The Irish Refugee Council participated in a European Research Project, Core standards for guardians of separated children in Europe. The project aims to close the protection gap for separated children in Europe by developing core standards with a focus on qualifications of guardians based on the views of separated children in relation to their rights according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and EU directives. 

Eight member states are involved in the project – Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Sweden and Italy – seeking out the opinions of separated children across Europe. The second phase of the project involves taking steps to further close the protection gap; working with the Core Standards in practice and furthering work on policy and legislative initiatives at national and European level to provide the strongly needed framework for responsibilities of guardianship systems in order for all separated children in Europe to get the protection they are entitled to.

Download project documents, toolkits and resources: