C-Rights Japan’s learning visit at CRC-Cambodia
Machiko Kaida of Japan International Center for the Rights of the Child (C-Rights), together with her students, visited the office of CRC Asia member Child Rights Coalition Cambodia on 18 February 2020. The learning visit’s objective was for C-Rights to get to know more about how CRC Cambodia builds and supports child-led networks at these different levels: commune, provincial, and national.
Part of C-Rights’ international cooperation activity is supporting children in Cambodia and tackling issues of child labor and human trafficking, which includes the project on Children’s Rights Promotion Project in Thonat Commune, Kompong Ro District, Svay Rieng Province. The organization is also involved in the action plan for violence against children and creating a system that allows children to express their opinions. According to Machiko, Cambodian children have voiced out that the problems regarding dropping out of school, exposure of children to drug abuse, and violence against children are the most serious issues that children are most concerned about.
Pehn Son, the Executive Director of CRC-Cambodia and one of the board members of CRC Asia, met Machiko in 2018 at the CRC Asia’s annual Asia Pacific Partnership Meeting of Child Rights Coalitions and Networks (APPM) held in Manila. This introduction led to the succeeding collaboration between the two organizations.
Recently, C-Rights was involved in submitting an alternative report to the United Nations Commission on the Rights of the Child and producing children’s reports. Previously, CRC-Cambodia and C-Rights exchanged information on the development of reports to the UN CRC and UPR and some other working approaches to promote child rights and child protection as well as the coordination of Child and youth-Led Networks. From the exchanges, the C-Rights and CRC-Cambodia have also enhanced the connections and collaboration for further actions as well.
CRC Asia has been organizing the APPM since 2015 to contribute to improving the understanding of child rights advocates on the emerging child rights issues and situations, develop ideas to strengthen child rights advocacy and engage with child rights stakeholders at the national and regional levels.
Built connections and partnerships among child rights organizations as a result of the APPM and other regional meetings conducted by CRC Asia, similar to this story, are part of its more extensive work towards strengthening civil society and child rights movements in Asia. Also, in recent years, as part of our effort to bring discussions on children’s rights across various sectors, environmental groups, leading and research institutions from different countries in Asia have been invited to participate in the regional meetings.
