The Civil Society Coalition on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC Coalition Philippines) conducted its annual children consultation, Kasalo sa Kwetuhan at Kainan last October 13 to 14, 2018. The consultation aims to gather children’s assessment of CRC Coalition’s work in leading civil society efforts towards monitoring the implementation of UN CRC in strengthening government accountability.
Children Talk to Children (C2C), an alliance of child-led organizations who have experienced working with CRC Coalition gave their opinions on how CRC Coalition exercise children’s participation to promote children’s welfare.
Aena Briones, Advocacy and Communications Officer of the CRC Coalition presented the previous activities where children are directly involved in the planning, implementation, and evaluation which includes national consultation on SOGIE-based bullying in education settings, drafting and monitoring of the 3rd National Plan of Action for Children, discussion on the outcome of the 3rd Universal Periodic Review Cycle, and child rights agenda on increasing the age of statutory rape, among others.
CAST (children adult support team) also gave their assessments and evaluation in how CRC Coalition conduct before, during, and after activities.
Minerva Cabiles, Child Rights Governance Director of Save the Children Philippines gave a learning session on General Comment 12: Rights of Children to be Heard. GC 12 is written by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child composed of experts that monitors if the convention is being properly implemented which includes the Philippines. This indicates the meaning of genuine child participation. It also states the recommendations by the Committee as an authoritative guidance including the 9 basic requirements of child participation: Transparent and Informative, Voluntary, Respectful, Relevant, Child-Friendly, Inclusive, Supported by Training, Safe and Sensitive to Risk, and Accountable.
The children said they saw the value of genuine participation because they saw the outcome of the activities which they were able to contribute. They also requested on making more child-friendly materials that they could share in their schools and communities to spread awareness about children’s rights.