A/HRC/39/73 is becoming more accessible and available to all children in Cambodia. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports continues to invest in education throughout the country and works to eliminate corruption, for example, by eliminating cheating and related practices in end-of-school exams. 18. The Ministry reports continuing progress towards securing gender parity not only in education enrolment, but also completion. Beyond gender equality, some children are in danger of being left behind on the basis of ethnicity or disability. While there is progress with the rolling out of the multilingual education plan of action, the Special Rapporteur highlights ongoing concerns with the situation of children from indigenous and ethnic minority groups, including children of Vietnamese descent, who still suffer disadvantages, including in relation to the availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability of education. Information has been received that children have been denied access to school due to the lack of legal documents of their ethnic Vietnamese parents or the revocation of those documents under subdecree 129. Concerning education and health, it is also clear that children with disabilities do not receive equal access to goods, services or facilities. For example, physical access to buildings remains a problem as does the availability of information in sign language and Braille. 19. Health care of children and mothers is crucial to the development of the child. New social protection initiatives and pilots are discussed below. The Ministry of Health is working at commune level throughout the country to ensure that access to primary health care is available to all. Infant and child mortality rates continue to decrease, regional transmission of measles has been eliminated completely in Cambodia, the use of anti-viral therapy limits transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child during birth and health equity funds help to ensure free access to health care for the poorest families, including their children. The Government has also embarked on a human papilloma virus vaccination programme for girls to combat cervical cancer. However, child malnutrition, especially in rural areas, remains of concern. 20. Ensuring all children are registered at birth is a major milestone in recognizing the rights of the child. In this regard, the removal in 2017 of charges for birth registration up to 30 days after birth is welcome. 21. In the absence of a comprehensive child protection system, and no social workers at the commune or district levels, cases of child abuse and neglect go undetected and unreported. The commune committees for women and children are important, within their capacity, at the local level. Although training of committee members has been undertaken, the Special Rapporteur is concerned that this may not be sufficient to offer adequate, acceptable, adaptable child-centred protection. 22. In particular, ever more children are being left with elderly relatives when their parents become migrant workers, moving to factories or construction sites in Cambodia or seeking employment overseas. Information received suggests heightened vulnerability for some of these children: some are abused, others turn to drugs and other substances, some end up in street situations. Children who suffer physical or psychological abuse within the community or family frequently have no means of seeking assistance or safety. The Government’s Violence against Children Survey and Action Plan is a step in the right direction, but victims of violence all too frequently remain in the household with the perpetrator and the perpetrator is not brought to justice in accordance with the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and the Protection of Victims. 23. Cambodia has many children living in institutional settings. Efforts to restrict “orphanage tourism” have been successful and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation is now focusing on reducing the number of children in care. The Action Plan for Improving Child Care, in cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), civil society organizations and the Partnership Programme for the Protection of Children, is aiming at reducing by 30 per cent the number of children in institutional settings in five provinces, reintegrating them into their communities. This is a positive pilot programme from which many lessons for the future will undoubtedly emerge. 24. Poverty is a key factor in many children being in residential care, working and being trafficked. It follows that the work on returning children to their families should address 6