Mental processes such as thought, imagination, perception, memory, decision-making, reasoning and problem-solving.

Initiatives, structures, processes and networks led and organized by individuals and members of the community (including children themselves) that promote children’s rights, safety, development, well- being and participation.

Approaches that are led by a collective, community-driven process rather than by an NGO, UN agency or other outside actor.

Approaches that seek to ensure that community members are able to protect children and ensure their right to healthy development.

The obligation that information about an individual will not be disclosed or made available to unauthorised persons without prior permission. There may be limits on confidentiality for children in accordance with their best interests as well as mandatory reporting obligations.

The process of interpreting or adapting the standards to context; the process of debating, determining and agreeing upon the meaning of global guidance in a given local situation; “translating” the meaning and guidance of the Standards for the context of a country (or region) so as to make the content of the Standards appropriate and meaningful to the given circumstances.

Coping is the process of adapting to a new life situation, managing difficult circumstances or making an effort to solve or minimise stress or conflict. Some coping mechanisms are sustainable and helpful, while others may be negative, with potentially long-term harmful consequences.

An immediate threat to a child’s safety, indicating circumstances where hazards are present that have the potential to cause harm or injury. It is also a general word for liability to all kinds of injury, both close by and certain, or remote and doubtful.

Any form of detention or imprisonment or the placement of a person in a public or private custodial setting, from which this person is not permitted to leave at will, by order of any judicial, administrative or other public authority. This includes any form of residential placement including prisons, police lock-ups, remand homes, borstal institutions, reform schools, education and re- education centres, training centres and schools, treatment centres and secure institutions, whether they are facilities specifically for children or for adults. The term applies regardless of the reason why children are deprived of liberty, whether the declared aim is protection, rehabilitation, punishment or something else.

The capacity to make one's own deliberate choices and consequently to be acknowledged as a free subject. It reflects the integrity of the person and is the source from which all human rights derive. The foundation of life with dignity is the assurance of access to basic services, security and respect for human rights. Equally, the way in which humanitarian response is implemented strongly affects the dignity and well-being of disaster-affected children, families and communities.

Results from the interaction between persons with physical, psychosocial, intellectual or sensory impairments and barriers of attitude and the environment that prevent their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. Children with disabilities are diverse; in any humanitarian response, their unique capacities, socio-economic, educational, family and other background and resources and barriers they face need to be considered.

Statistics separated according to particular criteria. As a minimum level of data disaggregation, CPMS proposes sex, age and disability data disaggregation.

Sex disaggregated data means separate population statistics for males and females. “Gender” implies a more nuanced disaggregation and should be used for qualitative data.

Age-disaggregated data separates population statistics by age groups. The CPMS proposes the following ages groups for data disaggregation for children: infants (0-2 years), toddlers (3-5 years), early school age (6-8 years), pre-adolescence (9-10 years), early adolescence (10-14 years), middle adolescence (15-17 years). It is recognised that a wide variety of age groupings are used among different agencies and governments.

The CPMS proposes disability disaggregated data follows the recommendations and tools provided by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics. The collection of qualitative data on barriers and risks faced by children with disabilities is as well required.

The concept and practice of reducing the risk of disaster through systematic efforts to analyse and manage causal factors. It includes reducing exposure to hazards, lessening the vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improving preparedness for adverse events. Risks can be caused by both climate (e.g. drought, floods and landslides) and non- climate related disasters (e.g. earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis). DRR contributes to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable development.

Diversion means the conditional channelling of children in conflict with the law away from judicial proceedings through the development and implementation of procedures, structures and programmes that enable many to be dealt with by non-judicial bodies, thereby avoiding the negative effects of formal judicial proceedings and a criminal record.

The concept of humanitarian agencies avoiding unintended negative consequences for affected persons and not undermining communities’ capacities for peace building and reconstruction. It underscores unintended impacts of humanitarian interventions and is an essential basis for the work of organisations in conflict situations.

Those responsible for fulfilling the rights of rights-holders.

Children from 0-8 years. This can be further specified as:

• Infants: 0 - 2 years
• Pre-school age: 3-5 years
• Early school age: 6-8 years.

Early childhood is a critical period when the brain develops most rapidly and has a high capacity for change, and the foundation is laid for health and well-being throughout life.

A comprehensive approach to policies and programs for children from the prenatal period to eight years of age as well as for their parents, their caregivers and their communities. Its purpose is to uphold children’s right to develop their full cognitive, emotional, social and physical potential.

A multi-faceted process of recovery guided by development principles that builds on humanitarian programmes and encourages sustainable development opportunities. It aims to generate self- sustaining, nationally owned, resilient processes for post-crisis recovery. It encompasses the restoration of basic services, livelihoods, shelter, governance, security and rule of law, environment and social dimensions, including the reintegration of displaced populations.

The process of stimulating the growth of an area’s local economy through developing markets, strengthening new and existing enterprises, and creating jobs in the private sector and public institutions, including reconstructing needed infrastructure that will allow for trade and commerce to take place in local, national, regional, and international markets. Economic recovery following conflict or disaster should be a transformative process of building back both better and differently.

Maltreatment that causes harm to the psychological or emotional well-being of the child. This could include restricting a child’s movements, denigration, ridicule, threats and intimidation, discrimination, rejection, caregivers being emotionally unavailable or chronically inattentive to a child and other nonphysical forms of hostile treatment that deny the child an appropriate and supportive environment. Also called psychological maltreatment.

Occurs when an infectious disease spreads rapidly to many people. See Infectious Disease Outbreak.

An assessment of performance, focused on results (outcomes and impacts) that can be internal or external. Evaluations can provide assessments of what works and why, and highlight intended and unintended results for accountability and learning purposes.

Information on which a judgment or conclusion can be based. In humanitarian work, many different sorts of evidence are used, including subjective and qualitative information. Qualitative information is not necessarily information of a lower quality than quantitative information. ALNAP uses six criteria to judge the quality of evidence used in humanitarian action: “accuracy; representativeness; relevance; generalisability; attribution; and clarity around context and methods”.

When an individual in a position of power and/or trust takes or attempts to take advantage of a child for their own personal benefit, advantage, gratification, or profit. This personal benefit may take different forms: physical, sexual, financial, material, social, military, or political. Exploitation may involve remuneration in cash or in kind (such as social status, political power, documentation, freedom of movement, or access to opportunities, goods or services) to the child or to a third person/s.

Items which are defined under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC); Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (APII CCW); Protocol V to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (Protocol V CCW); and the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). This includes for example landmines, unexploded and abandoned explosive ordnance including from cluster munitions, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mortars, shells, grenades, cartridges, ammunition, etc. See also unexploded ordnance and abandoned explosive ordnance.

A formal system established and used to allow recipients of humanitarian action (and in some cases, other crisis-affected populations) to provide information on their experience with a humanitarian agency or the wider humanitarian system. Such information is then used for different purposes, in expectation of a variety of benefits, including taking corrective action to improve some element of the response. Feedback can also be provided informally. Feedback and reporting mechanisms should designed to be accessible to all children.

Situations where children are cared for in a household outside their family. Fostering is usually understood to be a temporary arrangement, and in most cases the birth parents retain their parental rights and responsibilities. The care arrangement is administered by a competent authority whereby a child is placed in the domestic environment of a family who have been selected, prepared and authorised to provide such care, and are supervised and may be financially and/or non-financially supported in doing so.

Traditional or informal fostering refers to situations in which the child lives with a family or other household that may or may not be related to the child’s family. No third party is involved in these arrangements, though they may be endorsed or supported by the local community and may involve well-understood obligations and entitlements.

Spontaneous fostering refers to a situation in which a family cares for a child without any prior arrangement. This is a frequent occurrence in humanitarian contexts and may involve a family from a different community than that of the child.

Arranged fostering refers to a situation in which a child is cared for by a family as part of an arrangement made by a third party. This arrangement may not be covered by formal legislation.

The social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys. It differs from sex which is defined most often at birth based on biological anatomy. Non-binary gender identity refers to any gender identity or expression which does not fit the male/female or boy/girl binary.

WHO defines gender to be “the socially constructed characteristics of women and men – such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed. The concept of gender includes five important elements: relational, hierarchical, historical, contextual and institutional. While most people are born either male or female, they are taught appropriate norms and behaviours – including how they should interact with others of the same or opposite sex within households, communities and work places. When individuals or groups do not “fit” established gender norms they often face stigma, discriminatory practices or social exclusion – all of which adversely affect health.”

An umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and that is based on socially ascribed (i.e. gender) differences between males and females. It includes acts that inflict physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion, and other deprivations of liberty. These acts can occur in public or in private. Some harmful practices, such as child marriage and FGM/C, are also forms of GBV. GBV has significant and long-lasting impacts on the health and psychological, social and economic well-being of women and girls and their families and communities. See also Sexual Violence and Sexual and Gender Based Violence.

Interventions that are designed to address the root causes of gender-based discrimination and hence question gendered power relations.

Traditional and non-traditional practices which inflict pain, cause physical or psychological harm and ‘disfigurement’ of children. In many societies, these practices are considered a social norm and defended by perpetrators and community members on the basis of tradition, religion, or superstition. Harmful practices perpetrated primarily against girls, like female genital mutilation and child marriage, are also forms of gender-based violence.

Potentially damaging physical events, natural phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption or environmental damage. Some definitions suggest hazards are dangers that can be foreseen but not avoided.

Work which, by its nature or by the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety and morals of children, and which must be prohibited for children under the age of 18 years (even when this is above the general minimum working age). The ILO’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190), the non-binding guidelines that accompany Convention No. 182, give some indication as to what work should be prohibited. It urges member States to give consideration to:

• Work that exposes children to physical, emotional or sexual abuse;

• Work underground, under water, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces;

• Work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or which involves the manual handling or

  transport of heavy loads;

• Work in an unhealthy environment, which may, for example, expose children to hazardous

  substances, agents or processes; or to temperatures, noise levels, or vibrations damaging to their

  health; and

• Work under particularly difficult conditions, such as work for long hours or during the night, or work

  that does not allow for the possibility of returning home each day.

Rights that every human being is entitled to enjoy simply by virtue of being human. They identify the minimum conditions for living with dignity that apply to all of us. They are universal and inalienable: they cannot be taken away. As human beings, children are human rights holders. Additionally, they have a specific set of human rights – often referred to as child rights – pertaining to persons under the age of 18 and enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989.

The objectives of humanitarian action are to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity during and in the aftermath of man-made crises and natural disasters, as well as to prevent and strengthen preparedness for the occurrence of such situations. Humanitarian action has two inextricably linked dimensions: protecting people and providing assistance. Humanitarian action is rooted in humanitarian principles - humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. See Humanitarian response.