Children deserve best protection

Friday, November 21, 2014

As the world celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), we would like to thank first and foremost the Government of Mongolia for its supportive role in promoting child rights and good collaboration with international non-government organizations.

Today marks a very important milestone. The CRC has shaped the legal form of child rights and their implementation across the world over the past 25 years. Aligned with this convention World Vision has been leading to tackle a variety of issues concerning Child rights and Child protection in Mongolia since 1995.

One of the most recent initiatives to further strengthen the current child protection systems is the Child Helpline 108.  World Vision, along with key partners, the government-run National Authority for Children and Mobicom have established a new toll-free hotline that reaches all provinces across the country from any phone at, toll free. 

Within the first six months of its launch, over 51,000 calls have been received by the Help line, drastically more than the previous child service line’s calls over the last 2 years combined. The figures show that the Help line immediately responded to over 80 percent of 424 child protection cases, delegating the process to the respective local authorities as well as the police forces. The report also illustrates that over one third of all calls are made by children themselves, while 26,6 percent by a third party, and 23,6 percent by family members, which is an outstanding achievement to reach out to the children who need help across the country.

The government of Mongolia has taken great interest in this new initiative and considers this as a great example of a partnership between the government, an International NGO and the private sector and has increased financial and human capacity to support the smooth functioning of the call centre.  The most critical success factor of this initiative will be the further strengthening of multi disciplinary referral mechanisms with an appropriate and timely response in order to meet the needs of children reporting abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation.

As the world celebrates the 25 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, let us not forget the value and importance of innovative partnerships, and continue to work to identify ways in which we can capitalize on the strengths of diverse parts of society to address the needs of vulnerable children in protecting their rights.