Advocacy Program

The main objective of COSECAM’s Advocacy Program is to achieve positive change in policies and regulations regarding child exploitation and abuse. The Program has four main functions:

• To coordinate member organisations in campaigns to raise awareness of child protection issues,
• To build capacity of staff to be more effective advocates for child rights,
• To utilise the strength of the coalition to lobby the Royal Cambodian Government, and
• To give victims a voice and involve them in the process of effecting change.

Child Victim Empowerment (CVE) or Girls Speak Out (GSO) Project

The CVE project consists of a series of Workshops bringing together young victims of trafficking and exploitation to network and support each other as well as brainstorming ways to address child sexual exploitation in Cambodia (CSEC). The project aims to support child victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation to become agents of positive change.

A core theme of the project is that the process of empowerment goes hand in hand with the process of healing. The ‘Girls Speak Out’ Workshops support this goal through inclusion of:

• Exercises in self-esteem and confidence building,
• Education about trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children in relations to the law and human/child rights, and
• Training in advocacy skills, such as public speaking.

The Coordinated Case Management of Victims of Exploitation (CCM) Project

The objective of the Coordinated Case Management of Victims of Exploitation Project (CCM) is to establish a national system for managing the provision of services for victims of trafficking and exploitation. The project came under COSECAM’s Rehabilitation and Reintegration (R&R) programme in 2005, but in 2006 was placed under the Advocacy program.

Child Protection Regulation (CPR) Project

COSECAM’s CPR project is a recognition of the need for formalised regulations to govern the rights and responsibilities of organisations providing shelter to victims of trafficking. Beginning in 2005, COSECAM in collaboration with the Asian Regional Cooperation to Prevent People Trafficking (ARCPPT) hosted a series of meetings to discuss the design and implementation of CPR policy. A large number of shelter organisations attended the workshops, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Social Affairs, and several UN agencies.