Cristina Sevilla

Cristina is the Executive Director of the Child Justice League. This allows her to extend legal assistance to abused, neglected and exploited children, as well as trafficked women. In the process of providing assistance to these groups, she liaises with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, as well as Filipino NGO’s such as End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT), Visayan Forum Inc., the Child Protection Unit at the Philippine General Hospital, Womenlead, and the Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse. Cristina also advocates for the passage of legislation such as the Juvenile Justice Bill within the Philippines. She further develops programs and projects and sources funding for the sustainability of the Child Justice League. The League is currently involved with an NGO network of over thirty organisations, known as the Psychological and Legal Assistance to Sexually Abused Children (PLASAC). This network is funded by the Consuelo Foundation, and the network is currently in the process of drafting a manual to document the PLASAC experience in order to detail what has been learnt to others providing similar services internationally. The Child Justice League further provides training sessions to volunteer human rights advocates, social workers, psychologists, Barangay officials, and the like. This training aims to teach these people to act as resource people on the laws and procedures governing women’s and children’s rights, including the UN conventions pertaining to the rights of these groups within society. Cristina believes that she learns more about effective advocacy skills everyday she is at work. She believes that the more she is exposed to in the human rights world, the more there is to learn. This is why she wishes to attend the training – as she believes that understanding an issue, its cause and the mechanisms in place at either a local, regional or international level will make both her and her organisation more confident in fighting for the recognition and protection of the rights of women and children.