Unaccompanied children, ie children separated from their parents, are a particularly vulnerable group of children and it is necessary to provide them with special protection and care. The world of unaccompanied children and the challenges faced by unaccompanied children are still unknown and distant to most people. The reason for this is the frequent ignorance and occurrence of the phenomenon of unaccompanied children recognised as an international phenomenon only in recent decades. The treatment of unaccompanied children is based on the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: the protection of the welfare of the child, protection from all forms of discrimination, the right to life, security and development, and the child's right to participate and freedom of expression. Irrespective of the fact that these are unaccompanied children, they are primarily children, so the aforementioned Convention applies accordingly. In order to realize the principles and rights of unaccompanied children, it is necessary to work systematically and continuously to improve their well-being and the rights that belong to them in order to improve their quality of life and enable overcoming a number of risks that unaccompanied children face on the way to their destination. In the Croatian legal framework, the key body for the protection of the rights of unaccompanied children is the social welfare center. The social welfare center in the territory of which the unaccompanied child is found, appoints a special guardian for the child and provides temporary accommodation in a social welfare home or organized housing. The Family Act (OG 103/15, 98/19, 47/20) prescribes the appointment of a special guardian for a foreign child or a stateless child who has been in the territory of the Republic of Croatia unaccompanied by a legal representative. It also determines who may be the special guardian and what his or her basic duties are in representing the interests of the unaccompanied child. The topic of the paper is the characteristics and definition of the institute of special guardianship of unaccompanied children in the Republic of Croatia, the role and importance of special guardians for unaccompanied children with a review of relevant documents, international and national legislative framework and insight into mechanisms for appointing special guardians of unaccompanied children.