We Must Provide a Family, Not Rebuild Orphanages: The Consequences of Russias Invasion of Ukraine for Children in Ukrainian Residential Institutions

This report documents risks to children from institutions in areas directly affected by the conflict as well as those evacuated to other areas of Ukraine or to European countries. According to government figures, Ukraine had more than 105,000 children in institutions before Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, the largest number in Europe. Nearly half were children with disabilities, according to UNICEF. Russia bears responsibility for the crisis facing these children, but the war adds to the urgency for Ukraine, with support from foreign governments and humanitarian agencies, to stop institutionalizing children and expand family- and community-based care

A Will and a Way: Making Displaced Children’s Right to Education Enforceable

All children have the right to education without discrimination, but half of refugee children are out of school, far worse than global averages. Obstacles to education for refugee and migrant children include poverty and overstretched resources in host countries, and humanitarian donors and agencies have important roles and should ensure the right to education. However, policy barriers to education are key drivers of the education crisis facing displaced children. These policy barriers are internationally unlawful, but the children affected often lack standing under domestic law to demand a remedy. Countries with laws enshrining migrant, asylum-seeking, and refugee children’s rights to education and the European Union’s response to Ukrainian refugee learners provide examples that advocates can use to help raise the global floor for displaced children’s right to education. Advocates should press all countries to grant all children, including migrants and refugees, the enforceable right to education in domestic law

Addressing sexual and gender-based violence

UNHCR is working to prevent domestic, sexual, physical and emotional violence affecting women in refugee camps along the border between Thailand and Burma