Children in Alternative Care

This article focuses on the alternative care of children. It emphasises several major points of alternative care from a children’s rights perspective. The issue of alternative care as defined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and interpreted regarding the standards of children’s rights is complex and affects essentially all rights of children, as enshrined in the CRC. This research contributes by envisaging some aspects of the Hungarian Child Protection Act that were enacted in 1997 and were meant as a milestone in the history of Hungarian child protection. This research explores children’s rights in general, the main objectives of the Child Protection Act, reasons of child placement in alternative care, and main forms of this alternative care, including the foster care and children’s homes. Furthermore, the issue of how Hungarian alternative care institutions meet the requirements of appropriate care for vulnerable children such as children with disabilities is examined. Consequently, the children’s rights approach and Hungarian legal requirements are compared and form the basis for social assistance, alternative care as an ultima ratio solution, de-institutionalisation, and the caretakers of the vulnerable children. Of course, this series of issues is not an exhaustive list and does not include the practical realisation of the envisaged rights and institutions.