In Cambodia, a challenge faced by the child protection community has been the lack of resources and skills that law enforcement agencies have had. This lack of skills has often resulted in children’s re-traumatisation during an investigation process.

APLE Cambodia’s Criminal Justice Development team, which aims to improve and strengthen the skills and knowledge of law enforcement agencies in Cambodia and increase adherence to international standards of child friendly investigations, provides trainings to the Cambodian National Police and other relevant law enforcement agencies.

Trainings are delivered in important provinces in Cambodia and are intended to 1. Increase the understanding of OCSE and enhance the skills among relevant authorities to identify its risks and offenses as well as how to respond to the crime; and 2. Train trainers in order to increase sustainability of the knowledge provided, supporting the trainers in spreading the knowledge with the next generations of police officers. In the period of July to September, a total of 140 participants attended these trainings.

Some of the topics taught in the trainings are: Investigation of online sexual crimes against children, victim identification, child sexual abuse material tracing, and related legal framework addressing these crimes; while the curriculum for the training of trainers includes child-friendly practices in child sexual abuse and exploitation investigation procedures to protect child victims and witnesses.

Find out more about this program here.