The Royal Government of Cambodia is leading the battle against violence against children and unnecessary family separation. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation is a critical partner in prevention and response efforts. Cambodia PROTECT brings together the government, development partners and NGOs to address the issues from a united front.

In 2019, a Technical Working Group on Prevention and Response to Violence against Children was established to coordinate the implementation of the Cambodia’s Action Plan to Prevent and Respond to Violence against Children 2017-2021. The Technical Working Group is leading the key activities, including the Cambodia PROTECT campaign, and is composed of the following government ministries and NGOs.

The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY) plays a leading role in preventing and responding to violence against children in Cambodia. The Technical Working Group on Prevention and Response to Violence against Children is chaired by MoSVY who is coordinating with members of the Technical Working Group and is leading the implementation of Cambodia PROTECT.

The Ministry of Cult and Religion (MoCR) is contributing significantly to ending violence against children and unnecessary family separation by raising awareness within religious establishments, such as pagodas, as well as communities. MoCR is implementing the Pagoda Child Protection Program as part of the What Sangkaha Kumar policy (Child Safeguarding Policy). The Pagoda Child Protection Program aims to promote the child right in Cambodia, including preventing violence and abuse through three components:

• Implement a child protection policy within pagodas as well as neighboring communities
• Build capacity and raise awareness among monks and community people to prevent and respond to violence against children
• Strengthen monitoring and evaluation

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) is leading a number of initiatives addressing violence against children, especially online child sexual exploitation and abuse. MPTC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Smart Axiata, Google and GSMA, launched a program, called “Digital Literacy and Internet safety”. The program focuses on educating high school students with basic knowledge of online safety as well as equipping them with skills to identify risks online, including online fraud and cyber bullying, and protect themselves from these risks. In 2020, MPTC, with the support from the Embassy of India in Cambodia, will launch another program called the “Child Online Risks Awareness Campaign”. The campaign targets relevant policy makers and citizens in Cambodia to raise awareness about risks and challenges that children might face online.

Violence brings about serious consequences on each and every child as well as their families and ultimately the society as a whole. To address these challenges, the Royal Government of Cambodia has made several commitments to ending violence against children in Cambodia, such as the National Plan on Childhood Development 2016-2018 and the Action Plan to Prevent and Respond to Violence against Children 2017-2021.

MoEYS has been committed to creating safe environments for children in schools by enforcing the Education Law to ensure that every education officer adheres to a teacher’s code of conduct, including taking sanctions against criminal offenses and violation of the code of conduct, especially sexual violence. MoEYS also promotes non-violent disciplinary methods called ‘positive discipline’ and puts in place child-friendly and gender-sensitive reporting and referral mechanisms in all schools.

MoEYS also endorsed the Child Protection in Schools Policy aims of promoting safe learning environments for all children in all educational establishments, both public and private. This way, children can develop of all forms of physical, mental, intellectual, and mental that become human potential that contribute to sustainable development of the country.

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), in collaboration with key ministries and development partners, is leading the development and implementation of the Positive Parenting Strategy with toolkits. It aims to promote positive relationships between children and caregivers and safe, stable and nurturing environment for every child in Cambodia. The Strategy has been implemented in eight provinces, including Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang, Kandal, Preah Sihanouk, Ratanakiri, Tbong Khmum and Prey Veng.

The Ministry of Women’s affairs (MoWA) in collaboration with the Rattanakiri Provincial Women and Children Consultative Committee (P-WCCC), led the development of the ‘Provincial Action Plan to Prevent Child Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy in Ratanakiri 2017-2021’. The overall objective of the Action Plan is to contribute to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s commitment to achieving the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ending child marriage and teenage pregnancy as well as violence against children. The Action Plan aims at reducing adolescent pregnancy and child marriage in ethnic communities of the Ratanakiri Province through increased prevention and response interventions; multi-sectoral coordination and cooperation; and development of a data collection, monitoring, and evaluation system.

The Ministry of Interior coordinates with government ministries, institutions and other key stakeholders, promoting the prevention of and response to violence against children, especially at a sub-national level.

Cambodia National Council for Children (CNCC) is mandated to coordinate with ministries to advance children’s rights in Cambodia. CNCC is implementing a number of important initiatives, especially in the area of online child protection. For instance, the Cambodia National Council for Children (CNCC) Secretariat works together with NGO partners to conduct a situational analysis of Online Child Sexual Exploitation (OCSE) in Cambodia. The main objectives of this situational analysis are to:

• Develop a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the nature and extent of OCSE in Cambodia at the community level, including an overview of key at-risk groups and key venues and platforms facilitating OCSE
• Assess and evaluate the various child-protective capacities responsible for children in communities, including policy and governance, Internet service providers (ISPs), criminal justice, and media and communications.
• Identify actionable and evidence-based recommendations for Cambodia-specific interventions, based on the WePROTECT Model National Response (MNR), which will feed into the development of an action plan to address OCSE in Cambodia

UNICEF puts children and adolescents first. Whoever they are. Wherever they live. UNICEF believes that all children, whatever their circumstances, have the right to thrive, fulfil their potential, be treated with dignity and participate in society. UNICEF promotes the rights and well-being of every child in everything it does. Together with all partners, UNICEF works to translate this commitment into practical action, with a dedicated effort to reach the most vulnerable and excluded girls and boys in urban and rural poor areas of Cambodia.

Child protection is a core area of Save the Children’s work, especially the promotion of positive parenting techniques. Save the Children focuses on issues affecting children in residential care, believing that children are better protected by their families and communities from violence, neglect and exploitation. Its child protection programme aims to improve the awareness of parents and caregivers, especially fathers, about violence and the exploitation of children. As the lead agency for the Family Care First | REACT network, Save the Children convenes and coordinates civil society, UN agencies, academic institutions and the government to work together to protect children from violence and unnecessary family separation.

World Vision’s global campaign, ‘It takes a world to end violence against children’ aims to ignite movements of people committed to keeping children safe from harm. Lasting five years, ‘It takes a world’ is a multi-pronged campaign to prevent violence against children in schools and at home. As the world’s worst crime against children, violence affects some 1.7 billion children globally every year. In Cambodia, World Vision’s role in the campaign is to change the behaviour and attitudes of parents, caregivers and teachers, especially around the use of corporal and humiliating punishments. This is done at the community level using proven project models such as ‘celebrating families’ and ‘positive discipline’, and at national level using communication, media and public engagement.

ChildFund Cambodia is the representative office of ChildFund Australia – an independent international development organisation that works to reduce poverty for children in developing communities.

ChildFund Australia is a member of the ChildFund Alliance – a global network of 11 organisations which assists 13 million children and their families in over 60 countries. ChildFund Australia is a registered charity, a member of the Australian Council for International Development, and fully accredited by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which manages the Australian Government’s overseas aid program.

ChildFund began working in Cambodia in 2007, and works in partnership with children, their communities and local institutions to create lasting change, respond to humanitarian emergencies and promote children’s rights. Projects are implemented in the rural districts of Svay Rieng, Prey Veng, Kratie, and Battambang provinces, as well as urban Phnom Penh, focused on improving living standards for excluded or marginalised communities.

With a focus on child protection and resilience, quality education, sustainable livelihoods, improved local governance, child nutrition, water and sanitation, and youth empowerment, ChildFund Cambodia is also working to improve early grade reading performance through technology interventions, and strengthen national community-based child protection mechanisms. ChildFund Cambodia implements its programs in collaboration with local civil society organisations, and in partnership with the relevant ministries and government departments.

Plan International is a development and humanitarian organization that strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. Plan engages people and partners to: Empower children, young people and communities to make vital changes that tackle the root causes of discrimination against girls, exclusion and vulnerability; Drive change in practice and policy at local, national and global levels through our reach, experience and knowledge of the realities children face; and Work with children and communities to prepare for and respond to crises and to overcome adversity. Support the safe and successful progression of children from birth to adulthood.

The Cambodian Children’s Trust (CCT) uses a community-based preventive child protection model to support families before they end up in a situation where they feel they have to place their children in care. As part of its Holistic Family-Based Care model CCT holds workshops and distributes advocacy materials so that people can learn about the dangers of putting children in orphanages, and the importance of keeping families together. CCT does this in local communities, and for NGOs, government officials, tourists and donors. Since 2018, CCT collaborated under the Family Care First | REACT project to deliver a community behaviour change campaign in 18 villages in Battambang province.

Child Helpline Cambodia provides free, 24-hour phone counseling, information, referral and follow-up services for children and youth up to 25 years old in Cambodia. It allows children and young people to reach out when they need it, in real time and speak directly with professional phone counsellors in a safe and confidential environment via the free helpline telephone 1280 for both voice call and text messages.

M’lup Russey is a Christian, non-governmental local organization in Cambodia. M’lup Russey understands that all children and youth grow up and develop in all areas of life- physically, mentally, emotionally and experimentally- when they receive individualized care as part of a family they call their own. Communities have an important role to play in encouraging, supporting and guiding individual families so that they know how to care for all their members, especially children.

Led by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, and facilitated by Save the Children, Family Care First | REACT is a network of organizations working together to support children to live in safe, nurturing, family-based care. This network receives financial support by the European Union, USAID, the GHR Foundation, Save the Children Hong Kong and UNICEF and aim to support more than 7,000 Cambodian children.

Family Care First | REACT works collaboratively with the government, local and international NGOs, academic institutions and UN agencies to promote and strengthen family-based care. With more than 60 member organizations, Family Care First | REACT is working to prevent children from being separated from their families and to increase the number of children that are safely and successfully integrated into family care. It does this by strengthening systems and policies, and working directly to provide services to children and families.

Friends International works with vulnerable or marginalized children and youth and supports their families through the following programs:

1. Kaliyan Mith Program in Siem Reap: Kalyan Mith provides child protection services, such as drop-in-centres, harm reduction, remedial education, awareness raising, life skills, remedial and non-formal education and support for integration of out-of-school children into schools as well as reintegration of children living in residential care facilities to families and communities.
2. Child Safe Movement Program: It aims to protect children from all forms of abuse by promoting awareness among communities and providing interventions to vulnerable children through a 24/7 hotline.
3. Partnership Program for the Protection of Children (3PC): Under the leadership of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY), with the technical support by UNICEF, 3PC is coordinated by Friends International with other NGOs as members. 3PC aims to strengthen a national child protect system by improving the quality of services and coordination towards positive outcomes and long-term impacts.
4. Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Program: It aims to support young people through vocational training and job placement to increase their income and to support their livelihoods as well as families.

Japan is one of the big contributors to the elimination of violence against children in Cambodia. Japan has been supporting Cambodia to implement its five-year Action Plan to Prevent and Respond to Violence against Children. The generous contribution from the Government of Japan made it possible to disseminate key messages widely through the Strong Family Campaign, aimed at ending violence and unnecessary family separation.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has played a significant role in strengthening the child protection system in Cambodia to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse and prevent unnecessary family separation. USAID’s work is guided by the Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity Strategy (2019-2023), which has three strategic objectives: 1) Build strong beginnings; 2) Put family first; and 3) Protect children from violence. USAID has contributed significantly to the development of the Cambodia PROTECT Communication Strategy and communication materials for the Strong Family Campaign.