Child rights in Balochistan There is a debate in the country about the Balochistan situation and how to bring Balochistan back into mainstream. Different opposition leaders are giving their vague plans for responding to Balochistan’s grievances and are in touch with various Baloch leaders. The government on the other side have introduced much talked about ‘Huqooq-e-Balochistan package’ and commitments on different forums by the President and the Prime Minister about addressing Balochistan’s concerns and giving them their due share. No one however, has a clear agenda and vision that how will they resolve Balochistan’s issues? How will be the state of human rights improved in Balochistan? How will be the missing persons issue solved and resolved forever? How will be the Baloch youth and children ensured a safe and healthy future within the federation of Pakistan? I’d like to respond to these questions with a focus on the deteriorating state of human rights in the province and how to improve that? The provincial government should immediately take steps to establish an autonomous, impartial and powerful provincial human rights commission through an Act of the assembly for the protection of human rights in the province. The commission should have representation from local media, bar, judiciary etc. and should have enough human and financial resources at its disposal to be able to respond to the human rights violations in the province in an effective way. A retired High Court or Supreme Court judge from Balochistan must be acceptable to all sections of the society for effectively addressing human rights related grievances such as missing persons, target killings, kidnappings, sectarian killings etc. Civil society of Pakistan will be more than willing to support the provincial government and members of the assembly in drafting a bill for the establishment of such an institution. Education is the basic right of every child and this has been reiterated to by the present Parliament by making education a fundamental right for children from 5 to 16 years of age under the 18th constitutional amendment. In Balochistan, a huge number of children from 5 to 16 years are not going to schools or drop out following primary as there are only 586 high schools both for girls and boys to cater to students of more than 12,000 primary and middle schools in the province. There is huge difference between the number of children and those getting education. Similarly, those enrolled in schools have a huge gender disparity. According to education department Balochistan an estimated 6000 schools would need to be build to be able to ensure education to all children of Balochistan in accordance with Article 25-A of the constitution about the right to free and compulsory education for children from 5 and 16 years of age. The federal government shall take responsibility and immediately respond to this call of the Balochistan education department and immediately allocate funds for this purpose from the ‘Huqooq-e-Balochistan package’ so that the people of Balochistan could be assured that this package is not just a gimmick rather it can be used for practical purposes such as ensuring Baloch children’s right to education. This will lead to a healthy atmosphere for the children of Balochistan and will be helpful in bringing them into mainstream. This will also create job opportunities of the educated youth and will prevent them from indulging in anti state activities and will also heal their sense of deprivation. Likewise, the provincial assembly shall take responsibility of introducing the Balochistan Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill on priority basis to start with. Balochistan is the only province of Pakistan where there is simply no legislation about child rights. What are the provincial assembly members doing? In the past one year, provincial assemblies in rest of the three provinces introduce legislation related to children such as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Welfare and Protection Act 2010 and the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011. Why is/was the provincial assembly Balochistan unable to legislate about child rights for the last six decades? The Balochistan Child Welfare and Protection Bill is in the pipeline for quite some time now and it’s high time that the provincial government and the assembly show their willingness and commitment and immediately adopt this Bill to be able to put in place an effective child protection system in the province. Violence against children in schools, in madrassahs, at homes and at work place is common in the province which is leading to violent behaviour among children however; there is no legislation in the province to check violence against children. A Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill is in the pipeline for quite some time again with no signs of its immediate adoption by the provincial assembly. This is another area where the provincial assembly shall come forward and play its role for the protection of the children of Balochistan from violence committed against them. Child labour is quite common in the province and a large number of children are working in various hazardous sectors including mining, deep sea fishing and brick kilns sectors with no response from the government. Besides, introduction of free and compulsory education laws the government should also build the capacity of the labour department to respond to the situation and ensure the effective implementation of the labour laws not only about child labour but also about bonded labour and minimum wages. This will be helpful in minimizing labour’s issues and checking exploitation of children working in hazardous sectors. Despite the fact that the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) was adopted way back in 2000 which abolishes death penalty for children below 18 years of age, recently, a civil society organization reported cases of four persons below the age of eighteen years awarded death sentences in violation of the JJSO. Their appeals are in process and hopefully their death sentences will be commuted by the honourable High Court, the question is about lack of awareness about children related laws among the stakeholders responsible for their implementation. This is also because of poor or no budgetary allocation for the implementation of children related laws in the province. The government of Balochistan, besides introducing children related laws, should focus on budgeting of the available laws and allocate sufficient funds for their implementation besides training of the stakeholders including police, probation officers, prison officials and teachers etc. The above mentioned steps will not only emphasize provincial assembly and government’s commitment towards improving the state of human rights and child rights in Balochistan but will also create opportunities for the Baloch youth to be part of the development process in the province. The writer is a development practitioner and tweets at @amahmood72.