Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Pakistan’s child rights scrutiny

How many of us know that there was a National Plan of Action for Children adopted in 2006 and whether it was implemented; that there is no independent National Commission on the Rights of the Child Rights; that birth registration rate is merely 30 per cent; that 352,000 children die before their fifth birthday; that 45 per cent children are malnourished; that there is a need to protect children belonging to religious minorities from sectarian violence and attacks, forced marriages and forced conversions and from prosecution and conviction under blasphemy law; that the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill is still pending; that the minimum legal age for criminal responsibility is still 7 years; that the minimum age of marriage for girls is still 16 except in Sindh; that no specific programmes have been initiated for children with disabilities to enjoy their rights and to prevent their marginalisation and abandonment and to build an inclusive education system.

These are sad realities and we all know that budgetary allocation for children is still a mere 6 per cent of the GDP; that Pakistan has the highest bottle feeding and lowest exclusive breastfeeding for six months rates in South Asia; that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, that Article 25-A of the Constitution about the right to free and compulsory education for children between the ages of 5 and 16 years and the Employment of Children Act 1991 are poorly implemented; that child domestic labour is still legal and no child labour survey has been conducted since 1996; that no specific measures have been taken to combat sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; that child sexual abuse is still denied despite huge scandals like the Kasur and that the children of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are still deprived of most of their rights enshrined in the UNCRC and the Constitution.

The above issues are just a few of those mentioned in the list of issues that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child came up with during the pre-session, held between October 5-9, and requested the Government of Pakistan for written replies before March 01, 2016. This is part of the States scrutiny being party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). State Parties are required to submit their Periodic Reports about implementation on the Convention after every 5 years. The Government of Pakistan submitted its 5th Periodic Report to the UN Committee on May 23rd, 2015; the same was due on December 11, 2012. Civil society was invited to submit Alternative Reports by June 30, 2015. CSOs and coalitions, including the Child Rights Movement (CRM) Pakistan, Justice Project Pakistan and Global Coalition to Protect Education form Attack Pakistan submitted their Alternative Reports.

A plenary session will be held where the Government of Pakistan will be scrutinized for the state of child rights in Pakistan by the Committee in its Seventy Second Session to be held during May 17-June 03, 2016. Following the plenary with the government, the Committee will adopt Concluding Observations and Recommendations for the Government of Pakistan and all other stakeholders.

Having a look at the State report, all the alternative reports submitted by the civil society and the list of issues and questions raised by the Committee, one realize that Pakistan is still far from achieving any significant milestones in making rights enshrined in the UNCRC a reality for the children of Pakistan. This is high time that the federal and provincial governments prioritize child rights and immediately respond to the issues raised by the Committee in its list of issues on which the government of Pakistan is required to respond before March 01, 2016.

The federal government should immediately enact all the pending bills related to children including the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill, the Child Protection (Criminal Laws) Amendment Bill, the ICT Child Protection and Welfare Bill, the Child Marriages Restraint (Amendment) Bill and the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill. Similarly, the federal government should also take practical steps for the implementation of the right to education legislation at the Islamabad and FATA level by notifying rules and making budgetary allocation for the ICT Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2012. There is also a need to make budgetary allocation of establishing child protection system at the ICT and FATA levels by the federal government and at the provincial level by all the respective provincial governments. Steps should be taken for the effective implementation of the Employment of Children Act (ECA) 1991, notify child domestic labour under ECA’s schedule of banned occupations and conduct a fresh National Child Labour Survey.

At the provincial level, Sindh is ahead of other provinces and have introduced most of laws and policies however; there is a high need to ensure implementation of the Sindh Multi Sectoral Nutrition Strategy, the Sindh Protection and Promotion of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Act 2013, the Sindh Right to Free and Compulsory Education 2013, the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011 and the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act 2014. Notification of rules of business and budgetary allocation with a robust monitoring system should be put in place immediately to ensure realization of the rights of children in the province in accordance with the UNCRC. Steps for universal birth registration, protection of children from religious minorities and protection of children living and or working on the streets and those in child and bonded labour should be taken.

The Government of Punjab should take steps for the implementation of all children related laws and policies with sufficient budgetary allocation. The Punjab Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill should be enacted and an independent Commission should be established for the promotion and protection of child rights in accordance with the UNCRC. Punjab should also enact comprehensive child protection legislation as the current Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2007’s scope is limited to destitute and neglected children only.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should immediately enact the KP Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill and the KP Child Marriages Restraint Bill. The Government of KP should make sufficient budgetary allocation for the implementation of the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010 to establish a child protection system in the province. It should also implement the KP Borstal Institutions Act 2012 and established Borstal Institutions for juvenile inmates at Bannu, Peshawar and Haripur. The Government of Balochistan should immediately enact the long awaited Balochistan Child Protection and Welfare Bill and the Balochistan Child Marriages Restraint Bill. Together with all other provinces, it should also make budgetary allocations for the implementation of health and education related laws and policies. Similarly, practical steps are required from all the federal and provincial governments for the implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000.

I hope that by June 2016, when the concluding observations and recommendations will be adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Pakistan’s fifth Periodic Report, the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill would have been enacted and the Commission would have been established to follow up with the federal and provincial governments and ensure effective implementation of the concluding observations and recommendations of the Committee and play a lead role in improving the state of child rights in Pakistan.

The writer is a human rights activist and development practitioner with a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics (LSE) and tweets at @amahmood72

The article was published in Express Tribune on November 20, 2015
http://tribune.com.pk/story/994779/pakistans-child-rights-record-under-scrutiny/

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