Cognitive maturation refers to the biological development of the brain by which an individual’s thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving abilities evolve and become more sophisticated as they grow older. This process is marked by significant changes in how individuals understand abstract concepts, engage in formal operational thinking, and apply reasoning skills to complex situations. A cognitively […]
Legislative Developments in Compliance with UNCRC
In August 2023, Pakistan submitted its consolidated sixth and seventh periodic reports to the UNCRC Committee for examination of its progress on the implementation of UNCRC in the country. The sixth and seventh periodic reports were due in 2016 and 2021 respectively. However, these reports were not submitted in time to the Committee, so the […]
Taxpayers’ Rights and Obligations
Tax season starts in Pakistan from July to September of every year, in which taxpayers fulfill their national obligation of voluntarily filing their annual income tax returns and statements of assets and liabilities, declaring their net annual income and wealth on FBR portal, to be assessed by FBR in the following assessment year. By fulfilling […]
Modern Slavery
Bonded labour is the main form of forced or compelled labour. It is also attributed as the worst form of labour, trafficking, and modern slavery. In the bonded labour system, the employer/owner/landlord/trafficker/creditor gives some amount of money or other monetary benefits in the form of loan/debt/advance/push to a labourer/debtor and then exploits that labourer/debtor and […]
Gender-Based Violence
Gender-based violence (GBV) means violence committed against any person on basis of his/her gender or perceived gender. Any man, woman, child, older, transgender, or disabled person who belongs to any age, race, colour, language, religion, socio-economic, culture, nation, ethnic or territorial background can become the target of GBV. The main forms of GBV are physical, […]
Give Credit Where Due
On 24 January 2024, the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) successfully launched the policy brief on child trafficking in Pakistan in a ceremony held at Marriott Hotel Islamabad, in which state-of-the-art legislative / policy framework on the issue of child trafficking in Pakistan including recommendations for its effective improvement / implementation were […]
One-Stop Centers
One-Stop Centers (OSC) both in private and public spaces have been established in some countries of the world to provide integrated multi-disciplinary free-of-cost support/assistance under one roof to women, girls including children affected by violence and abuse. OSC facilitate for provision of immediate emergency and non-emergency access to a range of services including medical, legal, […]
Child Housemaid Torture
On 28 December 2016, the child domestic labour case ‘Tayyaba Torture Case’ received media attention when the pictures of 10 years old wounded housemaid went viral on social and electronic media, who was brutally tortured and abandoned in Islamabad by a convict Maheen Zafar and her husband co-convict Raja Khurram Ali khan former additional district […]
Child Trafficking in Pakistan
Trafficking in Children is a form of modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to exploit children for some type of forced labour/services or commercial sex work. A victim of child trafficking does not need to be transported from one location to another for the offence of trafficking to occur. Movement […]
Non-ratification of UNCRC by most powerful country
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children, regardless of their or their parents’ or legal guardian’s age, sex, gender, language, religion, ethnic, race, sexual […]