UNICEF
in action
UNICEF has been working in the Russian Federation since 1997. Our current activities in child protection aim to build a protective environment for all children–no exceptions. A protective environment includes all the necessary supportive elements within the family environment, community and society in which the child lives, or specific elements of the governance system that guide basic social services and the conduct of professionals in contact with children. Preventing and protecting children from abuse, exploitation and neglect is a global priority for UNICEF. Our actions are guided by the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
UNICEF’s Child Protection Programme is implemented in cooperation with Russian federal and regional authorities as well as NGOs. The programme is driven by the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Contributions to child care system reforms
UNICEF supports the development of legislation, policy and practice that introduce new community-based alternatives for children left without parental or family care.
Contributions to juvenile justice reform
The UNICEF humanitarian programme involves repairing the hundreds of damaged schools in Chechnya, delivering basic health and nutrition services, and supplying clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. We also promote mine awareness in the region, which is peppered with landmines and other unexploded ordnance, and provide support to children and young people who have been permanently disabled in landmine explosions. More than 300 children have received prostheses.
Contributions to reform of the child protection system
UNICEF is beginning to work on the problem of child trafficking, convening a UN Working Group to investigate the phenomenon and develop a common strategy to raise awareness about this hideous trade.
Street children are part of the growing number of children affected by family breakdown, alcoholism, domestic violence and economic hardship. Programmes in Moscow and St Petersburg aim to get children off the street and into youth-friendly environments where they can discuss their problems with trained specialists and volunteers, many of them young people themselves.
Other contributions
UNICEF is fully engaged in the global war against poverty. We work to ease the immediate impact of poverty on children but we also advocate and work for the full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which will help eliminate poverty in the long term. In the Russian Federation, we aim to bolster the main defenses against poverty and its impacts–good health, decent education and protection against neglect, exploitation, violence and abuse.
