South and Central Asia is home to nearly 700 million children. Civil society has an important role to play in ensuring all children have access to the rights guaranteed to them in the UNCRC.
Working to realise children’s rights is at the heart of Save the Children’s mission. Save the Children Sweden bases its work on the UN Convention of the Right’s of the Child (UNCRC) which guarentees basic standards and sets minimum entitlements and freedoms that should be respected and protected by governments. These rights are founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each child, regardless of race, colour, gender, language, religion, opinions, origins, wealth, birth status or ability. The government has a duty to protect and ensure these rights, but civil society has a role to play in demanding and defending children’s rights.
Civil society is understood as the space between the private sphere, the private sector and the State. A commonly used definition is that civil society is a group of people joining together for a common objective. It includes non-governmental organisations, community based organisations, professional associations, churches, trade unions, academia , the media etc.
Save the Children Sweden Regional Office for South and Central Asia uses a Child Rights Programming (CRP) approach, which puts children at the centre of all programming. CRP recognises children as rights holders and engages children as actors in their own development. It recognises governments as the main duty-bearers in fulfilling children’s rights, and promotes accountability to their citizens.
The goal of a child rights based civil society is to influence state structures at central or local level to implement the UNCRC.This can be done by examining how the State excercises power, checking and making public potential abuses (including non-action),. It can also be done by highlighting a problem and developing new models to address it.
Child rights based organisations mobilise people and provide channels for public participation, other than the channels provided by political parties and general elections. This is especially important for groups with specific interests and for groups that are otherwise excluded from accessing power, including children and youth. South Asia has a vibrant civil society, however it is still challenging to advocate to the government for the high level changes necessary.
It is important for organisations to have a greater understanding of UN conventions or other human rights instruments. Without this understanding the impact of public advocacy campaigns and the ability to influence duty bearers is limited. Generally, civil society organisations do not have the technical expertise or resources to analyse National Budgets. This is important for developing relevant programmes and advocacy work.
Most of the countries in South and Central Asia are grappling with conflict, political instability, communal, ethnic and political violence, natural disasters and traditional social systems which impede the realization of child rights. When States do not respond to these complex situations or lack substantial capacity to respond to child rights issues, civil society has a important role to play in complementing the govenrmentto make child rights in South and Central Asia a reality.