CWIN-Nepal Campaign on Child Rights during Constituent Assembly Election - 2008

Let's make the Constituent Assembly election a success in a free and fair manner!
Let's build New Nepal with a respect to Child Rights!!

Use of school and children in CA election campaign

With the Constituent Assembly (CA) Election at the threshold protection of children and the role of child rights issues in the constitution of New Nepal have once again become topics of discussion. Regarding the code of conduct of the Election Commission the Article 23, 2064, clearly states that: "No children should be made to participate in procession, rally or mass meetings and/or be involved in campaigning or any kind of election related activities". Likewise, the political parties have included issues of protection and development of children in their manifestos. During the campaigning for the Constituent Assembly Election CWIN Nepal wants to stress that children's issues should be given equal importance amongst other political, economical and social issues as children constitute almost half of the nation's population.

In 2007 CWIN-Nepal launched a national campaign entitled "Let's build New Nepal with Children". During the campaign CWIN organized series of consultations with various stakeholders, including political parties, children's groups, civil society and organizations, where it presented a concept note on "Children and Constituent Assembly". The seven main political parties also signed a pledge to address children's issues in the course of Constituent Assembly election. Outcome of the consultation was published and disseminated to all concerned stakeholders. In addition, CWIN published a booklet which listed the issues of children that should be addressed by the new constitution of Nepal.

In 2008, CWIN-Nepal started a national public campaign with the main slogan "Let's not use children during Constituent Assembly election". The main focus of the campaign is on the protection of children from any risk situation during the Constituent Assembly election.

For the campaign, CWIN-Nepal published and disseminated seventy thousand leaflets to all the political parties and public with an appeal: "Let's not use children during Constituent Assembly election". CWIN-Nepal formed a core group of staff to be mobilized for the campaign. The group went to various mass gatherings of different political parties and disseminated leaflets. Similarly, CWIN volunteers received orientation on Constituent Assembly election campaign and were mobilized for the campaign. The CWIN-Nepal campaign reached to 30 districts including CWIN office branches in 10 districts. Moreover, leaflets on protection of children were disseminated via e-mail to 5000 individuals.

Moreover, leaflets were sent to all District Child Welfare Boards (DCWBs) in all 75 districts. On the special request of CWIN to Election Commission, PSA (issue of not using children in the elections) was broadcasted through radio and FMs frequently.

On April 2, 2008, CWIN-Nepal organized a press meeting on "Protection of Child Rights in Constituent Assembly Election" with media people and journalists in Kathmandu. There were altogether 36 media people and journalists from various media and newspaper agencies. In the program Tarak Dhital presented a concept paper on the topic and Sumnima Tuladhar briefed the audience about the state of Rights of Child (SOROC) 2008 in Nepal which was released on the same date.

The program covered issues related to the use of children by political parties during election campaign, analysis of issues of children in Constituent Assembly manifestos of major political parties and report on state of the Rights of the child 2008. Journalists were provided with press statement, SOROC report, list of issues of children in Constituent Assembly manifestos of major political parties, an analysis of these issues, election campaign leaflet and the publication 'Children in new Constitution' (Naya Sambidhan ma Balbalika). Also glimpses of children being used in Constituent Assembly election, which had been covered by some newspapers, were put up.

A Press Statement on Constituent Assembly election and child protection was issued by CWIN-Nepal during the press meeting. In the press statement CWIN appealed all concerned stakeholders like parents, political parties, Election Commission, Election observers, media government and security forces to fulfill their duty to protect children from negative effects caused by election activities as it is necessary to build new culture of Child Rights in the process of building New Nepal.

CWIN-Nepal's role in Election Observation

CWIN-Nepal has formed a core monitoring group of about 50 staffs in coordination with National Election Observation Committee (NEOC) to observe incidents of violations of Human Rights and especially violations of Child Rights during CA polls on April 10, 2008. Staffs are deputed in different areas (constituent number) for observation. Approximately 125 staffs will observe Child Rights violations during Constituent Assembly polls in their respective districts. Moreover, CWIN has developed a format to report on Child Rights violations, and a National report will be prepared and published based on the information collected from the observation reports from different districts. Furthermore, CWIN-Nepal will continue its monitoring and observation also after the elections during victory rallies and protests of different political parties in case they will take place. CWIN will organize a ceremony to congratulate the winners of the Constituent Assembly to remind them of their commitment to children's issues and to remind them to place these issues on the top of their agenda.

CWIN-Helpline will be prepared to provide emergency humanitarian support for the children in need during Constituent Assembly polls. CWIN-Helpline will work in coordination with UN agencies and NGOs. Some of the staffs are assigned to receive calls, provide information and document the cases of violations of Child Rights during the polls in CWIN-Helpline.

CWIN-Nepal will also do field work and observation during Constituent Assembly election focusing specially on street children. During field work and observation the deployed staffs will collect information on their situation, challenges they face, use of street children and other organization's involvement for their protection and support in order to understand their views on Constituent Assembly election and the impact of the election on them.

7 year old boy giving a speech in mass gathering during CA election campaign in Udaypur	10 year old girl giving a speech in mass gathering during publicity campaign in Kathmandu
Press statement issued by CWIN regarding "Let's not use children during CA election"	8 year old boy injured by Maoist attack during CA election campaign in Dolakha