Child Protection

Save the Children is dedicated to making China a safe place for all children.  In order to accomplish this goal, we are:

BUILDING A CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM

Together with our partners, we have worked for many years to improve the provision of social services to vulnerable children, including street children, children in contact with the law, and trafficked children.  We have also provided input on laws and policies where this has been appropriate – such as the Minors Protection Law and National Plan of Action for Human Trafficking – to support the construction of a child protection system in China.

For instance, our ten years of grassroots work in Yunnan has allowed us to provide legal rights protection to children and youth suspected of crimes.  More importantly, nearly half of these minors have undergone judicial diversion and/or community-based rehabilitation, greatly reducing the chances that they will re-offend.  Our work has already contributed to a successful revision of China’s Criminal Procedure Law, which now includes a chapter on youth justice.  We will continue to support efforts at the local and national level to help to reduce the number of child offenders and re-offenders in China.

PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK

In Yunnan, we have piloted a project to build the capacity of social workers in trafficking prevention, as well as rehabilitation and protection services for victims of trafficking.  We are currently working with the Civil Affairs administration to replicate our successes from this project.  In doing so, we aim to strengthen the training curriculum for child welfare social workers across China.  We are also piloting professional standards for case management and intervention.

PROMOTING A CULTURE OF PROTECTION

We are promoting the use of positive discipline – a form of conflict resolution that does not involve violent means – in communities across China.  In doing so, we aim to provide parents and teachers with practical tools to develop children through love and warmth, as well as non-violent methods to assert authority and give children boundaries when these are needed.  International evidence suggests that these approaches promote the development of mutually respectful relationships between children and their parents and teachers, while increasing the prospects of healthy child development.