RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The National Commission on the Rights of the Child Act has been passed; however, it is worrisome, the Commission has not been set up to address issues of child abuse and protection.

This was stated by PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar at a seminar organized by the Child Protection Commissioner of the Wafaqi Mohtasib that was also attended by some parliamentarians, Chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women, representatives of HRCP, UNICEF and NCHR and the civil society organizations. Former Law Minister SM Zafar also participated through video conferencing.

Senator Babar said that the children are also victims of kidnapping and sexual abuse, early marriages and exploitative domestic labor, besides unattended orphans.

There is, however, no credible database on the victims of various types of abuses and the steps taken to bring the perpetrators to justice which is critical to available plan to plug child abuse, he said.

He called for compiling complete data on child abuse in consultation will all stakeholders for planning to protect the children.

During the universal periodic review of human rights, Pakistan promised the UN to prepare the core document but the pledge has not been kept.

Acknowledging some positive measures, he said that criminalizing child pornography and raising age limit for criminal liability are commendable but regretted that the bills passed by the Senate on unattended orphans and domestic service have not been passed by the National Assembly yet.

He said that the UN Committee’s recommendations about preventing the use of children in armed conflicts, seminary reforms and prevention of recruitment of students by armed groups and signing the protocols like Convention on the Rights of the Child also remain unimplemented.

Babar proposed that the year 2018 be declared as the Year of the Child Rights and the National Commission on the Status of Women be tasked to plan the year-long celebrations.

Children have and continue to disappear after being subjected to various forms of abuses and violence, he said. “Children would be doomed to this fate as long as the citizens continue to disappear without trace and perpetrators of the crime are not brought to justice,” he further said.

“If we have to put an end to child abuses, we must also end enforced disappearances from the country, bring the perpetrators of enforced disappearances to justice and reform the criminal justice system,” he added.