Legal Aid to Children and Women Project 

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Government of the Union of Myanmar, signing the Basic Cooperation Agreement (B.C.A) on (22-4-1950), have been implementing together the works concerning children. In accord with the said Agreement, UNICEF(Myanmar) and Myanmar Council of Churches (MCC) signed Programme Cooperation Agreement in 2007 and started to implement UNICEF & MCC – Legal Aid Project.

 1. Objective

Rules related to the Child Law – 75 says that “law office shall hire lawyer step by step by the cost of government to serve the poor child who is got prosecuted for death sentence.” Most of the poor children in Myanmar are suffering from many losses as they are unable to hire layers, or because of their ignorance. The purpose of this project is for the lawyers to give services to the children without taking any fees. Especially, it is for the victims under 18 years old who suffer for any cases, for the children who offend any crimes and for all women who get insulted.

 2. Project Area

From 15^th May 2009 to 14^th July 2010, the lawyers of UNICEF & MCC – Legal Aid Project served in mercy without taking any lawyer fees for 830 cases for 192 children (victim) and 744 children (offender); total of 936 children in total of 118 townships.

3. Other Performances

Besides offering legal aids, the very poor children among them who need to take medical treatment are provided social support, who have difficulty to study in school are provided school support and who are in trouble for living are provided in order to attend the vocational training.

4. Advisory Committee

The Advisory Committee was formed under the guideline of the General Secretary of MCC. This committee held meetings 3 times during project period of 2009-2010.

There are 509 lawyers to come along and serve in the project area. Midterm Review Meeting and Year End Review Meeting were usually held yearly between the government senior officials and UNICEF for more effective performance of UNICEF & MCC – Legal Aid Project.

Information Edited by Oliva (MCC)