Child Protection
UNICEF Country Programme 2019–2023, for every child, protection.
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Highlights
No child should be exposed to violence, abuse and neglect. Yet in Cambodia the situation is dire for many children. One in two children has experienced severe beating, one in four children has suffered emotional abuse, and one in 20 girls and boys has been sexually assaulted. Many children are trafficked, forced to work, including in the worst forms of labour, separated from their families and unnecessarily placed in residential care.
Children are exposed to violence and corporal punishment in their homes, schools, residential care facilities, and communities. Violence cuts deep into children’s physical and mental health.
In addition to its short-term impacts, such as physical injury and emotional trauma, experiencing violence in childhood can lead to emotional and behavioural problems in adolescence and adulthood.
While numbers have been declining over time, from 28 per cent in 1989 to 19 per cent in 2014, too many girls are still marrying in adolescence, especially among ethnic groups in the north- eastern provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri. Rooted in gender roles and social norms, and exacerbated by poverty and limited access to essential health and education services, child marriage deprives girls of choices and participation in society.
Family separation is one of the leading challenges to protecting children. Many children in residential care come from families who cannot afford to feed, clothe or educate them, and from families who are often unaware of the negative consequences of separation. In 2018, a government inspection report found that as many as 68 per cent of children in residential care had at least one living parent. Decades of research show that living in residential care can harm a child’s social, physical, intellectual and emotional development.
Insufficient family support and family-based care services are among the main drivers of family separation. Children from broken families are exposed to high levels of violence and exploitation, including trafficking, sexual abuse, online sexual exploitation and forced begging, and are at great risk of joining the many thousands of children living or working on the streets. IAt the end of 2018, an estimated 1,641 children were in detention. Children who experience criminal acts are extremely vulnerable, and a
judicial system that is not adapted to their needs can do them additional harm. While detention should be used as a last resort and for the shortest period of time, children suspected or accused of having committed an offence are often detained. In detention, they may be exposed to physical and emotional abuse.
There is increased momentum in Cambodia to introduce laws to protect children. The Inter-Country Adoption Law, the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation and its Explanatory Note, the Law on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Law on Domestic Violence, and the Juvenile Justice Law are among major achievements so far.
There have been significant changes in the alternative care system. The government has introduced legislative, data and programmatic reforms to control the rapid and unregulated increase in the number of children living in residential care facilities in Cambodia. For example, the Sub-Decree on the Management of Residential Care Centres was adopted in 2015 to regulate the residential care sector, and a full mapping was done of all residential care facilities across the country. Based on the results of this study, the Action Plan for Improving Child Care was developed and is being implemented.
These efforts have begun to show results. A reintegration programme for children in residential care started in late 2015 and as a result the number of residential care institutions (RCIs) in Cambodia has decreased by 35 per cent, while the number of children reported to be living in RCIs has decreased by about 54 per cent. Cambodia has also introduced a more rigorous digital system to inspect residential care facilities and to monitor children undergoing reintegration.
Despite progress, the country lacks a comprehensive legislative and institutional system for child protection, on which to base a national framework to protect its girls and boys from harm.
Social workers are the backbone of a functioning child protection system, however in Cambodia the majority of social workers have not been formally trained, and there are too few of them. There is an urgent need to expand social work beyond social welfare to include the civil service, health, education and justice sectors, so that cases related to violence, juvenile crime and institutional care can be handled in the most appropriate and effective manner.
Compounding this situation are critical gaps in information: the country has a wealth of ad hoc child protection data but lacks a comprehensive child protection information management system.
Legal, social and cultural norms, as well as practical constraints, make justice for children a complex challenge in Cambodia. To ensure that girls and boys are progressively free from harm, it is imperative to nurture a culture of child protection. This includes funding and strengthening a comprehensive system that helps prevent children from being harmed, and providing access to appropriate support and care for children who have been harmed.
