On the occasion of
the Universal Children’s Day on November 20, 2015, the Ministry of Human Rights
organized a mega event with the Minister Law and Justice as the Chief Guest in
a luxurious hotel in Islamabad. “I confess today that I know little about
today’s subject”, with these words the worthy Federal Minister for Law and
Justice and Information Senator Pervaiz Rashid began his speech. He went on to
say “Unfortunately, we don’t speak much about child rights”. While pointing
towards the standees in the hall, the Minister said, children are abused in our
society and child domestic labour is widespread and even most of the people
sitting in this hall will have a child working as domestic servant at their
homes.
Thank you for your
confession Honourable Minister. It’s OK and acceptable till the confession, the
honourable Minister however, went a step ahead while thinking about responding
to the situation, and said “we should assemble around 10,000 children who have
been abused, who have been left out of schools and who have been exploited as
domestic workers in a stadium in the presence of media so that their stories
could be shared across the country live and the whole nation comes to know
about their plight and we can say sorry to them and ask them for forgiveness
that we couldn’t protect their rights”.
Dear Sir, thank
you for your confession about your ignorance of child rights and asking the
children of Pakistan for forgiveness. I think it’s a step in the right
direction and require a lot of courage to accept your shortcomings while having
a leadership and responsible portfolio. Unfortunately however, your proposed actions
will not help these children in anyway rather it will further expose them (it
may give you some satisfaction though). You and your government need not
assemble all children in stadiums and ask them for forgiveness as this also
require a lot of time and resources because such children are in millions who
have been abused, who are malnourished, who are not going to schools, who are
working as domestic servants, who are being married as children, who are
working in the most hazardous conditions in hundreds of various sectors across
Pakistan, who are living in some of the most difficult situations and areas
like the children of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and who belong
to religious minorities.
You and
your government rather should focus on fulfilling your commitments to the
children of Pakistan made in your party’s manifesto i.e. to increase overall
expenditure on health to 2% of the GDP, achieve 100% vaccination of children
and 50% reduction in maternal and infant mortality by 2018. You need to make
sure that all national and international commitments related to child rights
are prioritized for implementation.
Similarly, keeping
in mind the pending tasks of your ministry, a number of Bills related to child
rights are pending at the National Assembly level for years now. You should
play your role to ensure enactment of the
National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) Bill, the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment
Bill, the Child Marriages Restraint Amendment Bill and the Criminal Laws
Amendment (Child Protection) Bill, which has been passed by the National
Assembly finally but still to be passed by the Senate of Pakistan. Similarly,
there is no child protection system in place in the Islamabad Capital Territory
and legislation should be enacted to put in place a child protection system for
the ICT. The National Child Protection Centre under your ministry requires
legal status and financial resources to play a central role in the Child
Protection System for Islamabad. In this regard, the enactment of the ICT Child
Protection and Welfare Bill also requires your urgent attention.
There are a number
of child protection related laws in the country which are poorly implemented
even at the Islamabad level. The Government of Pakistan should take solid steps
for the implementation of existing laws i.e. the ICT Right to Free and
Compulsory Education Act 2012, the Juvenile Justice
System Ordinance 2000 and the Employment of Children Act 1991. There
are still a number of children roaming around, begging and working on the
streets of Islamabad without going to schools despite the fact that education
for children 5 16 years of age is a fundamental right under Article 25 A of the
Constitution of Pakistan. The previous government have enacted the ICT Right to
Free and Compulsory Education Act 2012. The Act was also extended to FATA by
the then President of Pakistan. You are requested to notify rules and make
budgetary allocation for the effective implementation of the 2012 Act at the
ICT level and in FATA.
Furthermore, under
the JJSO 2000, notify an exclusive juvenile court for the ICT, appoint at least
one male and one female probation officer; allocate resources for extending
free legal aid to children in contact with the law and take similar steps for
the implementation of the law in FATA where it has been extended in 2004.
You rightly
mentioned in your speech about the plight of child domestic workers, please
direct the Capital Administration and Development Division to notify child
domestic labour under the schedule of banned occupations of the Employment of
Children Act 1991 and put an immediate ban on all government officials and
parliamentarians for employing children as domestic servants.
The above steps
will pave way for some positive changes in the lives of children and will also
put pressure on the provincial governments to follow the footprints of the
federal government, prioritise child rights and take solid steps to improve the
child health, education and protection situation in the country.
I thank you for
reading this piece and immediately taking action.
The
writer is child rights activist and development practitioner with a Masters in
Human Rights from the London School of Economics (LSE) and tweets at
@amahmood72
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