#TheAsiaIWant 2019 Asian Children’s Summit Highlight Video (full). Credits: Nicolas Axelrod, Adryel Talamantes (videographers), and Lester Olayer (video editor)

25-30 November 2019 | Bangkok, Thailand

The year 2019 marks the 30^th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), the most widely ratified international human rights treaty body. The UN CRC sets out non-discrimination, the best interest of the child, the right to survival and development, and child participation as the guiding principles for the realization of children’s rights.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to around half of the world’s children (aged 17 and below), with 620 million living in South Asia and 545 million in East Asia and the Pacific.[1] As such, intergovernmental regional bodies in the region have included children in their agenda. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has taken into consideration the rights of children in the Vientiane Action Programme 2004-2010, supported by the 2001 Declaration on the Commitments for Children in ASEAN and the 2009-2015 Roadmap for ASEAN Community. In 2010, the regional body formed the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) which has functions that include developing policies, programs, and innovative strategies for the realization of the rights of children. In the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD), children are recognized as a vulnerable group whose rights are “inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of human rights and fundamental freedoms” (AHRD General Principle No.4). Similarly, the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) adopted the 1996 Rawalpindi Resolution on Children in South Asia, declaring the years 2001 to 2010 as the Decade of the Rights of the Child in the region. It was followed by the 2002 SAARC Convention on Regional Arrangement for the Promotion of Child Welfare and the 2009 Colombo Statement on Children of South Asia, among the subsequent declarations and implementation of commitments.

Child Participation is one of the guiding principles of the UN CRC. As the normative article on child participation, UN CRC Article 12 states that:

“States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child…”

Child participation asserts that children have the right to freely express their views in matters that affect them and that these views should be given due weight. Accordingly, child participation means providing opportunities for children to form their opinions and to make their voices heard in different settings that affect their lives, including within the family, schools, local communities, national-level governance, and regional and international mechanisms. In matters that affect them, children’s voices and opinions should be heard because they are the ones who are mostly and directly affected. Children should be given the platform to share their inquiries, opinions, and recommendations for advancing child participation.

Regional bodies and stakeholders have made efforts to provide an opportunity for child participation in its processes. In Southeast Asia, the ASEAN Children’s Forum (ACF) is organized and hosted on a rotational basis by the ASEAN Member States every two years since 2010. Child participation was adopted as one of the guiding principles of the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence against Children (ASEAN RPA EVAC) to be implemented in 10 years, divided into two terms (2016 to 2020 for the first five years, and 2021 to 2025 for the next five years). Moreover, the ACWC identified child participation as one of the thematic areas of its 2016-2020 Work Plan.

In South Asia, child participation is envisioned in the organizational and governance mechanism of South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC), an intergovernmental SAARC Apex Body. Children from the region are represented in the Governing Board on a rotational basis and they take part in approving the strategic work plan and activities of the Secretariat. SAIEVAC presents an opportunity to institutionalize child participation and ensure children are part of formal decision-making processes for the first time in South Asian history.

Building on from these, CRC Asia, ACWC Thailand, and SAIEVAC initiated the discussions and efforts to have an Asia-wide child participation platform, which led to the organization of the first Asian Children’s Summit held on 26-29 November 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Summit aims to contribute to the realization of the right of the child to be heard, specifically to gather children’s recommendations on the realization of their rights to build the children’s advocacy capacity, to provide a venue for cultural exchange on the children’s contributions to advocate, for the realization of their rights. The 2019 Asian Children’s Summit was participated in by 46 child delegates from 21 countries from Southeast Asia (Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; Indonesia; Lao PDR; Malaysia; Myanmar; Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; Timor Leste; and Viet Nam), East Asia (Japan, Mongolia, and Taiwan), and South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).

The Summit was guided by the following themes: Violence against children, Children’s rights to a healthy environment, Children in the digital environment, and Children on the move. With the following as cross-cutting themes Children and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Child participation, and Justice for children. These four (4) key themes served as the guiding structure in designing the learning sessions and workshops.

This Summit was organized by the ACWC Thailand, SAIEVAC, and CRC Asia in partnership with ECPAT International, Girls Advocacy Alliance, International Justice Mission (IJM), Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), VSO International, WePROTECT Global Alliance, UNICEF, and the Joining Forces, a coalition of six child-focused organizations namely ChildFund Alliance, Plan International, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages, Terre des Hommes, and World Vision.

Here’s the run-through of what took place during the Summit:

DAY ONE | 26 November

Amihan Abueva of CRC Asia and Rinchen Chophel of SAIEVAC welcomed the child delegates, the adult mentors, and guests. As the first speakers, they established the “child-friendly” and non-formal set up of the Summit. They told the children that they can be called “Grandma” (Amihan) and “Grandpa” (Rinchen).

A “Rock, Paper, Scissors” game was used by UNICEF Philippines’ Faye Balanon, the main facilitator, as a method to introduce the child delegates with one another. This game encouraged the child delegates to get along with each other. The child delegates were asked to fill out bus-shaped meta cards to identify their expectations from the participants, facilitators, content of the program, food, and venue. Some of the house rules were drawn from these expectations.

The Hotel provided a speaker to inform all guests about the fire exits and hotel facilities. Khun Ploy shared that there were no scheduled fire drills during the Summit, so in case fire alarms went off during the activity proper, all guests should go to the emergency meeting point.

Opor Srisuwan of Childline Thailand shared information that tourists should know about Thai customs and traditions. As the child delegates, their adult mentors, and other guests are coming from different countries and cultural backgrounds, this information is necessary to let them know about the expected behavior from tourists in Thailand. Opor also shared details about the nearby establishments and the neighborhood where the hotel is located. This information would help the child delegates and adult mentors in planning where or how to get dinner and in arranging activities for the free time on the last day of the Summit.

A child-friendly version of the Summit’s Child Safeguarding Protocol was shared with the child delegates by Hazel Bitaña of CRC Asia and mentioned that the document was also shared prior to their participation in the Summit. Key points of the information from the Protocol were discussed during this session. Hazel introduced the members of the Child Safeguarding Team, together with their contact information. A locked box where the children can drop their issues/concerns to be read by and responded to by the child safeguarding protocol was also introduced.

Hazel also introduced the hand signals for “speak slower” and “speak louder.”

Afterward, Amihan went through the program and introduced the facilitators.

Who were the facilitators?

Main Facilitator: Faye Balanon of UNICEF Philippines

Co-Facilitators for Violence against Children: Shrinkhala Thapa of ECPAT International and Ashiya Aishath of SAIEVAC

Co-Facilitators for Children’s Right to Healthy Environment: Christabel Chan of World Vision; Nadia Pulmano of Save the Children; Sudthida Keophaitool of Plan International; Matumon (Mam) Katerenchuk of VSO International; Chawaratt (Mik) Chawarangkul of VSO International

Co-Facilitators for Children’s rights in the digital environment: David Ng of eHelp Association; Ali Abbas of Group Development Pakistan; Keith Woo of UNICEF East Asia Pacific Regional Office

Co-Facilitators for Children on the Move: Kathrine Yee of World Vision; Diena Haryana of Yayasan SEJIWA Sisir Thanikal of International Justice Mission

Child Safeguarding Team: Beth P. De Castro of CRC Asia; Opor Srisuwan of Childline Thailand; Francis Copino of CRC Asia

#TheAsiaIWant

A visioning exercise was done to come up with a common goal among the child delegates. In this exercise, the child delegates were divided into five groups by counting off. Each group was given a piece of the puzzle. Each piece of the puzzle represented a setting (home, school, community, cyberspace, nation/country).

In each group, the child delegates were asked to describe using the pieces of the puzzle what their assigned setting looks like if the rights of the child are upheld and protected.

Who were the children expecting on the final day of the Summit?

Hazel shared with the child delegates an overview of the confirmed guests of the Dialogue Session. These include the: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) + 3 (The People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, and Japan) through the government representatives of some ASEAN Member States; and the SAARC and government representatives of some The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Member States, and civil society organizations. Hazel mentioned that children’s recommendations were to be submitted to UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, supporting organizations of the Asian Children’s Summit, Child Rights Connect, among others.

The Learning Sessions

To prepare the child delegates to the workshop group discussions on their recommendations around the four key themes, learning sessions were held on the first two days of the Summit. The learning sessions were conducted with the help of a dedicated facilitator and inputs from invited resource speakers. Some speakers who could not physically participate in the Summit sent their video messages that were shown during the learning sessions.

Learning Session #1: Violence against Children

Facilitated by Faye Balanon

Speakers:

• Mr. Robbert van den Berg of ECPAT International
• Ms. Sadina KC of SOS Children’s Villages Nepal
• Ms. Najat Maalla M’jid, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children (via video message)

Mr. Robbert van den Berg of ECPAT International provided an overview of violence against children (VAC) by sharing some data about VAC, forms, and perpetrators of VAC, and the impacts of VAC. By discussing the work of ECPAT International, he also shared the roles of regional intergovernmental bodies such as ASEAN and SAIEVAC, of governments, and of non-government organizations in addressing VAC. Furthermore, he mentioned the commitments to the UN CRC and the SDGs and the increasing efforts on involving children in the decision-making processes to end VAC.

Ms. Sadina KC, a youth advocate, shared the efforts of SOS Children’s Villages Nepal in providing support to children without parental care and children in alternative care. She highlighted the importance of child safeguarding mechanisms at the village and national levels.

Ms. Najat Maalla M’jid, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, sent a video message to the children. She congratulated the child delegates for their preparations to represent the children in the countries in this Summit. She highlighted that children are at the heart of her work, especially because children are human rights defenders, active citizens, and drivers of positive change. Adults have the responsibility to empower children to participate and have the accountability to children that leads to a peaceful, just, and inclusive societies. She also highlighted the importance of involving children in vulnerable situations to ensure that no child is left behind. Furthermore, she brought focus on the whole life cycle of children and young people.

Najat Maalla M’jid, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children

This learning session involved an open forum after all the presentations.

Learning Session #2: Children’s right to a healthy environment

Facilitated by Nadia Pulmano (Save the Children)

Speaker: Christabel Chan of World Vision

With the aid of a video, Christabel presented background information on the environment, including basic concepts on climate change and disaster risk reduction. She also shared about the growing efforts of children demanding climate action and the importance of child participation in environmental issues. She also presented international and regional efforts on climate change and disaster risk reduction that are taking into consideration children’s views and opinions.

This learning session involved an open forum after all the presentations.

DAY TWO | 27 November

Mik asked the children to stand in a circle, close their eyes, and quietly evaluate how they participated in the previous day and how they encouraged or allowed the other delegates to participate as well.

Learning Session #3: Children’s rights in the digital environment

Facilitated by David Ng, Ali Abbas, and Keith Woo

Speakers:

• Ilya Smirnoff of Childline Thailand
• Iain Drennan of WePROTECT Global Alliance (via video message)

Keith presented the interrelated issues and concerns in the digital environment regarding safety and privacy. He also shared data regarding internet penetration in ASEAN countries. He followed this by an activity that showed how the brain can be rewired and connected this to the role of the internet in rewiring behaviors and digital desensitization. Ali continued the presentation by putting the focus on rights and responsibilities. David shared some initiatives to give children some ideas on what actions to change things, including participation in internet governance forums, and awareness-raising and advocacy activities.

Iain Drennan of WePROTECT Global Alliance sent a video message to the child delegates reiterating the commitment of the Alliance on online child protection and looking forward to the recommendations from the children.

Ilya Smirnoff of Childline Thailand shared about the Down to Zero project, including the efforts on DQ or digital intelligence quotient or applying the IQ and EQ on all things digital, as children should know and be made aware of online dangers, how to protect themselves, how to report to a hotline or law enforcement agencies, and how to examine where is the fault so that there will be proper legislation. Ilya also mentioned the importance of parenting skills in the digital age, as well as the involvement of the private sector.

This learning session involved an open forum after all the presentations.

Learning Session #4: Children on the move

Facilitated by Kathrine Yee, Diena Haryana, and Sisir Thanikal

Speakers:

• Nicola Brandt of UNICEF EAPRO
• Itsaraporn Daoram of Terre des Hommes-Germany

Itsaraporn gave an exercise for the child delegates to think about the situation of children on the move. The child delegates were asked to think about the challenges that children on the move face, and afterward, the positive changes that they would like to see. Itsaraporn ended her presentation by reminding children to “Explore, Engage, Act!” to address the issues of children on the move.

This learning session involved an open forum after all the presentations. The session concluded with a group game.

Opening of Market Booth (Side 1)        

The child delegates prepared market booths that featured their country advocacies, organizations, and cultures. The first batch of the market booth was opened by Rajendra Kumar Paudel of the Government of Nepal.

Side 1 of the Market Booth was opened. The child delegates whose Market Booths belong to this side stood by their booths to explain the features of their respective booths, while the others moved around to see the marker booth exhibition by each country. 

The tentative workshop breakout group assignments were shared with the child delegates, explaining that the assignment was based on the child delegates’ preference. The child delegates who wanted to move to another group were given the chance to do so.

The child delegates went to their assigned workshop groups. The assigned facilitators helped the child delegates identify the problems, issues, and then recommendations.

After the break out groups, the child delegates were gathered again at the plenary to share the results of their discussions. The reports show that there have been different levels of discussions in the workshop groups. Some have already identified the recommendations, but others have just tackled the issues.

 Cultural Night

Organized and hosted by Kathrine Yee and Crislyn Felisilda of World Vision

Participants were invited to prepare a performance or game to be included in the program of the cultural night. They were also encouraged, but not required, to bring the traditional wear.

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Photos: Lauren DeCicca

Following the dinner, child delegates and organizers showcased their cultural performances. In between performances, there were also games.

DAY THREE | 28 November

Using the ball-throw method, Ashiya Aishath of SAIEVAC asked the child delegates were asked about what they liked the most in the previous day’s activities/session.

The market booth sides 2 and 3 were opened by Rajeev Kumar of SOS Children’s Villages and Philip Wilkinson of World Vision.

The child delegates whose Market Booths belong to this side stood by their booths to explain the features of their respective booths, while the others moved around to see the marker booth exhibition by each country. 

After the market booth interactions, the child delegates went back to their assigned workshop groups to continue their discussions on coming up with recommendations around the four key themes. The child delegates were also asked to think of questions that they would want to ask the adults about during the dialogue on 29 November. 

Licypriya Kangujam, an 8-year old girl from India, shared her message regarding climate action. She calls for commitments and investments from the government to find long-term solutions to end the environmental crisis.

The child delegates were gathered again at the plenary to share the results of their discussions.

DAY FOUR | 29 November

Workshop groups gathered together to finalize their recommendations before proceeding to the dialogue with adult guests.

After the preparatory meeting of the four breakout groups, everyone gathered at the plenary to inform them about the Dialogue Session room layout, as well as to decide on the arrangement of presentations.

The Dialogue Session with Adults

Hazel gave an introduction about the profile of the child delegates, as well as a background on the selection process, the themes of the Summit, and the Summit’s program. She also gave reminders to adults regarding creating a child-friendly space for the Dialogue.

The groups on the four (4) key themes presented the recommendations that they prepared in the first three (3) days of the Summit.

View children’s recommendations and questions here:

Afterward, adult guests were given the chance to respond: Mikiko Otani on behalf of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Yuyum Fhahni Paryani on behalf of ACWC; Rishfa Rasheed on behalf of SAARC; and Terry Ferrari of World Vision on behalf of civil society organizations.

After the response from adults, the children posed their questions to the adults that the adults responded to.

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Mr. SAYAVONG Chanthanakhone, the Director of the Children Development Division, National Commission for the Advancement of Women, Mothers, and Children (NCAWMCS) Lao PDR,  was also in attendance on behalf of Lao PDR’s Representative to the ACWC for Children’s Rights.

Photo Session

The morning session ended with a group photo.

In the afternoon, Faye, Hazel, and David distributed the certificates. Afterward, the child delegates were divided again according to their workshop groups to give their feedback about the Summit and identify what they liked, what they did not like about the Summit, and the things that need to improve about the Summit.

The showing of a short video on what transpired in the last three days served as the closing for the Summit.

Credits: Nicolas Axelrod, Adryel Talamantes (videographers), and Lester Olayer (video editor)

With the child delegates flying in from different countries and different parts of Thailand, free time was allotted for them to explore and enjoy Bangkok.

After the Dialogue Session, the children, together with the adult mentors and the facilitators wrote
their feedback on the content and the process of the Summit. In their evaluation, the children
continued sharing the importance of including mental health and psychosocial well-being in
the discussions.

Afterwards, while the children enjoyed their free time, we gathered the adult
dialogue guests to discuss the children’s recommendations to share experiences in conducting the
Summit and gather feedback on the process. CRC Asia Secretariat presented the guidelines for the
selection process that was prepared for all the organizations supporting children, including the
consolidated barriers to inclusive participation and the good practices and lessons from various
organizations. Aside from the recommendations from children that came out from the consultation
and dialogue, the adults discussed some learnings on children’s rights-based participatory process,
which was also considered as one of the key takeaways from the Summit. In addition, according
to the dialogue guests, the important remark of the child delegates was for the adults to listen
to the children. The child delegates also highlighted that having laws is not enough because they
cannot feel the implementation of these laws on the ground. In this regard, one of the ways forward
for the Summit is to ensure that the children’s recommendations reach the decision-makers and
stakeholders at the national and community levels. At the same time, these recommendations
must also be shared at the global levels through submitting reports or inputs to the UN Special
Procedures and upcoming international conferences.

Grace Agcaoili of UNICEF EAPRO delivered the closing remarks. She said that she will make sure that the recommendations are included in the upcoming efforts, including the regional meeting on child participation in February.

The 2019 Asian Children’s Summit Organizing Committee and Partners also recognize the behind-the-scenes work of the CRC Asia and SAIEVAC secretariat members and multimedia team for the 2019 Asian Children’s Summit: Luz Indah Abayan, Irma Torres-dela Cruz, Rosheic Sims (CRC Asia Secretariat), Lorna Andres (World Vision International Advocacy and External Engagement/support staff for the Asian Children’s Summit), Crislyn Felisilda-Dacut (World Vision International Regional Public Engagement Manager), Alisha Tuladhar (SAIEVAC), Joy Carrera-Pacete (overall documenter), Nicolas Axelrod and Adryel Talamantes (videographers), Lester Olayer (video editor), Lauren DeCicca (photographer), Ngawang Yonten and Osheriy Nayay (KO200 FM Bhutan), Yeshi Lhendup (Yeshi Lhendup Films Bhutan), and adult mentor Ramita Chhu (CWIN Nepal) for sharing her photos.

#TheAsiaIWant #ChildRightsAt30 #CRC30

All photos used for this write-up are from Lauren DeCicca (for CRC Asia). The Summit was guided by a Child Safeguarding Policy. All images of children were taken and released with appropriate consent.

A child-friendly version of the documentation of the Summit is being developed.

A few months after the Summit, the child delegates organized themselves virtually and created their own online platform on social media called the Asian Youth Committee.

Reference/s:

[1] UNICEF. (2017). The State of the World’s Children 2017. Available at https://www.unicef.org/sowc2017/