Protocol and Guidelines on Monitoring, Reporting, and Responding to Cases of Children in Situations of Armed Conflict

This protocol and guidelines were prepared in 2021 by the Child Rights Center within the Commission on Human Rights. As stated in the prefatory statement on p. 1 of the document:

On 10 January 2019, the Philippine Legislature enacted Republic Act No. 11188 (“An Act Providing for the Special Protection of Children in Situations of Armed Conflict and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof”), which provided an unprecedented level of protection to children from the ravages of armed combat, as well as a far more comprehensive listing of grave violations of children’s rights in an armed conflict setting and their corresponding penalties. With this landmark legislation, and the issuance of its Implementing Rules and Regulations (“IRR”) on 4 June 2019, it has therefore become incumbent on the implementing agencies and other actors named in the law to fulfill their designated roles.

As one of the implementers of R.A. 11188 per Section 17 as well as a member of the Inter-Agency Committee on Children in Situations of Armed Conflict (“IAC-CSAC”) under Section 25, the Commission on Human Rights (“CHR”) adopts the instant protocol in order to further define its role as an agency responsible for training and deploying investigators of violations of R.A. No. 11188, to distinguish its own role from those of other implementing agencies such as the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), to distinguish cases involving CSAC from other cases handled by CHR investigators, and finally, to ensure that, throughout the entire process of investigation of children in situations of armed conflict, whether these are Children Involved in Armed Conflict (“CIAC”), Children Affected by Armed Conflict (“CAAC”) or Internally Displaced Children (“IDC”), they observe the utmost respect for the rights of the child.