July 01, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 30: The Parliamentarians attending the three-day Regional Parliamentary Seminar on Child Protection on Saturday vowed to provide protection to children and ensure respect for their rights.

The conference organized by the Senate in cooperation with the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UNICEF concluded on Saturday.

The conference highlighted a common understanding that the Members of the Parliament (MPs) had the obligation and a central role to play to secure safety and dignity for all children. They said they also have to ensure respect for children rights and provide them a protective environment.

The Parliamentarians of the member countries, in this regard committed to ensure better future for the children and unanimously adopted a 21-point set of recommendations pledging to do everything in their power to protect children and ensure respect for their rights.

They also pledged to ensure that their country was party to the main instruments of international law for the protection of children’s rights, in particular those relating to juvenile justice.

They also vowed to check the status and quality of reports submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, provide input to these reports through public hearings and other parliamentary mechanisms.

They would ensure follow-up to the recommendations made by the Committee and hold their governments accountable in this respect. They also called for developing an adequate legislative framework to meet internationally-agreed standards on children’s rights. “In so doing, we need to first carry out a comprehensive and informed situation analysis and harmonisation of legislation at the national and also at the regional level. We also need to monitor on a regular basis the effectiveness and relevance of laws”, the resolutions said.

They suggested creation of an independent national bureau of statistics to collect comprehensive and disaggregated data related to child protection, which should report to the Parliament.

The parliamentarians stressed the need for proper enforcement of legislation by ensuring that enforcement mechanisms are in place, have adequate resources and have trained staff and, if necessary, considering setting up specialised enforcement bodies such as a ministry for children’s rights or an ombudsperson for children.