Infancias, familias y adopción

Distintos aspectos del régimen de adopción en Argentina, donde rige la Ley 26.061 "Protección Integral sobre los Derechos de las Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes" (2005), y el Código Civil y Comercial contempla la solicitud de declaración de adoptabilidad de niños, niñas y adolescentes como una medida de último término, cuando se hubieren agotado sus posibilidades de permanencia con su familia de origen o en hogares convivenciales.

How Should Unaccompanied Minors in Immigration Detention Be Protected From Coercive Medical Practices?

Current policies and ongoing border crossings have increased the number of unaccompanied minors and the length of time they spend in detention. The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement and its detention facilities currently determine what constitutes appropriate medical care for unaccompanied minors in immigration detention. This care might not be in a child's best interest. In contrast, juvenile detention and human subject research regulations rely on child advocates and court orders to protect children from coercion and safeguard a child's best interest. It is urgent that the medical community advocate for these same safeguards to be put in place for the unaccompanied minors in immigration detention.

Remaking collective knowledge: An analysis of the complex and multiple effects of inquiries into historical institutional child abuse.

This article provides an overview and critical analysis of inquiries into historical institutional child abuse and examines their multiple functions and complex effects. The article takes a broadly international view but focuses primarily on Australia, the UK and Ireland, jurisdictions in which there have been major national inquiries. Drawing on sociological and other social science literature, it begins by considering the forms, functions, and purposes of inquiries. An overview of emergent concerns with institutional abuse in the 1980s and 1990s is then provided, followed by an examination of the response of many governments since that time in establishing inquiries. Key findings and recommendations are considered. The final sections of the article explore the evaluation of inquiries, both during their operation and in their aftermath. Policy change and legislative reform are discussed but the focus is on aspects often underplayed or overlooked, including an inquiry's credibility, its role in processes of knowledge production, and the part it plays in producing social and cultural shifts. In the context of growing numbers of inquiries across Western democracies, including the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, it is argued that grasping the complexity of the inquiry mechanism, with its inherent tensions and its multiple effects, is crucial to evaluating inquiry outcomes.

Children and young people's views on institutional safety: It's not just because we're little.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has set in motion a number of systemic and organizational approaches to identify and respond to child sexual abuse. These include increased child abuse awareness, developing and enhancing child-safe organizational cultures and policies and more thorough screening and supervision of staff in child and youth serving organizations. Although these advances should be applauded, many of the concerns that children and young people have raised about interpersonal safety have not been fully addressed. There is therefore a risk that children's physical, relational, generational, and organizational powerlessness are reinforced through child-safe practices that restrict their meaningful participation, ignore their agency and capacity and fail to respond to their felt safety needs or wishes. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research project conducted with 121 Australian children and young people and presents their perspectives on issues of vulnerability and the ways that they would like adults and institutions to respond to their safety concerns. The value of adult-child alliances, of formal mechanisms that are child-friendly and accessible and having external agencies monitor and review institutional strategies to preventing harm are discussed.

Toward a more comprehensive analysis of the role of organizational culture in child sexual abuse in institutional contexts.

This article draws on a report prepared for the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Palmer et al., 2016) to develop a more comprehensive analysis of the role that organizational culture plays in child sexual abuse in institutional contexts, where institutional contexts are taken to be formal organizations that include children among their members (referred to here as "youth-serving organizations"). We begin by integrating five strains of theory and research on organizational culture from organizational sociology and management theory into a unified framework for analysis. We then elaborate the main paths through which organizational culture can influence child sexual abuse in youth-serving organizations. We then use our unified analytic framework and our understanding of the main paths through which organizational culture can influence child sexual abuse in youth-serving organizations to analyze the role that organizational culture plays in the perpetration, detection, and response to child sexual abuse in youth-serving organizations. We selectively illustrate our analysis with case materials compiled by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and reports of child sexual abuse published in a variety of other sources. We conclude with a brief discussion of the policy implications of our analysis.

Optimising implementation of reforms to better prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in institutions: Insights from public health, regulatory theory, and Australia's Royal Commission.

The Australian Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has identified multiple systemic failures to protect children in government and non-government organizations providing educational, religious, welfare, sporting, cultural, arts and recreational activities. Its recommendations for reform will aim to ensure organizations adopt more effective and ethical measures to prevent, identify and respond to child sexual abuse. However, apart from the question of what measures institutions should adopt, an under-explored question is how to implement and regulate those measures. Major challenges confronting reform include the diversity of organizations providing services to children; organizational resistance; and the need for effective oversight. Failure to adopt theoretically sound strategies to overcome implementation barriers will jeopardize reform and compromise reduction of institutional child sexual abuse. This article first explains the nature of the Royal Commission, and focuses on key findings from case studies and data analysis. It then analyzes public health theory and regulatory theory to present a novel analysis of theoretically justified approaches to the implementation of measures to prevent, identify and respond to CSA, while isolating challenges to implementation. The article reviews literature on challenges to reform and compliance, and on prevention of institutional CSA and situational crime prevention, to identify measures which have attracted emerging consensus as recommended practice. Finally, it applies its novel integration of regulatory theory and public health theory to the context of CSA in institutional contexts, to develop a theoretical basis for a model of implementation and regulation, and to indicate the nature and functions of a regulatory body for this context.

[Preventive human rights monitoring in child and adolescent psychiatry and welfare institutions]. / Menschenrechtsmonitoring im Kinder- und Jugendbereich.

Since 1 July 2012 the Austrian Ombudsman Board (AOB) together with its six regional expert commissions form the so called "National Prevention Mechanism" implementing the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). The commissions are mandated to conduct regular, unrestricted and unannounced visits to all types of places in which there is or can be a deprivation or restriction of personal liberty, such as prisons, police stations, but also psychiatric hospitals or residential homes/groups for children and juveniles supervised by youth welfare services. 20 monitoring visits have been held in departments for Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry between 2012 and 2016. In the field of residential groups for young people 40 visiting protocols (out of a total of 176 between 2015 and 2016) have been chosen for this analysis. The following article overviews the legal sources and key issues of the monitoring process in this field as well as the commissions' findings and recommendations.

Implementación de un dispositivo psicoanalítico con niños institucionalizados / Implementation of a psychoanalytic device with institutionalized children

En una Casa Cuna (CC) se brinda ayuda terapéutica, a aquellos niños en situación de abandono o bien, rescatados de un ambiente familiar violento, a partir de ello, en el presente artículo se abordan los elementos teóricos esenciales implicados durante el proceso de intervención clínica, el cual se llevó a cabo aplicando un dispositivo psicoanalítico diseñado para niños institucionalizados. Dichos elementos favorecen la explicación de los procesos implicados en la transferencia, la fantasía, la constitución psíquica y el duelo; nociones mediante las cuales se realiza la construcción de caso donde se exponen los referentes clínicos de un infante rescatado y tratado que culminó en la posibilidad del tránsito de la indefensión pasiva hacia una posición en la que el paciente advierte con claridad que la situación en la que se encontró es consecuencia de un acto transgresor (AU)

This article addresses the basic elements to be considered in a clinical intervention based in a psychoanalytic device for institutionalized children who are sheltered in an assistance establishment. These elements respond to processes such as transference, fantasy and mourning, notions that enable the analysis of clinical material, together with the consultancy and supervision required for the conceptualization of the clinical case. Further, we will realize a study of case 'A.', taken from clinical material emerged from several clinical sessions with a child who came to the institution with several signs of physical abuse. The study of this case will describe how psychical activity during the clinical sessions provided her space to identify with her body that at the same time allowed her to transit around the fantasy of her origin, having a structuring effect in her (AU)

Children with disabilities in Russian institutions: can the West help protect the most vulnerable?

Despite Russia's ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and a sizable body of related legislation, stigma surrounding disability persists and Russia has fallen short on protecting the rights of children with disabilities. Family-based care programs are slow to be implemented and institutional placements continue to be favored and often pressured upon parents of children born with impairments. International support has played a key role in developing child welfare services, and intercountry adoption has saved many Russian children with disabilities from a life of institutional care. However, recent political developments have limited foreign adoptions as well as the ability of Western organizations to assist in advancing child protection in Russia. Even with these constraints, activists must continue to collaborate to work toward reforming the system of care for the country's most vulnerable children.

Long-term outcome of the shaken baby syndrome and medicolegal consequences: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Studies of long-term outcome of the shaken baby syndrome (SBS) are scarce, but they usually indicate poor outcome. OBJECTIVES: To describe long-term outcome of a child having sustained a SBS, to ascertain possible delayed sequelae and to discuss medicolegal issues. METHODS: We report a single case study of a child having sustained a SBS, illustrating the initial clinical features, the neurological, cognitive and behavioural outcomes as well as her social integration. RESULTS: The child sustained diffuse brain injuries, responsible for spastic right hemiplegia leading to secondary orthopaedic consequences, as well as severe cognitive impairment, worsening over time: the developmental quotient measured at 15 months of age was 55 and worsened as age increased. At 6 years and 8 months, the child's IQ had fallen to 40. Behavioural disorders became apparent only after several months and precluded any social integration. The child eventually had to be placed in a specialised education centre at age 5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The SBS has a very poor outcome and major long-standing sequelae are frequent. Cognitive or behavioural sequelae can become apparent only after a long sign-free interval, due to increasing demands placed on the child during development. This case report confirms severity of early brain lesions and necessity for an extended follow-up by a multi-disciplinary team. From a medicolegal point of view, signaling the child to legal authorities allows protection of the child, but also conditions later compensation if sequelae compromise autonomy.

Apuntes para una historia de lasinstituciones de menores en España / History of juvenile institutions in Spain: an overview

En 1918 se crean en España los tribunales específicos para niños cuya andadura ocupará todo el siglo XIX. Con anterioridad sólo se dio un tratamiento institucional puntual y casi exclusivamente benéfico y altruista a esta cuestión: en este artículo hacemos referencia a algunas de las instituciones y legislaciones anteriores al siglo XIX. El núcleo central del trabajo se basa en el análisis legislativo institucional y el consecuente modo de intervención con los menores disociales derivado de la llamada "ley Montero Ríos" de 1918 en homenaje a su redactor. Conectamos el anterior desarrollo con las dificultades y peculiaridades de la reciente "ley reguladora de la responsabilidad penal de los menores" de 2001 que sustituye a la anterior y eleva la edad penal a los 18 años (AU)

Implementing the right to community integration for children with disabilities in Russia: a human rights framework for international action.

Human rights organizations have documented a widespread pattern of abuse in Russia's orphanages and institutions for children with disabilities. Community integration is critical to attack the underlying causes of discrimination and abuse of children in institutions. While there is an immediate need to protect children in institutions, investment in improving orphanages may inadvertently strengthen an outmoded system of segregated services, delaying long-term reform. This article describes a response to abuses in institutions based on the internationally recognized right to community integration for all children, including children with mental and physical disabilities. While tailored to Russia, the framework for action described here applies to many countries in which children and adults with disabilities are similarly segregated from society in closed institutions.