Abstract
All over the world, refugee children are confronted with various challenges and multiple risks often for many years because durable solutions are not applicable. As countries of asylum have rarely included refugee children in their national child protection systems, humanitarian aid agencies have stepped in to fill the protection and support gaps often through several singular projects. This chapter discusses refugee children’s multiple challenges and risks with a focus on protracted situations in developing countries in the Global South. It argues that the systems approach to child protection offers a suitable way forward because instead of tackling isolated problems, it adopts holistic protection frameworks based on children’s rights. Although this can offer improved ways of assisting and protecting refugee children, particularly in protracted situations, the systems approach also reveals systemic challenges in humanitarian and development aid.
This chapter was written in 2014 and 2015, and reflects the debates until then.
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Notes
- 1.
The chapter does not aim to analyze how refugee children perceive themselves as rights-holders.
- 2.
For an overview of the most relevant literature, see Wulczyn et al. (2010, 32–47).
- 3.
- 4.
Thus, this chapter cannot provide an all-encompassing outline of what child protection systems are and how to always strengthen them. Nevertheless, the basic elements mentioned are similar throughout.
- 5.
This approach is not new per se, but has been used in many Western countries for decades (e.g., in social welfare systems).
- 6.
The research project “Gender in Confined Spaces” was carried out at the Centre for Conflict Studies, University of Marburg, and it was generously funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research.
- 7.
For further information about sexual violence against boys and adult male victims, see Dolan (2014, 2).
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Hassel, S., Krause, U. (2016). A Systems Approach to Child Protection: Does Theory Reflect Reality in Protracted Refugee Situations?. In: Ensor, M., Goździak, E. (eds) Children and Forced Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40691-6_9
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