The rights of children placed in out-of-home care

Abstract

This chapter examines the rights of young people in out-of-home care. In the context of five articles in CRC, empirical data illuminate how the rights of young people in, respectively, foster care and institutional care are met. As concerns for example participation, do the young persons feel involved in the decision to enter care? Do they feel protected from violence, abuse and neglect where they live? Do the feel seen, heard and acknowledged? And to what extent do they experience a milieu where they are being cared for and loved? In some respects, the findings are discouraging, revealing a seemingly inadequate implementation of the intentions of the CRC, which is probably true for many Western countries. An overall result is that young people being placed in institutional care seem to live under considerably more disadvantaged conditions than young people in foster care.