Pakistan is a young country, both politically and demographically. With over one-third of the population under the age of 15, child rights are not merely an NGO concern or a matter of moral discourse; they are a governance priority linked to national development, human capital, and international credibility. Since ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1990, Pakistan has gradually expanded its legal and policy framework; however, a gap persists between legislation and implementation.
Federal and provincial laws on child protection, trafficking, juvenile justice, and corporal punishment have established a statutory foundation. However, legislation alone does not safeguard children; institutions do so. Countries that have made progress in child protection rely on mechanisms that monitor violations, coordinate between agencies, handle public complaints, and advise on compliance. Without these, rights remain both unenforced and invisible.
In this context, the establishment of the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) under the NCRC Act 2017 represents an important shift from advocacy-focused child protection to institutional and compliance-oriented engagement. The Commission is mandated to investigate complaints, promote awareness, coordinate with government agencies, and support Pakistan’s reporting duties under CRC.
Under the stewardship of Chairperson Ayesha Raza Farooq, the Commission has engaged more actively with federal and provincial counterparts, signalled a focus on data-backed monitoring, and elevated child rights discourse into policy circles that are traditionally insulated from social sector concerns. This reflects the maturing of state engagement in child protection – not through rhetoric but through institutional practice.
Despite these advances, Pakistan faces persistent challenges in implementation. The first barrier is the limited data. Cases of abuse, trafficking, domestic servitude, child labour, and online exploitation are tracked through fragmented channels, such as police reports, NGO studies, media coverage, and community-level documentation. Without unified data, policymakers lack the evidence required for targeted interventions, resource allocation, and trend analysis.
Pakistan is obligated to submit periodic reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and to align with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.2, which seeks to end all forms of violence against children.
Second, child protection responsibilities are dispersed across multiple departments: social welfare, labour, interior, law enforcement, prosecution, health, and education. Coordination among these actors remains intermittent because bureaucratic structures are vertically organised, whereas child protection issues are interconnected horizontally. This fragmentation complicates responses to cases involving trafficking, online exploitation, and cross-provincial movement.
Third, reporting and complaint mechanisms are not widely accessible to employees. Families often avoid reporting abuse due to stigma, fear, or unfamiliarity with the existing channels. Strengthening complaints and redress pathways – particularly through schools, district administration, and helplines – is critical for capturing the true scale of violations.
These challenges do not imply apathy; rather, they demonstrate the complexity of operationalising child protection within constrained administrative structures.
In this environment, strengthening the NCRC is strategically important. Such bodies provide three core governance functions.
First, compliance and reporting functions. Pakistan is obligated to submit periodic reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and to align with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.2, which seeks to end all forms of violence against children. Compliance requires credible monitoring and documented evidence, which the Commission is mandated to perform.
Second, it has a coordination function. Child protection intersects with law enforcement, welfare services, healthcare, and education. By engaging these actors, the Commission can reduce fragmentation and build structured referral and response pathways, which are standard in more developed countries.
Third, it has visibility and accountability functions. When violations are documented and reports are issued, children’s rights move from private suffering to public scrutiny, enabling parliamentary oversight and judicial intervention where necessary. Visibility is a form of protection.
Looking ahead, Pakistan does not need parallel bureaucracies; it needs to strengthen what exists within its current system. Several realistic measures could improve outcomes without overwhelming the administrative capacity.
First, a unified national data platform for child protection should be developed, integrating provincial inputs to inform policymaking and budget priorities.
Second, expand complaints and redress networks by partnering with schools, district administrations, and local bodies to make reporting accessible and less stigmatised. Third, formalise inter-agency coordination protocols between the NCRC, police, FIA, prosecution, and provincial child protection units for trafficking, online exploitation, and abuse cases.
Fourth, child impact assessments should be introduced for major federal policies to ensure that children are not sidelined in economic or administrative decisions.
Fifth, strengthen parliamentary engagement by institutionalising briefings and committee interactions to improve oversight capacity and legislative responsiveness.
These steps align with international best practices and require adjustments rather than reinvention.
Ultimately, child rights are not a charity concern; they are a governance and development issue. They intersect with national security (through trafficking and exploitation), economic growth (through human capital investment), and foreign policy (through treaties). The evolution of institutional mechanisms, exemplified by bodies such as the NCRC, indicates that Pakistan is moving in a direction where child protection is treated as a state function rather than an activist appeal.
For a nation with a youthful population and immense potential, there is no more strategic investment than protecting and developing its children. Laws matter, but institutions bring those laws to life. Strengthening these institutions now will determine the quality of our future human capital and, ultimately, the future of the country itself.
The writer is a freelance columnist.