There’s No Place Like Home: The Role of Informal Carers under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Children need guidance and direction to navigate their everyday lives, and such guidance is likely to come from not just parents, but wider family and community. How we acknowledge informal carers and support their caregiving role will have implications for a child’s enjoyment and exercise of rights. Yet, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) does not explicitly recognise ‘kinship’ care nor does it accord formal recognition to informal carers involved in the everyday care of a child. The role of extended family members and community is referenced just once in the CRC, within the framework of parental guidance and direction under article 5. Interrogating the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, this paper examines how informal carers have come to be recognised and supported within the CRC. It suggests that while article 5 may offer an avenue to identify informal carers, its scope and function are not open-ended, and the extent to which the CRC provides a legal framework to recognise informal carers and informal care arrangements remains unclear. This paper concludes that more consideration needs to be given to how informal carers are supported and protected within the CRC, to ensure children are not denied their right to family and family relationships under international law.