“Like the first ISS workers who met in Stockholm, we find ourselves confronting new challenges within a climate of change and uncertainty”.
Professor Rainer Frank, International President of ISS
Unaccompanied Children in Emergencies: A Field Guide for their Care and Protection. 1988
Topics discussed include : the principles of child welfare, legal considerations, children and trauma, preparing emergency child care, preventing separation, locating, registering, interviewing unaccompanied children, emergency and interim care, tracing families and children, family reunion, long-term planning for unaccompanied children.
Findings of a Joint Investigation on Independent Intercountry adoption. 1991
In this joint report of ISS and DCI and IFTdH, independent adoptions are defined as adoptions which occur without the involvement of an authorized professional adoption agency (which may be a private or a governmental agency).
The report defines intermediaries as individuals or organizations which are not authorized to place children for adoption but intervene in some manner in the process of adoption.
The report points to a wide variety of questionable and/or illicit practices in both receiving country and country of origin which may be categorized as follows : fait accompli adoptions, unprincipled selection of adoptive parents, improper pressure on biological parents, child's selection, falsification of documents, improper financial gain and sale and trafficking of children.
This report was used in the preparation of the 1993 Hague Convention on protection of children and cooperation in respect of intercountry adoption.
Substitute Family Workshop: Forum of the Non-Governmental Organization toLaunch the International Year of the Family. Malta 1994.
While "the family is a basic unit of society and the natural environment for the development and well-being of all its members, especially the children", the issue of alternative family care for abandoned and orphaned children remains at the heart of the discussions. Family reintegration, foster family placement, the kafalah and local and intercountry adoption are discussed. The presentations that form the basis of the workshop convey information and experience, raise questions and lead to further reflection.
Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the child, Regional Seminar for Eastern and Central Europe. Sofia, Bulgaria 28 September - 2 October 1992
The aim of the Seminar was to develop an integrated social network of alternatives in favor of abandoned children and families at risk and to foster a sense of responsibility in that region on the whole issue of promoting children's rights.
The 50-page report represents a collective thinking of representatives from 17 countries in the region and 11 international experts from UNICEF, DCI, ICCB and ISS. It is useful reading for policy making bodies.
The child's right to grow up in a family
This book contains guidelines for practice in adoption and foster placement, at national and international levels. It is a collective achievement of several NGOs from North and South on all the continents.
The guidelines define optimal level of performance and are intended to influence policy and practice in order to achieve ever-increasing standards of excellence.
The actual publication was supervised by the International Council on Social Welfare (Swedish National Committee), Adoption Center Sweden and ISS.
ISS Reports