- Rashida Qureshi urges CM Shehbaz to give due priority to issues of children through concrete, result-oriented actions
LAHORE: The activists of the child rights have demanded of the government to increase resource allocation to ensure the protection of children’s rights as the Child Rights Movement and the Search For Justice observed the Universal Children Day by organising a rally on Monday.
Addressing the rally, Child Rights Movement Punjab Coordinator Rashida Qureshi urged Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif to give due priority to the issues of children through concrete and result-oriented actions. In 2014, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had assured that the government would keep the establishment of the Punjab Commission on the Rights of Children on priority, she reminded.
However, she lamented that no commission has been set up despite the passage of three years. The Child Rights Movement has been continuously demanding the establishment of the Punjab Commission on the Rights of Children as a statuary body to oversight and monitoring the overall child rights situation in the province, she said.
The Punjab government, despite incidents of violence against children after 2010, was not able to formulate its strategic priorities to prevent children from all forms of abuse and exploitation, besides several times reminders to the authorities concerned, Rashida said. The Punjab government is also not able to initiate any programme for rehabilitation of child victim and has not proceeded to establish a robust child protection system to respond in cases of violence against children.
The Punjab government must ensure the allocation of budget for awareness raising, sensitisation, capacity-building programmes to prevent violence against children. Activist Iftikhar Mubarak also highlighted the unfortunate situation of child domestic labour in Punjab, referring to the statistics of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau which rescued 73 child labourers who were suffering brutal torture by their employers.
PUNISHMENT FOR CHILD ABUSER: “There is even not a single case in which the child abuser received exemplary punishment, which raise a serious question on the implementation of laws introduced to deal with the issue of cruelty to children. The domestic labour is not legally prohibited occupation for children, which must be a concern for the chief minister as well and he must took serious action, not mere notices on delay in prohibiting modern form of slavery,” he said.
Search For Justice representative Nazeefa Fatima demanded some package in connection to the Universal Children’s Day from the Punjab government covering legislative improvements or police measures to meet children-elated commitments under Child Rights Convention. Child rights defender Omer showed his deep concern upon absence of an action plan to deal with the issue of violence against children in a holistic way.
“Children are not tomorrow. They are today so the government under its international, constitutional and legal obligations must do its best to protect children from violence, abuse, and exploitation,” he said. In June 2016, UN Committee on the Rights of Child in its concluding observations to Pakistan reiterated its previous recommendation that the state party effectively increase budgetary allocations for children particularly for groups of children who require social affirmative actions, inter alia, girls, refugee and internally displaced children, religious and ethnic minorities, children without parental care, children with disabilities, children in street situations, among others, in order to alleviate disparities and ensure equal enjoyment of all rights enshrined in the convention throughout the country.
The committee encourages the state party to start budget tracking from a child-rights perspective; with a view to monitoring budget allocations for children. United Nations Universal Children’s Day was established in 1954 and is celebrated on November 20 each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare.
