The need to establish National Commission on the Rights of Children

Establish National Commission on the Rights of Children

Every day we keep reading news of blatant child rights violations across the country. Children are faced with a number of issues including lack of a comprehensive legal framework to protect children particularly the issue of internal trafficking children, child domestic labour, child sexual abuse, corporal punishment etc. to name a few areas. The is despite the fact that Pakistan was 6th among the world community and first Islamic country to sign and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and have recently also ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Pornography. Budgetary allocation of child protection is equal to zero and whatever little bit of initiatives we see are initiated by national or international NGOs.

There is no body responsible for promoting and protecting the rights of children in Pakistan following the 18th Constitutional Amendment as before the 18th Amendment there was a body called National Commission on Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD) in the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education. Although, one can have several questions about the performance of NCCWD but at least there was some kind of coordination mechanism available. Unfortunately, following the 18th Amendment there is no body at the federal level responsible for coordination with the provinces on the issues of child rights. Similarly, there is no follow up on the concluding observations and recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Pakistan’s last periodic report. A number of bills which were in the pipeline for the past several years are limbo because there is no one charge to follow those despite the fact that some of them have nothing to do with 18th Amendment.

I urge the Government to expedite the process of enactment of legislation that embodies the rights of children and for the setting up of an independent commission on the rights of children. The Commission should have the powers to monitor and protect children’s rights across the country in order to ensure minimum standards in light of our constitutional and international obligations and to advocate for policy and systemic improvements including those related to budgetary allocation. The recent decision by the Government to place the National Commission on the Status of Women in the Ministry of Human Rights is a welcome step. In this context the case of children is at par and in juxtaposition with those of women.