ABSTRACT
This chapter departs from the view that children’s rights are not easily translated from principle into effective practice and that this is also the case regarding the non-discrimination principle. Yet, practice is exactly what matters to children in vulnerable situations. This chapter examines Article 2 of the CRC in the context of child protection, focusing on the practices in which the child is concretely taken into a substitute home as part of public care. Based on an empirical snapshot on private transport services and the websites marketing their services, the chapter highlights how fragmented services may in turn fragment children’s needs and rights, and how, eventually, narrower kinds of services in transitions would be seen as being justified for children with complex needs. Therefore, the implementation of the non-discrimination principle would require changes in many layers of child protection and beyond.
