Tuesday 26 November 2013

Child Rights in Pakistan-Universal Children’s Day, Press Conference cum Consultation

Child Rights in Pakistan-Universal Children’s Day   

 The Universal Children’s day was marked to celebrate the UNCRC which 24 years ago was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20th November 1989 and Pakistan was one of the first 20 countries to become a signatory of the convention and ratified the UNCRC in 1990.
The UNCRC has 54 Articles,and the first article defines a child as an individual below the age of 18. Although Pakistan has ratified the UNCRC, but it has failed to fulfil it’s obligations towards the rights of children.
Soaring numbers of street children, baggers, child prostitutes, increased child mortality rate, increased drop out rate of school children and many other similar issues related to children is an alarming sign for Pakistan and its future. 
The very basic step that our country lacks is inappropriate law and legislative measures to provide protection to its children. Pending bills related to child rights such as the National Commission on the Rights of Children Bill 2001, Criminal Law Amendment bill 2009, Prohibition of Corporal Punishment bill 2010 and the Child Marriage Restraint Amendment Bill 2010 are some of the examples those need due attention of the governmental and political authorities for their enactment.
On the other hand laws those have been enacted, such as the ICT right to free and compulsory education act passed in 2012 is still not implementable.
Looking at the measures taken for the implementation of the enacted laws, one of the reasons usually quoted by the concerned authorities for not implementing the enacted laws is lack of resources and budget for their implementation.
If we compare the available resources in Pakistan with the other South Asian countries, those have done very well in improving their education rate such as Sri Lanka, it appears that Pakistan has almost double of its resources available for a certain number of population than Sirilanka has. Whereas Sirilanka is quiet close to attain 100% literacy rate. Similarly civil society organizations(NGOs) in Pakistan have also practiced the multiple utilization of existing resources in, which have proven to be successful.
Apart from the lack of law and legislation on child rights and their implementation, lack of awareness among our masses on child rights and seeking justice is another issue. This hinders the provision of child rights and child protection.
The strong traditional cult of following elders usually men as the absolute decision makers for everyone in the family/tribe as heads of the family/tribe, also result in violence against children. One of the most violent forms of these violence are early and forced marriages (Vani,Sawara, Pait Likhi etc... ) or child sexual abuse.
The statistics available with one of CRM’s members, show that majority of children get sexually abused by people to whom they have acquaintance with and are physically more powerful. It also shows that children are threatened not to disclose the secret of abuse.
To address these forms of violence against children, the first and foremost step that needs to be taken is the participation of the child in identifying and addressing his/her issues. Parents and then the community and other social circles in which the child lives are second in this process so that a child knows how to protect her/himself in threatening situations.

With these few identified issues the Child Rights Movement (CRM) Pakistan on the Universal Day of Children urged the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the establishment of the National Commission on the Rights of the Child, allocating funds for the promotion of the child rights and enactment of long pending bills on child rights which the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child have repeatedly recommended to Pakistan. 






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