APLE's Court Support Program focuses on providing high-quality and timely legal and social support for child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation in Cambodia. Besides, through the development and dissemination of best practice guidelines for supporting victims and their families, doing case-by-case advocacy and building strategic partnerships with other organizations; APLE enables child victims to pursue justice without further trauma and achieve stable lives
Cambodia is a country with an established problem of child sexual abuse and exploitation. With 5.6 per cent of boys and 4.4 percent of girls experiencing at least one incident of sexual abuse before the age of 18; the prevalence rate of sexual abuse goes up to 38 percent within vulnerable populations such as street-connected children. With highly experienced staff, APLE Cambodia has been protecting, supporting and responding to the needs of these children for more than 10 years
The program's activities include crisis intervention for child victims sexual abuse and exploitation, provision of emotional support, legal advice and representation for victims and their families along with advocacy at all levels to establish child-friendly procedures during the entire judicial process
Founded on the belief that strengthening government institutions is the highest priority in achieving long-term sustainable change, APLE's experienced staff advocate through meetings, workshops and discussions with national law enforcement agencies and other government officials to increase adherence to national and international standards in cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation and the use of child-friendly procedures throughout the whole criminal justice process
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
