(
German: Youth office) is a German and
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n local agency set up to promote the welfare of children. Each
district
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
() or district-free city () has its own . Its structure is flat, with no centralised (state or federal) coordinating office.
In Germany the youth offices were created during
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
by the Reich Youth Welfare Act () of 1922, in force since 1924. Since the local organizations function independently there is no federal administrative supervision.
Statistics
The Federal Statistics Bureau () shows
a steep rise in the number of children with problems taken by yearly into safeguarding.
*23,432 in 1995
*25,664 in 2005
*77,645 in 2015
*61,383 in 2017
The main reason for this is the high number of unaccompanied child refugees, who are by law required to be taken into safeguard by a (e.g. 45,000 in 2016). Among the children (age 0–13) more than 50% return to their parents within two weeks.
See also
*
Children's rights
Children's rights or the rights of children are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors.
*
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is an independent, nonprofit non-governmental organization with the aim of enforcing human rights through legal means. Using litigation, it tries to hold state and non-state actors r ...
*
Human rights in Germany
*
Parliamentary Petitions Office
*
Helmut Kentler
Similar organizations in other countries
* and Netherlands
*
Child Protective Services USA
*
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service
The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) is a non-departmental public body in England set up to promote the welfare of children and families involved in family court. It was formed in April 2001 under the provisions ...
England and Wales
*
Norwegian Child Welfare Services
References
External links
General Jugendamt websitein German language with an English brochur
Jugendamt - What youth welfare offices do (pdf)The Bamberg Declaration, adopted in the framework of the international symposium on "German youth welfare offices and the European Convention on Human Rights" Bamberg, 20/21 October 2007, Chair: Annelise Oeschger, President of the International Nongovernmental Organizations Conference of the Council of Europe (INGO)
Individual UPR Submission by the League for Rights
{{Authority control
Child-related organisations in Germany
Children's rights in Germany
European Court of Human Rights cases involving Germany
Human rights in Germany
Human rights in Austria
Child-related organisations in Austria