official languages of the conference are English and French. All presentations during plenary sessions must be in one of these two languages. An interpreting service will be available.
Nevertheless, the organisers reserve the possibility to plan parallel workshops in other languages (Spanish, Italian, etc.)
A contribution to transportation and/or accommodation expenses of the successful candidates will be proposed.
