Information Note on the Revision of the Guidelines on Refugee Children

EC/SCP/81

1. At its forty-third session, the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme welcomed the initiative to revise UNHCR's Guidelines on Refugee Children (Guidelines) (A/AC.96/804). UNHCR's Senior Coordinator for Refugee Children delivered a report on the progress made in this endeavour to the Sub-Committee of the Whole on International Protection at its inter-sessional meeting of 17 and 18 May 1993 (EC/1993/SCP/CRP.4).

2. A first draft of the revised Guidelines has now been completed and is being shared for comment with UNHCR field offices, other relevant United Nations agencies and a number of non-governmental organizations specializing in the protection and care of uprooted children. Moreover, it is hoped that the debate of the forty-fourth session of the Executive Committee on the High Commissioner's Policy on Refugee Children (EC/SCP/82) will contribute to the Office's finalization of the revised Guidelines.

3. Upon the receipt and processing of these reactions, the Guidelines will be published and distributed to all Field Offices for their use and in-country dissemination, as well as to the States Member of the Executive Committee.

4. The next inter-sessional meeting of the Sub-Committee of the Whole on International Protection will provide an opportunity to discuss the revised Guidelines.