Learning Together: Advancing Alternatives for Children

Five years of the Regional Peer Learning Platform and Program of Action on Alternatives to Child Detention in the Context of Migration in Asia-Pacific

In the Asia Pacific region, thousands of children are held in immigration detention every year. Increasingly, there is a desire from government and civil society to stop this damaging practice and the region has seen promising developments over the past five years. The Regional Peer Learning Platform and Program of Action on Alternatives to the Detention of Children in the Context of Migration in Asia Pacific (the Platform) was established in 2019 to encourage and support precisely this momentum.

In 2024, the Platform’s co-convenors — International Detention Coalition (IDC) and the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration (ADFM) Secretariat — initiated a review to identify the impact of the Platform over the past five years and also key elements of design that enabled this impact. This report documents this process, hoping to serve as a resource both for participants to reflect on achievements, and for anyone interested in replicating this model in different countries.