Evropsko unijo je leta 2015 zajela begunska in migracijska kriza, ki je izbruhnila kot posledica prihoda velikega števila beguncev z Bližnjega vzhoda. Med njimi je bila polovica otrok in tudi otrok brez spremstva. Velikokrat so bili žrtve različnih zlorab in tudi trgovine z ljudmi. Naloga Evropske unije je bila, da te otroke zaščiti in jih zavaruje. Namen raziskave magistrskega dela je ugotoviti, katere zakone, politike in ukrepe je Evropska unija sprejela, da bi otroke zaščitila, in ali so bili ti uspešni. Prav tako sem analizirala, kje se nahajajo pomanjkljivosti, na čem mora Evropska unija kot celota in tudi posamezne države članice še delati in kaj bi še lahko storila, da bi bila pravnopolitična zaščita otrok še celovitejša in učinkovitejša. Raziskave oziroma analize sem se lotila s tremi metodami, in sicer deskriptivno, zgodovinsko in metodo klasifikacije. Ugotovitve so pokazale, da je zakonodajni okvir, ki so ga postavile evropske institucije, zelo dober, otroke begunce ščiti in jim daje pravico do izobraževanja, zdravstva, socialne oskrbe, skratka do normalnega življenja. Na drugi strani pa imamo države članice, ki vse te ukrepe, zapisane v zakonih, predpisih itd., v praksi sicer slabše uporabljajo. In year 2015 European Union was dealing with one of biggest world refugee migration crisis, which arose as a result of a large number of refugees from the Near East. Among them, half of them were children or unaccompanied children. These childrens were often victims of different abuses and human trafficking. Main task of Europen Union was to protect them. The purpose of my master`s thesis is to determine which laws, policies and measures have been taken by the European Union in order to protect children and to analyse if they have been successful. I have also analyzed where are the shortcomings, as at European Union leves as well as on national level of each Member State. What should they do to make the legal protection of children even more comprehensive and effective. Reasearch and analysis has been dealt within three methods, discreet, historical and classification method. The findings have shown, that EU institutions made very good legislative frame which protects children refugees and gives them the right to education, health, social care – in short right to normal life. But on the other hand there are Member States where all these measures written in laws, regulations and in practice are poorly used.