A/RES/64/142
leaders and the media should be engaged to this end. These social protection
measures should include:
(a) Family strengthening services, such as parenting courses and sessions,
the promotion of positive parent-child relationships, conflict resolution skills,
opportunities for employment and income generation and, where required, social
assistance;
(b) Supportive social services, such as day care, mediation and conciliation
services, substance abuse treatment, financial assistance, and services for parents
and children with disabilities. Such services, preferably of an integrated and
non-intrusive nature, should be directly accessible at the community level and
should actively involve the participation of families as partners, combining their
resources with those of the community and the carer;
(c) Youth policies aiming at empowering youth to face positively the
challenges of everyday life, including when they decide to leave the parental home,
and preparing future parents to make informed decisions regarding their sexual and
reproductive health and to fulfil their responsibilities in this respect.
35. Various complementary methods and techniques should be used for family
support, varying throughout the process of support, such as home visits, group
meetings with other families, case conferences and securing commitments by the
family concerned. They should be directed towards both facilitating intrafamilial
relationships and promoting the family’s integration within its community.
36. Special attention should be paid, in accordance with local laws, to the
provision and promotion of support and care services for single and adolescent
parents and their children, whether or not born out of wedlock. States should ensure
that adolescent parents retain all rights inherent to their status both as parents and as
children, including access to all appropriate services for their own development,
allowances to which parents are entitled, and their inheritance rights. Measures
should be adopted to ensure the protection of pregnant adolescents and to guarantee
that they do not interrupt their studies. Efforts should also be made to reduce the
stigma attached to single and adolescent parenthood.
37. Support and services should be available to siblings who have lost their
parents or caregivers and choose to remain together in their household, to the extent
that the eldest sibling is both willing and deemed capable of acting as the household
head. States should ensure, including through the appointment of a legal guardian, a
recognized responsible adult or, where appropriate, a public body legally mandated
to act as guardian, as stipulated in paragraph 19 above, that such households benefit
from mandatory protection from all forms of exploitation and abuse, and
supervision and support on the part of the local community and its competent
services, such as social workers, with particular concern for the children’s health,
housing, education and inheritance rights. Special attention should be given to
ensuring that the head of such a household retains all rights inherent to his/her child
status, including access to education and leisure, in addition to his/her rights as a
household head.
38. States should ensure opportunities for day care, including all-day schooling,
and respite care which would enable parents better to cope with their overall
responsibilities towards the family, including additional responsibilities inherent in
caring for children with special needs.
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