{{Short description|German and Austrian youth welfare agency}} {{Expand German|Jugendamt|date=August 2012}} {{More citations needed|date=October 2025}} {{lang|de|'''Jugendamt'''}} ({{Literal translation|youth office}}) is a German agency set up to promote the welfare of children. Each district ({{lang|de|Kreis}}) or district-free city ({{lang|de|kreisfreie Stadt}}) has its own {{lang|de|Jugendamt}}. Its structure is flat, with no centralised (state or federal) coordinating office. In Germany the youth offices were created during Weimar Republic by the Reich Youth Welfare Act ({{lang|de|Reichsgesetz für Jugendwohlfahrt}}) of 1922, in force since 1924. Since the local organizations function independently there is no federal administrative supervision.
==Statistics== The Federal Statistics Bureau ({{lang|de|Statistisches Bundesamt}}) shows<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.destatis.de/DE/PresseService/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2018/08/PD18_311_225.html|title=Pressemitteilungen - 61 400 Inobhutnahmen zum Schutz von Kindern und Jugendlichen im Jahr 2017 - Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis)|website=www.destatis.de}}</ref> a steep rise in the number of children with problems taken by {{lang|de|Jugendämter}} 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,{{cn|date=March 2022}} who are by law required to be taken into safeguard by a {{lang|de|Jugendamt}} (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 * European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights * Human rights in Germany * Parliamentary Petitions Office * Helmut Kentler
=== Similar organizations in other countries === * {{ill|Bureau Jeugdzorg|nl}} and {{ill|Raad voor de Kinderbescherming|nl}} Netherlands * Child Protective Services USA * Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service England and Wales * Norwegian Child Welfare Services
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.unterstuetzung-die-ankommt.de/ General Jugendamt website] in German language with an English brochure [http://www.lwl.org/lja-download/unterstuetzung-die-ankommt/extern/pocketbroschuere/Jugendamt_English.pdf Jugendamt - What youth welfare offices do (pdf)] * [http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session4/DE/LCR_GER_UPR_S4_2009anx_BambergDeclaration.pdf The Bamberg Declaration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232549/http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session4/DE/LCR_GER_UPR_S4_2009anx_BambergDeclaration.pdf |date=2016-03-03 }}, 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) * [http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session4/DE/LCR_GER_UPR_S4_2009_LeagueforChildrensRights.pdf Individual UPR Submission by the League for {{as written|Chil|drens' [sic]}} Rights] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211003054725/https://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session4/DE/LCR_GER_UPR_S4_2009_LeagueforChildrensRights.pdf |date=2021-10-03 }}
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Category:Child-related organisations in Germany Category:Children's rights in Germany Category:European Court of Human Rights cases involving Germany Category:Human rights in Germany Category:Human rights in Austria Category:Child-related organisations in Austria