All humanitarian actors have a mandate to ensure children in crisis are kept safe. Unfortunately, children’s safeguarding can be compromised in humanitarian programmes. Humanitarian actors need to ensure that the adults who work in their organizations, and on their project sites, do not pose a risk to children.
In this module, we have learned that:
Child safeguarding is a responsibility that organizations have to ensure that their staff, operations, programmes and associates do no harm to children. It refers to the preventative and response actions that an organization takes in order to ensure that all children are protected from deliberate or unintentional acts that lead to the risk of or actual harm.
“Child safeguarding is the responsibility that organizations have to make sure their staff, operations, and programmes do no harm to children. It includes policy, procedures and practices to prevent children from being harmed by humanitarian organizations as well as steps to respond and investigate when harm occurs” - The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 2019
Child safeguarding is an accountability system that organizations can use to formalise their commitment to keeping children safe.
The work of humanitarian actors is intended to help vulnerable and at-risk children and adults. However, sometimes an organization’s staff and programmes can cause harm. This can be deliberate or unintentional, through direct or indirect contact.
Most humanitarian workers would never want to harm a child or adult, but there are some who do. Humanitarian organizations can even attract people who want to perpetrate abuse because, as humanitarians, they have access to and power over vulnerable children and adults.
Because of this, all humanitarian organizations have a responsibility to put in place systems to safeguard children and vulnerable adults.
Child safeguarding is guided by the principle that the wellbeing of the child is paramount at all times. This is underpinned by the principles of:
The best interests,
Do no harm.
The principle of the best interests of the child is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 3.1 states:
“In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”
The best interests of the child is defined in The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Child Protection Minimum Standards, (2019) as:
“The right of the child to have his or her best interests assessed and taken as a primary consideration in reaching a decision. It refers to the wellbeing of a child and is determined by a variety of individual circumstances (age, level of maturity, the presence or absence of parents, the child’s environment and experiences).”
“The concept of humanitarian agencies avoiding unintended negative consequences for affected persons and not undermining communities’ capacities for peace building and reconstruction.”
The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Child Protection Minimum Standards, (2019)