In January 2006, Terre des hommes (Tdh) decided to open the offices of the Regional Child Protection Project in Budapest, Hungary. With a geographically central position, the Regional Project covers Albania, Kosovo, Moldova and Romania.

Our aim is to improve the child protection policies in these four countries of intervention by the year 2009: to deliver efficient and co-ordinated services that meet Western European legal and social standards.

The Regional Project is based on the three areas of expertise that the Foundation has gained during its 15 years in South Eastern Europe: the fight against child trafficking and the risks of migration, the strengthening of the legal system for minors, and the protection of child AIDS victims.

In order to improve child protection in the region, two key areas have been identified. The first is to strengthen the capacity of the Tdh delegations and its local partners in collecting and analysing the information emanating from our current projects. The second is to build up advocacy cases on topics of child protection that are still relatively unknown (for example, an investigation into the flow of child traffic between South Eastern Europe and Western Europe).


With this project, we hope to create a new dynamic at a regional level.
With regards to child trafficking and the problems of migration, our work is inspired by the TACT programme implemented in Albania. The main strategy for Romania, Moldavia and Kosovo is to set up national co-ordination facilities, which will both improve the operation of the projects, and create an efficient platform for our advocacy activities.

To be more effective at a regional level, third countries, that are interacting with the countries of intervention, have been included in the project: these are Switzerland, Greece, Italy and Russia.

In the area of juvenile justice, we have already carried out an intense project of seminars and training, with strong institutional and media visibility, in order to put us on the path towards a harmonised plan of action.

Concerning the protection of child AIDS victims, there are still big disparities in the social and legal frameworks and therefore a need for the implementation of co-ordinated and harmonised plans. In the first instance, our work is concentrated on best practice training.


In Europe, the regional dynamic has to replace the classic North-South logic.
There are very real risks associated with ill prepared migration for young people who fancy “trying their chances” in Western Europe. Some get caught up in the underworld, others are victims of the human trafficking network, and others still continually roam from one country to another, their life project falling apart due to a lack of help and appropriate assistance.

Europe has not been saved from the AIDS pandemic, far from it. A growing number of young people from the transition countries are carriers of the virus.
In today’s Europe, it is impossible to intervene in a child protection problem in a transition country without taking into account the regional dimension of the action to be taken.
It’s against this background of radical transition, that Terre des hommes, with realism and backed up by its 15 years of regional experience, has committed to a Europe wide project to overcome the weaknesses of the child protection mechanisms.


Country by country
- In Albania, having successfully finished our work on the signing of a bilateral agreement, by Greece and Albania, to protect child trafficking victims, Tdh now supports the creation of child protection units, together with three Ministries. Tdh is also working with UNICEF to set up a conference on Juvenile Justice.

- In Kosovo, Tdh is working on having alternatives to juvenile detention included in the new Penal Code, and particularly on having a law adopted that would introduce mediation services. With regards to AIDS, a lot of work remains to be done on raising awareness and access to tritherapies.

- In Moldova, the brand new Moldavian Penal Code includes specific chapters on child trafficking and the risks of migration that conform to UNICEF directives, but their application needs to be closely monitored. With regards to Juvenile Justice, numerous measures have been planned as alternatives to detention, and specific facilities, at a regional level, have been dedicated to the judgement of minors. Again, effective implementation of these measures needs to be monitored and supported. Finally, on the subject of AIDS, even though best practice techniques have been incorporated into the legal arsenal, people that are HIV positive are generally still discriminated against and don’t have universal access to the required treatment.

- In Romania, with regards to child trafficking and the risks of migration, repatriation agreements are in place with France, Spain and Italy. However, unaccompanied Romanian minors leave for Western Europe in large numbers. Concerning Juvenile Justice, we support our partner in having the national and international texts respected and implemented more effectively. On the subject of AIDS, after a long battle by Tdh and its partner, Romanian children now have access to care. But work remains to be done on raising awareness against the discrimination of HIV positive children.