Global priorities against local context: protecting Bhutanese refugee children in Nepal

Overview

This paper explores how the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) global priorities and strategies for refugee girls and boys are applied in long-term Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. It examines UNHCR’s interventions to prevent and respond to child protection issues, including separation from parents and caregivers, and early marriage. These are compared with community perceptions of, and assistance for, children living in difficult circumstances. Young refugees’ own research on issues affecting children in the camps offers further insights into how protection is defined and experienced by children living in this context and their suggestions for community and bureaucratic responses.