A/HRC/11/37 parents or legal and customary caregivers, as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 27. Principles in the present Guidelines are also applicable, as appropriate, to young persons already in alternative care and who need continuing care or support for a transitional period after reaching the age of majority under applicable law. 28. For the purposes of the present Guidelines, and subject notably to the exceptions listed in paragraph 29 below, the following definitions shall apply: (a) Children without parental care: all children not in the overnight care of at least one of their parents, for whatever reason and under whatever circumstances. Children without parental care who are outside their country of habitual residence or victims of emergency situations may be designated as: (i) “Unaccompanied” if they are not cared for by another relative or an adult who by law or custom is responsible for doing so; or (ii) “Separated” if they are separated from a previous legal or customary primary caregiver, but who may nevertheless be accompanied by another relative. (b) Alternative care may take the form of: (i) Informal care: any private arrangement provided in a family environment, whereby the child is looked after on an ongoing or indefinite basis by relatives or friends (informal kinship care) or by others in their individual capacity, at the initiative of the child, his/her parents or other person without this arrangement having been ordered by an administrative or judicial authority or a duly accredited body; (ii) Formal care: all care provided in a family environment which has been ordered by a competent administrative body or judicial authority, and all care provided in a residential environment, including in private facilities, whether or not as a result of administrative or judicial measures. (c) With respect to the environment where it is provided, alternative care may be: (i) Kinship care: family-based care within the child’s extended family or with close friends of the family known to the child, whether formal or informal in nature; (ii) Foster care: situations where children are placed by a competent authority for the purpose of alternative care in the domestic environment of a family other than the children’s own family, that has been selected, qualified, approved and supervised for providing such care; (iii) Other forms of family-based or family-like care placements; (iv) Residential care: care provided in any non-family-based group setting, such as places of safety for emergency care, transit centres in emergency situations, and all other short and long-term residential care facilities including group homes; (v) Supervised independent living arrangements for children. (d) With respect to those responsible for alternative care: (i) Agencies are the public or private bodies and services that organize alternative care for children; (ii) Facilities are the individual public or private establishments that provide residential care for children. 28 GE.09-16766