“We won’t run out of work in the area of children’s rights any time soon“
Interview with children’s rights expert Smiljana Frick in Cambodia
Smiljana Frick is an expert on children’s rights. After studying philosophy in Belgrade, she completed a master’s degree in this field in Berlin. As the LED’s representative for the children’s rights organization CRIC in the Republic of Moldova, she gained valuable experience in a coaching role for ten years. She has now moved to Cambodia.
What are you doing in Cambodia, Smiljana? What is your focus?
During the first few months in Cambodia, I continued to work with the children’s rights organization CRIC in Moldova. This was possible because a lot of the work is done online anyway. We were involved in interesting global processes on the topic of human rights defenders. But I’ll be happy to report on that another time.
Can you bring your experience from Moldova to Cambodia?
Yes, I have been working with the Cambodia Child Rights Coalition, the network of organizations working for children’s rights, since September. I already knew the organization through my work with Child Rights Connect, the center of excellence that manages the interface between the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and civil society organizations in this field. The coalition brings together around 60 organizations, both national and international.
And what are you doing with the coalition?
Oh, the Coalition Secretariat is involved in very diverse and varied activities, amazing for such a small team. My work focuses on supporting the Secretariat in coordinating the many organizations in the aftermath of Cambodia’s recent reporting to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. As a result of this report, the Cambodian government has received an extensive list of recommendations that now need to be taken up and implemented. As a first major activity, I have offered some internal training for the Secretariat.
What was this training course about?
The main aim was to get to know the monitoring and reporting mechanism of the Convention on the Rights of the Child better and to see where and in what form civil society can get involved. Child and youth participation in this process is important for the coalition. To make this possible, we are first translating the recommendations of the UN Committee into Khmer in such a way that children and young people as well as non-experts can understand them. It is encouraging to have such a motivated team in the coalition, because we will not run out of work in the area of children’s rights any time soon.
Picture right: The Children’s Rights Coalition in Cambodia, for which Smiljana Frick works, brings together around 60 national and international organizations.
