On October 26, in a joint endeavor with the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and its Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups Task Force (CAAFAG TF), Watchlist published the Arabic and French translations of its Operational Guidance on Negotiating and Implementing Handover Protocols for the Transfer of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups.
The operational guidance aims to support the signing and implementation of handover protocols, which are agreements by governments or armed groups to swiftly transfer children allegedly associated with armed forces and armed groups (CAAFAG) in their custody, or whom they have encountered, to child protection actors. They offer CAAFAG a safe avenue to leave armed forces and armed groups and receive the care, protection, and reintegration support they need. The guidance seeks to support child protection actors to initiate and strategically navigate handover protocol negotiations, to promote the release of CAAFAG in detention and improve standards for their prosecution, to strengthen the implementation of handover agreements, and to safeguard children at every stage of handover.
Translations of the guidance in Arabic and French provide greater accessibility for child protection actors to good practices, lessons learned, and other useful information on previous and ongoing negotiations and implementation processes in various countries.
The Arabic and French translations of the operational guidance were made possible by the generous support of the Federal Republic of Germany.