3 GLOSSARY

No.	Terms	Description
	Abuse	The act of causing harm to another. Common forms of abuse include physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and/or psychological violence. The World Health Organization defines child abuse and maltreatment as “all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power”. Also see Maltreatment and Neglect
	Adoption	Process of assuming the permanent care of and parental rights over a child from his/her biological parents. Under adoption, the responsibilities of the child’s birth parents are legally terminated and transferred to the adoptive parents.
	Aged out	The process whereby a person reaches an age where he/she is no longer eligible to obtain specialized services for children. Within legal definitions of a child in Malaysia, a person, upon turning 18, will age out of the CPCM Programme and move into independent living. Also see Independent living
	Alternatives to Detention (ATD)	The International Detention Coalition defines Alternatives to Detention as “any legislation, policy or practice, formal or informal that ensures people are not detained for reasons relating to their migration status”. ATD models are typically non-custodial options within a community based setting.
	Asylum seeker	A person who is seeking protection from serious harm in a country other than his/her own and whose refugee claim has yet to be assessed. Also see Refugee
	Best interest of the child	A child rights principle taken from Article 3 of the UN
		Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Article provides that all adults should do what is best for children. The principle guides decision making.
	Care plan	A written document that provides a list of goals that addresses the needs of the child and specific actions on how all parties will help the child achieve these goals.
	Care planning	The guided process to develop a care plan. Also see Care plan
	Caregiver	A person who provides direct care to a child. Also called a carer.
	Case Committee	A team that gathers to decide on the admission of a child into the programme. The team also decides on suggested interventions or goals related to the child that should be achieved throughout the case cycle. Members of the Case Committee should include the Case Manager, the Case Supervisor, the Project Director, and an independent child rights advisor. Decisions by the Committee must be objective, fair and in consideration of the best interest of the child.
	Case Management	A process of identifying and coordinating services to address the holistic needs of a person. Case Management processes include the screening, assessment, planning, care coordination, facilitation, monitoring and evaluation of a person’s risks, needs and related concerns. Case Management specifically related to children should look into the safety, stability and permanency and well-being needs of a child.
	Case Manager	A person whose primary role is to facilitate the process of case management.
	Case Supervisor	A person who assists with guiding, advising and overseeing the work of Case Managers. The Case Supervisor also plays a decision making role.
	Child	A person below the age of 18 years old, unless otherwise stated by law. In Malaysia, a child is defined as a person below the age of 18. Also referred to as a “minor”.
	Community	A leader from a particular community that is identified as representing a significant segment of that community.
	representative
	Community placement	Community placement within the programme context is defined as community based care for unaccompanied and separated children. One such example is foster care.
	Community-based organizations (CBO)	A not-for-profit group that works from a society or community level and works to meet the needs of a particular community. Within the Malaysian context, CBOs are refugee community led and are typically differentiated based on ethnicity or nationality.
	CPCM Programme	The Community Placement and Case Management (CPCM) Programme is a two phased programme by SUKA Society that looks into foster care placement and provision of case management services for UASC in Malaysia.
	Durable solutions	Finding solutions that enable refugees to rebuild their lives with dignity and respect. Three main aspects of durable solutions include resettlement, repatriation and integration. Durable solutions in Malaysia are undertaken by the UNHCR. Also see Resettlement and Repatriation
	Family	The act of preserving a family unit. Family reunification is often needed when family members are separated within a migratory context. Reasonable efforts must be made to trace and reunite a child with his/her biological parents or primary caregiver where appropriate and in the best interest of the child.
	reunification
	Formal foster care	Where the Court grants the State the right to take temporary custody of a child and to arrange for relevant foster care arrangements accordingly. The change of care and custody is legally authorized and regulated by the State or a foster care agency.
	Foster care	Temporary care provided when a child’s parents, legal guardian or customary care provider is unable to care for the child. Foster care can take many forms. Also see Formal foster care and Informal foster care
	Foster parents	Persons who are not the biological parents or relatives of the child but to whom care and control of the child has been given by the relevant authorities. Foster parents provide temporary care for a child in the community.
	Foster Parents	The personnel of the agency that looks into supporting the foster parents throughout the fostering process.
	Support Worker
	Guardian	A person who has the right and responsibility of taking care of someone who cannot take care of himself or herself.
	Heightened risk	The increased risk of harm experienced by particularly vulnerable groups of persons. UASC are often at increased risk of abuse, maltreatment, neglect, exploitation and other forms of violence within a migratory context.
	Home Study	A review of the foster parents, the foster home and family environment. The Home Study is completed by the Foster Parents Support Worker and will be used during the foster parents’ selection process.
	Home visit	A visit to a person’s home made by a Case Manager.
	Immigration detention	A government run facility that holds persons who have violated immigration laws of a country. In Malaysia, children are held with the adult population in immigration detention centres across the country.
	Independent living	The preparation for a child to achieve self-sufficiency prior to or upon exiting the Programme. During case management, a child is assisted with developing the skills he/she needs for adulthood and independent living.
	Informal foster care	A private and temporary arrangement between a child’s parents and another party which is usually a family member, a relative or family friend. The transfer is not overseen by the State or a family court and there is no change in legal responsibility of the child. Also see Formal foster care
	Intake interview	The initial meeting during which the Case Manager asks relevant questions to gather information to identify the client’s needs and risks.
	International	An intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants. Within the Malaysian context, IOM assists with the resettlement process for refugees and the repatriation process for migrants.
	Organization for Migration (IOM)
	International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)	An independent international organization that ensures humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and armed violence. Within the programme, the ICRC mainly assists with tracing and family reunification.
	Intervention	The action carried out to address a particular need or to fulfil a particular goal.
	Irregular migrants	The IOM defines this as persons who undertake “movement that takes place outside the regulatory norms of the sending, transit and receiving country.” Irregular migrants often do not have valid documentation and are at risk of arrest and detention.
	Maltreatment	All forms of abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment relates to all forms of abuse and neglect towards a child. Also see Abuse and Neglect
	Matching	A team formed by the agency to select a foster family that best fits the profile of the child. Composition of the Committee should, at the very least, include the Case Manager, the Case Supervisor, the Foster Parents Support Worker and an independent expert on child care.
	Committee
	Minor	A person below the age of 18 years old, unless otherwise stated by law. In Malaysia, a child is defined as a person below the age of 18. Also see Child
	Neglect	A form of abuse where a person’s basic needs are not met. Child neglect include the failure to provide for a child’s safety needs, access to adequate healthcare, clothing and other material needs, emotional and social development needs, and educational and housing needs. Also see Abuse and Maltreatment
	Non-governmental organization (NGO)	A not-for-profit organization that operates independently from the government and whose purpose is typically to address social or political concerns.
	Permanency goals	Finding longer term solutions for a child as a result of disruption in a child’s life from the migration process. Also see Stability goals
	Project Director	A person who assists the Case Supervisor and provides overall direction for the Programme.
	Quality Assurance Worker	Personnel of the agency who oversees case and programme evaluation under a foster care programme.
	Rapport building	An ongoing process for building trust, establishing common ground, demonstrating empathy and understanding, and opening up channels of communication with a client.
	Refugee	A person who has been forced to flee his/her country because of persecution, war or violence. Such persons must have a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. As a result of this fear, such persons are also unable to obtain protection from the State authorities.
	Repatriation	The return of a person to his/her own country.
	Resettlement	The process of moving people, usually refugees, from an asylum country to another country that has agreed to accept them.
	Risk assessment	A systematic process of assessing the potential and actual risks involved in view of reducing the harm that results from these risks.
	Safety goals	Goals that ensure children who are outside of home care are safe from abuse, neglect, and maltreatment.
	Screening process	Preliminary assessment to determine the suitability of an applicant. Foster parents are screened mainly for safety requirements whilst a child is screened only for programme requirements. Screening allows for the right persons to be referred into the programme.
	Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV)	Any act - physical, emotional, psychological or sexual in nature - that is carried out against a person’s will. The violence carried out is based on gender norms and unequal power relationships that can affect women, girls, men and boys.
	Shelter or residential care	Group living arrangements where children are looked after by a paid staff in a specially designated facility. Residential care should always only be provided on a temporary basis. However, in Malaysia, most residential care services function as longer term solutions for children.
	Stability goals	Goals that look into reducing the number of disruptions in a child’s life and to provide some form of stability that was lost through the migration process.
	Stateless person	Article 1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines a stateless person as someone who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law. Some refugee populations are also considered to be stateless.
	Survivor of Violence and Torture (SVT)	A person who has experienced or witnessed serious forms of torture and/or violence. Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm…”. Torture is defined under Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT) as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind…”.
	Trauma	A person’s emotional and physical response to highly distressing experiences or events. Such events usually involve significant loss, emotional or physical harm or the threat thereof.
	UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)	United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty that sets out the civil, cultural, legal, health, political and social rights of children. Countries that have ratified the Convention are expected to advance the implementation of the Convention and the status of child rights in the country. Malaysia ratified the Convention in 1995.
	United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)	The United Nations refugee agency mandated to protect refugees, asylum seekers, forcibly displaced persons, and stateless persons.
	Unaccompanied and separated child (UASC)	An unaccompanied child is a person below the age of 18 who is separated from both parents and is not being cared for by an adult who under law or custom has the responsibility to provide such care. A separated child is person below the age of 18 who is separated from both parents, guardian or primary care giver but is in the country with other adult relatives.
	Undocumented person	A person who does not have the appropriate documentation and/or legal right to reside in a country.
	Vulnerabilities	Qualities or a state that exposes a person to being harmed or persecuted. Examples of persons who are considered to be vulnerable groups include unaccompanied children, survivors of violence and torture, persons with disabilities and the elderly.
	Well-being goals	A holistic and broad way of describing how a person is doing. It is often related to the extent the basic rights of a person are being met. Child well-being goals will include goals related to physical and mental health, material needs, risk and safety, social support, education, housing, and child participation.