Child rights committee holds strategic planning workshop in Mae Sot

February 8, 2016

WCRP, Mae Sot: On February 1-2, organisations from the border and inside Burma attended a strategic planning workshop in Mae Sot, Thailand, organised by the Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Child Rights (CPPCR).

The workshop, held at the Queen Palace Hotel, covered issues commonly faced by children living along the Thai-Burma border, including rights for children born in Thailand, procedures for transferring citizenship rights, abandoned and orphaned children, and child protection policy.

Overall, 86 participants attended, representing 38 organisations, including the Karen Women’s Organization, Mae Tao Clinic, Save the Children, UNHCR, Thai-Burma Border Health Initiative (TBBHI), the Women and Child Rights Project (WCRP) and World Vision.

Ko Naing Min, Director of CPPCR, explained, “We organized this workshop for three main reasons. First, to provide an overview of child protection strategies on the border and inside [Burma]. Second, to find out our strengths and weaknesses, and how we can improve our work. And finally, to get advice from other organisations for our next two years of work, including how we can cooperate and work together.”

The workshop concluded with seven work goals agreed: to broaden networks among organizations working for child protection; to lobby Burma’s newly elected government on child protection; to ensure Burma’s neighboring countries can produce birth certificates for children born in their territory; to advocate for Thai and Burmese governments to recognise border and ethnic areas, and the right of children living there to apply for citizenship; to collect data on child protection and birth certification; to work in cooperation with government departments and civil society organisations to provide public education on child protection; and to achieve cooperation between government and civil society on the issue of child trafficking.

TBBHI representative Mi Don Kit detailed, “Many organisations joined the workshop, both from inside the country and from the border. We are all working on the same issue, child protection, so we have all widened our networks with CSOs [civil society organisations] inside Burma. If we can implement the work plan that resulted from this workshop, that will be great.”

CPPCR was formed in 2003 to help marginalised and exploited Burmese children living near the Thai-Burma border point of Mae Sot – Myawaddy. CPPCR works on a range of issues, including child exploitation and birth registration.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News