Daily Times

Civil society organisations working for promotion and protection of children’s rights urged the authorities to devise a strategy to ensure implementation of children-related laws to meet Pakistan’s international obligations under UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The demand was made at a press conference in Lahore held by Search For Justice – a member organisation of Child Rights Movement Punjab.

Child rights activist and Executive Director of Search For Justice Iftikhar Mubarik shared that three years had been passed since Pakistan received Concluding Observations and Recommendations by UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (June 2016). Since there is dire need to follow up with relevant ministries and departments at provincial level to track the progress of implementation as next periodic report of Pakistan will be due in 2021.

“There is dire need to establish an independent and empowered commission at provincial level to oversight the state of Child Rights in general and Child Protection in particular,” said Mubarik, while adding that Child Rights Commission should be established through legislation of the Punjab Assembly.

He further added that 12 or 13 children fall prey of sexual abuse on daily basis and these cases are still under reported. Punjab’s Chief Minister Usman Buzdar was also urged to supervise the formulation of comprehensive Child Protection Policy. The Child Protection policy must be a guiding document for all the government departments while the provision of technical human resources and budgetary allocation must be ensured to see the implementation of Commitments which will be made by Government through passing of Child Protection policy, he added.

He was of the view that he wrote a letter to CM Punjab around four months ago to have a meeting on the child rights but still waiting for his reply. “The children are usually not aware of their rights and therefore it is our duty to become their voices for protection of their rights,” he said.

Waqas Abid, Coordinator Child Rights Movement Punjab, highlighted unstopped incidents of cruelty with Child Domestic Labourers. “Being a child rights activist, I am surprised that still government was not able to launch a massive campaign to educate masses not to employee a child under 15 years of age as a domestic labourer after the passage of The Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2019 that bars employing a child under 15 years of age,” he added. There is a dire need to introduce simplified complaint mechanism to report if child domestic labour is performed in any household because it is a clear violation of Children Rights, he said.

Rashida Qureshi, program coordinator of Search For Justice highlighted the need for raising age of marriage for girls from 16 to 18 years by amending The Punjab Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act 2015. Raising age of marriage for girls will lead to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 of Gender Equality, she said. She also demanded increase in resource allocation to improve Girls’ secondary education to achieve SDG target 4. Promotion of Girls’ secondary education will also contribute in reducing the incidents of Child, Early and Forced marriages, she added.

Qazi Ehsan from Idara Taleem o Agahi urged for formulation of rules of “The Punjab Free & Compulsory Education Act 2014” for effective implementation of law which was enacted in compliance with Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan. Government of the Punjab must enact legislation to prohibit Physical & Humiliating Punishment in all schools, while a training program must be initiated to capacitate teachers of positive disciplining and alternative to corporal punishment

Naqsh Nasir Social activist highlighted the need of availability of credible data Child Labour, Violence Against Children, out of school children and children on move under the patronage of Government. The availability of credible numbers will be helpful for relevant government departments to design their programs and schemes more realistic to showcase the positive progress in achieving targets set in SDDs, recommendation of UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and recommendations accepted by Pakistan under Universal Periodic Review in 2017, said Naqsh.