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Lahore: Basic rights of children stressed

Dunya News

Pakistan had signed UN convention on the rights of the child to ensure child rights in the country.

Pakistani children have been facing a severe lack of a comprehensive legal frame work particularly with regards to child protection issues including child trafficking, child sexual abuse and child domestic labour issues.In a media briefing, Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) National Manager Iqbal Detho said Pakistan signed and ratified United Nation Convention on the rights of the child to ensure child rights in the country. He said around 1.2 million children were trafficked each year out of which 43 percent of victims were forced into prostitution. Trafficking of children for forced labour and prostitution is known as contemporary form of slavery. Latest figures estimate that the total number of prostituted children was as high as 10 million around the world. Considering the alarming statistics of child trafficking prompted the UN to introduce the Optional Protocol (in the existing convention on the rights of the child) that criminalized the sale and trafficking of children around the world. Pakistan signed the convention on 26th September 2001 but officially ratified it on 5th July 2011. The protocol aims to bolster existing child protection laws in the country.He further shared it was hard to ascertain the exact number of child soldiers around the world, various human rights groups (coalition to stop child soldiers)estimate that around 300,000 children are engaged in armed conflicts around the world. Moreover, many are often forcibly recruited or abducted to join armies, some under the age of 10. Considering the fact, an Optional Protocol to the UNCRC was adopted to assuage this growing phenomenon. The protocol was officially introduced on 25th May 2000, and to date has been ratified by 147 countries. Pakistan signed the Protocol on 26th September 2001 but has not yet ratified it.The UNCRC is the only core human rights instrument that lacks a communications procedure that will enable children to submit complaints and seek redress for human rights violations they have experienced. Under a communications procedure, the committee will be able to focus on individual cases when considering the UNCRC. It will also guide States as to what is required from them in such cases which will in turn help them understand the meaning of the obligations they have undertaken by acceding to the UNCRC. The Optional Protocol was tabled on 19th December 2011 and has so far been signed by 26 countries barring any ratification. Pakistan has yet to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol.