A/HRC/42/60/Add.1 UNICEF Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation’ action plan on safely returning children living in residential care to their families.40 Although the initial target of thirty percent of children returned by 2019 will not be met, the Special Rapporteur supports the need for great care to ensure children are safely returned to their communities though highlights the advantage that comprehensive network of government social workers could offer this programme. 41 29. The Human Rights Committee was concerned about the absence of a juvenile justice system and the fact that children were often subject to the same procedures as adults as well as the failure to ensure that minors were detained separately from adults. It recommended that Cambodia take measures to establish a comprehensive juvenile justice system in order to ensure that juveniles were treated in a manner commensurate with their age. 42 This has been in part addressed with the adoption of the Juvenile Justice Law. Both the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation are actively involved with UNICEF Cambodia supporting. Nevertheless more intensified efforts are required, including training law enforcement personnel and court officials. 43 Whilst the Special Rapporteur welcomes the December 2018 Juvenile Justice Law Strategic and Operational Plan,44 child-centred justice is yet to become a reality. 30. Contrary to the provisions in the Labour Law and related Prakas, almost a fifth of children between five and seventeen are economically active. 45 Child labour brings particular challenges for education as UNESCO noted in its submission for UPR3 in 2019.46 The Special Rapporteur received information on child labour in brick factories. In one report, all of the children interviewed individually said that they work in some capacity at the brick factories where they live with their parents.47 Another report identifies the detrimental impact of Cambodia’s urban construction boom and demand for bricks. 48 31. Children also work in the informal sector, including in street situations. As the Special Rapporteur noted, 49 many children are left behind quite literally when parents seek work in the city or overseas,50 often suffering abuse, turning to drug and substance use, or ending up in street situations. The Human Rights Committee has also expressed concern about reports of arbitrary arrest and detention of homeless people, beggars, people who use drugs, children in street situations and sex workers in “social affairs”, youth rehabilitation and drug rehabilitation centres51 and recommended that the state party should take all measures necessary to put an end to these practices. 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 10 (including three minors and one US national) were arrested on grounds of assault against minors under fifteen years. Partnership Programme for the Protection of Children, see A/HRC/36/61, para 40; A/HRC/39/73, para 23. A/HRC/39/73, para 25; see also Joint UNCT Cambodia Report in the context of Cambodia’s third UPR cycle, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRKHUNContributionsS32.aspx , para 59. CCPR/C/KHM/CO/2, 27 April 2015, para. 15. A/HRC/39/73, paras 26-27. Available from https://www.unicef.org/cambodia/reports/juvenile-justice-law-strategic-andoperational-plan-ijlsop. United Nations Joint UNCT Cambodia Report in the context of Cambodia’s third UPR cycle, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRKHUNContributionsS32.aspx , para. 58. UNESCO has also stated that the magnitude of child labour in the country needed to be addressed and Cambodia should be encouraged to adopt special and positive measures facilitating their reinsertion into the education system UNESCO submission, available from https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRKHUNContributionsS32.aspx , para. 18. Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO), BUILT ON SLAVERY: Debt Bondage and Child Labour in Cambodia’s Brick Factories, https://www.licadhocambodia.org/reports/files/221LICADHO_Built_On_Slavery_Report_ENG.pdf. Brickell, K. Parsons, L, Natarajan N and Chann S (2018) Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia (Royal Holloway, University of London). A/HRC/39/73, para 22. Olga Creamer, Mia Jordanwood and Setka Sao, Study on the Impact of Migration on Children in the Capital and target Provinces, Cambodia, 2017 UNICEF. CCPR/C/KHM/CO/2, 27 April 2015, para. 16.

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents