Punjab govt should honour child rights conventions

By launching a post card campaign the Child Rights Movement (CRM) Punjab has urged the provincial government to take immediate steps to notify Child Domestic Labor (CDL) in the list of banned occupations under the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act 2011.CRM showed its concern over the growing incidents of violence against children working as domestic servants and has demanded the provincial government to take firm measures to check and respond to the situation.
During the post card campaign starting from August 30, five thousand post cards will be sent from different segments of life ie NGOs, parliamentarians, Civil Society and Academia to Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif demanding immediate ban on Child Domestic Labour. CRM Punjab is a coalition of more then 27 organizations working for the promotion and protection of child rights. 
CRM Member and Child Rights Activist Iftikhar Mubarik said that the Child Domestic Labour was the contemporary form of slavery and violation of UNCRC, ILO convention 138, 182 and 189 ratified by the Government of Pakistan. Focal person of Punjab CRM Miqdad Naqvi said that Child Domestic Labour was not included in schedule of banned occupations and processes under the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act 2011 despite of growing issues of murder and other abuse and exploitation with children. “CRM will continuously follow up the issue with concerned authorities till a ban is placed on CDL,” CRM member Sajjad Cheema said. CRM also demanded from Punjab government to properly implement the Article 25-A of the constitution to provide free and compulsory education to all children without any discrimination of age 5-16 years. The effective implementation of article 25-A will also help to reduce the admission of children in labour force.
Chief guest of this ceremony provincial minister for labour Haji Ehsan ud Din Qureshi said that the Punjab government was putting its efforts to curb the issue of Child Labour through sustainibale efforts and launched the campaign by signing the petition card demanding from chief minister Punjab to include the child Domestic Labour in banned occupations under the ECA.

Legislation required to protect Child Rights

Child Rights Movement (CRM), a coalition of 108 civil society organisations, has expressed concern over non-implementation of the Pakistan Human Rights Council’s suggestions to safeguard the rights of children in the country and demanded immediate establishment of the National Commission for Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD).
Addressing a press conference at the National Press Club on Friday, CRM Coordinator Ghazala Shah, sharing the recent submission of a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Report to Human Rights Council (HRC), urged the government to follow the HRC recommendations as highlighted in UPR report. 
Flanked by other human rights activists, including Aysha Bilal, Salim Malik, Dr Danish, Abdullah Khoro, the CRM coordinator said Pakistan had ratified UNCRC in 1990 and ILO Conventions 138 and 182 in 2006 and 2001, respectively, but had done little in terms of introducing legislation for the compliance of the relevant international treaties.
They regretted that Pakistan was one of the few countries in the world where polio was still endemic and malnutrition was contributing to 35 percent of all under-five children’s death in Pakistan.

published in Daily Times

CRM plans Advocacy Campigns

Child Rights Movement (CRM), has developed a six months plan along with its regional chapters to launch proactive advocacy campaigns on pending child rights legislation as well as taking new initiatives to ensure child protection in the country.

The CRM with a vision of All Children Enjoy their Rights, organised a daylong workshop to plan activities for the next six months to be carried out in Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir through its national as well as regional chapters.

Hassan Mangi, Director General National Commission for Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD), led the opening session in which he iterated his expectations from CRM and appreciated its active role in highlighting children-related issues and recommending required reforms and legislations. He emphasised that these efforts must continue with an integrated approach, specifically in close coordination with likeminded entities at national, regional and international level. He insisted on the importance of working towards the development of a unified National plan of action.

While emphasising on working together, as a synergy, he also mentioned the possibility of linking CRM to the South Asian Programme. He recognised that Pakistan, on the state level, has been slow in implementing laws and conventions, and that makes advocacy an even more challenging task. He also touched upon the issue of true and meaningful representation of children from all walks of life at forums like CRM. Child protection mechanism was also briefly talked about and it was suggested that the gaps be tapped upon for ensuring a hundred percent coverage throughout Pakistan.

Arshad Mehmood, an eminent Child Rights Advocacy expert, suggested several key advocacy initiatives that CRM should take up in the current year. The more important ones include: passing the bill for National Commission for the Rights of Children (NCRC) as an independent body, enacting of the Criminal Law (amendment) Bill as committed by the government at the time of signing of the optional protocol of Child Prostitution and Pornography, ratifying of the optional protocol of involvement of children in armed conflict, developing of a legislation to provide protection to street children, introducing laws against corporal punishment in all provinces, amending laws related with child labour, initiating policy dialogue with political parties on enactment of article 25-A.

The workshop, hosted by the CRM Secretariat - Children First, was attended by several member organisations to the likes of SCI, Dost Welfare Foundation, SEHR, Thardeep Rural Development Plan, Action Aid, Global Vision Organization, Idara Taleem-o-Agahi, Bedari, Rozan, SPARC, Right to Play, Aghaz, World Vision Organisation, Group Development, UGood, and Plan International. There was significant representation from the government and media as well.

Corporal Punishment must end.

A protest rally was taken out on Wednesday under the Child Rights Movement banner at Liberty Roundabout to condemn corporal punishment in schools.

Protestors led by Idaara-i-Taleem-o-Agahi (ITA) workers demanded that government institutions and civil society come together to abolish corporal punishment in schools across the country.

Dr Baela Raza Jamil, the programme director at ITA, said that a mechanism was needed to determine whether a teacher could handle children or not.

“This can take the form of a licence,” she said.

Dr Jamil said that pre-service training programmes must train teachers in how to behave with children.

“Child suicides have increased at both private and government schools,” she said. “Some of the children have blamed receiving corporal punishments at school for it.”

She said that the government needed to establish vigilance committees to monitor teachers and take swift action in case of violations of the corporal punishment law.

“Some teachers still believe they have a right to use violence to discipline children,” she said. “They think this is the only way to teach children.”

“‘A six-year-old was paraded in a school in Gujjar Khan with chor(thief) written on his forehead” Zain Yousuf, a lawyer and programme officer at the AGHS (Asma, Gulrukh, Hina and Sheila) labour wing told The Express Tribune.

The child had been accused of stealing Rs5 from a class fellow’s bag, he said.

“He did not want to return to school after the incident.”

Yousaf said he had been part of a fact finding commission to various districts in Punjab to investigate corporal punishment complaints in schools.

The number of reported incidents increased last year, Azhar Nazir, a research officer at AGHS, said.

He said that teachers often explain hitting children in terms of use poor academic performance.

Usman Ali, a programme officer at ITA, said most incidents of corporal punishment are reported from government schools.

“Teachers told a recent delegation to Dadu that ‘they could not teach without a danda (stick),” he said.

Wasif Ali, a matric student who had joined the protest with his three classmates, said that corporal punishment could lead children into drastic steps, including taking their own lives.

“When a child is humiliated at school and then at home again, what can he do except commit suicide,” he said.

The Child Rights Movement has launched a campaign against corporal punishment in schools and for generating public awareness regarding Article 25-A, which guarantees free and compulsory education between the ages of 5 and 16.

The rally was attended by 20 people who carried placards and chanted slogans to abolish corporal punishment at all schools.

The slogans included ‘Taleem Do Hifazat Say Taleem Do Pyaar Say,’ ‘Naheen Sahain Gay Bachay Tashaddud Nahein Sahain Gay’ and ‘Bund Karo, Dunda Culture Bund Karo’.

CRM plans to hold seminars and protests on each Wednesday.

“We hope to involve children and university students in the coming weeks,” said Dr Jamil

Aroosa Shaukat