What We Do

Since our establishment in 1994, CRC-Cambodia has developed a number of core strengths and areas of organizational expertise. These primary functions include child rights monitoring, child rights advocacy, developing and empowering CYLNs, and facilitating improved capacities and networking opportunities for our member organizations. With strong government legitimacy and recognition as the national coalition on children’s rights in Cambodia by regional and international human rights bodies, CRC-Cambodia has achieved important advocacy outcomes and influence in shaping the discourse on children’s rights. In collaboration with implementing partners, the coalition has also helped emerge promising models and initiate targeted projects that help support the implementation of national policies and plans on children’s rights.

Strengthening systematic monitoring of child rights in Cambodia

The coalition draws on the wealth of evidence and experience of its members to synthesize data to produce comprehensive annual monitoring reports on the situation of children’s rights in Cambodia, as well as assessments of government progress to implement the provisions of the CRC-Cambodia and the recommendations received by other states through the UPR.

The situation analyses on the rights of the child produced by the coalition help gather evidence and perspectives from a wide range of key stakeholders on the reality of policy implementation on the ground, emerging issues affecting children, contextual factors posing challenges to realizing progress, and good practices in advancing children’s rights at the local level.

These reports provide a strong basis of evidence from which the coalition develops its advocacy and programming priorities and also serve as a key resource from which the coalition can develop advocacy messages for a variety of national policy and planning mechanisms. The situation analyses have informed and been used to develop alternative reports on the implementation of the CRC-Cambodia, as well as other coalition submissions to human rights mechanisms and policy dialogues at different levels.

The CRC-Cambodia is a comprehensive treaty outlining the civil, economic, social, political, and cultural rights of children. The Kingdom of Cambodia acceded to the Convention in 1992, creating an obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill the rights enshrined within it, including through the adoption and implementation of laws and policies to accelerate the realization of its provisions. It has also subsequently ratified two of its Optional Protocols on Children involved in Armed Conflict and the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child monitors the progress of State obligations to implement the treaty and its Optional Protocols through reporting cycles, enabling governments to outline their progress through State Party reports, NGOs and children to share their perspectives through Alternative Reports, and UN agencies to submit their assessments of priority issues in the State under review. Through review of this evidence and dialogue with key stakeholders, the Committee issues Concluding Observations, serving as a framework of recommendations to the State to improve its implementation of the CRC-Cambodia and its Optional Protocols.

As a universal mechanism conducting comprehensive reviews of the human rights record of all UN Member States every four years, the UPR enables State parties, UN Agencies, and NGOs to provide recommendations to governments under review to improve their implementation of all human rights. The coalition has identified this mechanism as an opportunity to connect with other NGOs in Cambodia to reinforce the centrality of child rights in the human rights framework, synthesize member evidence to develop clear recommendations to the RGC, and strengthen attention to the issues affecting children in Cambodia by other governments.

The Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia has long been an influential resource to follow and report on human rights in Cambodia, helping initiate dialogue at country level and cooperate with the RGC to advance its implementation of human rights.

As the only coalition in Cambodia dedicated to the promotion and protection of children’s rights, guided by a constructive approach with government and development partners, CRC-Cambodia has emerged as the leading, representative voice of NGOs in child rights at national level. Through its collective mobilization, the coalition has advocated with the National Assembly and line ministries to deepen the focus on critical issues affecting the lives of children, and advocate for policies and plans to increasingly realize the rights of all children in Cambodia. In addition to influencing duty-bearers in their formulation of policies, the coalition has also been active in developing scalable models and tools to support implementation of child rights policy and plans.

Being committed to the importance of empowering rights-holders to claim and exercise their rights, the coalition has provided support to CYLNs operating at both national and provincial levels to understand their rights, build their skills, increase their networking and coordination, and exert influence on national and sub-national policy and planning processes.

CRC-Cambodia is committed to building the individual and collective capacities of network members, and coordinating effective platforms for mutual knowledge exchange and the development of joint strategies. The coalition has facilitated training for its members in areas such as advocacy and monitoring skills, how to apply UN General Comments to organizational work, and strategies for improving child participation. The coalition regularly invites member organizations to share their good practice in program implementation for reflection to the wider membership, and government representatives to provide updates on policy implementation and key developments affecting the child rights and protection system. During regular member meetings, the coalition also works together to develop joint advocacy messages and statements. Annual conferences have been held to reflect on collective achievements and challenges, devise joint advocacy and operations plans, amend and improve statutes of the coalition, and elect leaders for the next year.

CRC-Cambodia links with Child Rights Coalition Asia to access platforms for regional dialogue with other NGO coalitions across Asia such as the Children and Youth Forums of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and to participate in regional campaigns and capacity strengthening activity. The coalition also connects with other networks of CSOs to assess changes to the civil society operating environment, and build solidarity and support for child rights mainstreaming in other sectors.