Application of Article 20 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

Alternative care is provided for children who are temporarily or permanently left without parental care and support of their families. In accordance with Article 20 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the state shall assist such children and provide them with alternative accommodation, preferably in a family environment. Only exceptionally and as the last and least desirable solution, a child should be placed in institutional care. The paper gives an overview of relevant international regulations, guidelines and standards for children in alternative care as well as the analysis of regulations, national policies and practices of competent authorities in respect of children who cannot live in a family environment in the Republic of Croatia. In the last twenty years, the Republic of Croatia has been actively involved in demanding child-care reforms and has been working on a complex process of integral modernisation of the social welfare system. Huge and important steps forward have been made in terms of changing the acts protecting the rights of children (in alternative care). But, their application in practice is questionable, as well as solving some new problems that have appeared in the meantime.