Child Rights in Pakistan
Arshad Mahmood

Children comprise almost half of the population of Pakistan but unfortunately there is no special planning for them to make them good and useful citizens of the country. Almost twenty years after ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the fate of Pakistan’ children is no better. Our performance in the arena of child rights when compared with our neighbors, who have similar constraints, has deteriorated. There are still too many children fighting individual battles for survival. The struggle that begins at birth takes them to meaningless adulthood; the years between are spent dealing with hunger, disease and in work situations where they do adults’ job of providing for their families. And far too many children spend their formative years in lifeless educational institutions that only perpetuate their marginalized status.

Pakistan was among the first 20 countries to sign and ratify the Convention however, now, after 20 years, we have to question ourselves and hold the State accountable for what has been done to ensuring that all children are enjoying their basic rights. We need to know that why is it taking so long to legislate for children; why budgetary allocations for child centered programmes is bare minimum; why there still not exist any statutory government body to protect and promote child rights in Pakistan. Most importantly, how can Pakistan prosper without investing in its children and their access to education, health and social protection?

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has taken a serious note of our progress against the commitments made 20 years back. In its concluding observations on September 28, 2009, the Committee cites that it ‘remains concerned about the apparent lack of a legislative framework harmonized with the Convention in many areas and about delays in the adoption of laws that are instrumental to the implementation of the Convention. In particular, the Child Protection (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, which shall protect children against violations of their rights, and the National Commission on the Rights of the Children (NCRC) Bill, have not been adopted yet despite its consideration for a number of years.

The Committee has shown its grave concern over the legality of corporal punishment under Section 89 of the PPC and its extensive use as a disciplinary measure in homes, schools and alternative care settings. It is pertinent to mention here that the repeal of section 89 of the PPC has been postponed as it has been removed from the Child Protection (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill. As positive note however, to check the menace of corporal punishment, a Bill has been introduced in the National Assembly by a ‘child rights sensitive’ member as private member’s Bill to ban corporal punishment and to repeal sections of the provincial education codes that allow corporal punishment. A number of countries have introduced special laws to check corporal punishment successfully.

Likewise the Committee was also concerned that sexual exploitation and abuse of children is widespread, affecting increasingly boys and children in rural areas and reiterated the concern expressed in its previous concluding observations (2003) about the absence of legislation clearly prohibiting child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation and the lack of a clear definition of the term in the legislation. It also expressed concern at the growing number of children trafficked internally, sometimes sold by their own parents or forced into marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.

This situation calls for proper legislation and systemic changes at the policy level. All these issues have been dealt with under the Child Protection (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2009 by adding new sections 292A, 292B, 292C, 369A and 377A to the PPC. Therefore, the enactment of this Bill will be a great step forward and an excellent way to commemorate the ratification of the CRC.

The proposed Child Protection (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2009 was drafted in light of UN Committees’ recommendations in October 2003. The salient features of the Bill included raising minimum age of criminal responsibility from 7 years to an internationally acceptable level i.e. 12 years. Similarly it advocated for raising minimum marriageable age for the girl child from 16 years, under the Child Marriages Restraint Act 1929, to 18 years, repeal of Section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code to check corporal punishment in schools and other settings and making a number of other changes in Pakistan Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code to check child sexual abuse, pornography, cruelty to children and internal trafficking of children. The Bill, notwithstanding the different consultative process it underwent, however, has still not made it to the Parliament so far. The federal Cabinet has directed the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education to take the government’s coalition partners into confidence on the proposed Bill together with the National Commission on the Rights of the Children Bill 2009.

That being said, the onus of ensuring that we fulfill our promises to the children and also our national and international obligations fall on each one of us in one way or the other. The government has established a number of bodies, authorities and commissions, not to forget the huge number of ministries, to take care of various issues/areas, i.e. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) to name a few. Unfortunately, however, there is no statutory body in place to further the cause of child rights in Pakistan. The National Commission for Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD) has been established through a notification with minimum authority over the state of affairs and extreme lack of human and financial resources. This is why the Committee regretted that the National Commission on the Rights of Children (NCRC), which is intended to replace the existing NCCWD, has still not been established despite a Bill being drafted for that purpose since 2001 and showed its regrets over the poor coordination among the different bodies of the Government at the Federal, provincial and territorial levels responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the Convention and expressed concern about the high disparities in the implementation of the Convention at various levels.
The children of Pakistan are waiting for the past 20 years only to see successive governments failing to implement their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Now its time that the present democratic government recognize the importance of children’s rights not only by the timely enactment of the proposed legislation under discussion but also by ensuring its implementation by properly budgeting these laws and making budgetary allocations for its implementation.