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.

中文翻译：

---

没有像家一样的地方：《联合国儿童权利公约》下非正式照顾者的作用

孩子在日常生活中需要指导和指导，而这种指导可能不仅来自父母，还来自更广泛的家庭和社区。我们如何承认非正式照顾者并支持他们的照顾角色将对儿童享受和行使权利产生影响。然而，联合国儿童权利公约 (CRC) 并未明确承认“亲属关系”照料，也未正式承认参与儿童日常照料的非正式照料者。大家庭成员和社区的作用在《儿童权利公约》第 5 条下的父母指导和指导框架内仅被提及一次。本文探讨了联合国儿童权利委员会的工作，探讨了非正式照顾者是如何产生的得到 CRC 的认可和支持。它表明，虽然第 5 条可能提供识别非正式照顾者的途径，但其范围和功能并非无限制的，而且《儿童权利公约》在多大程度上提供了承认非正式照顾者和非正式照顾安排的法律框架仍不清楚。本文的结论是，需要更多地考虑如何在儿童权利委员会内支持和保护非正式照顾者，以确保儿童不会被剥夺国际法规定的家庭和家庭关系权利。