ISLAMABAD: Discussants at a consultation on Tuesday said Pakistan had signed conventions on children rights but hardly implemented any of them as their (children) issues had never been the priority of the decision makers.

The event on ‘Pakistan’s Performance on Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Implementation’ was organised by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) at a local hotel

Zafarullah Khan, head of Center for Civic Education, a non-governmental organisation, said Pakistan was the signatory to various international conventions on children rights but hardly anyone of them had been implemented in the letter and spirit.

He said even human rights education had not been made part of the curriculum and the woman who was working on this project in Sindh was forced to leave the country.

He was alluding to a senior educationist and member of the government-appointed advisory committee for curriculum and textbooks reforms Dr Bernadette L. Dean who left the country in May this year after she received threatening calls and faced a ‘hate propaganda campaign’.

Mr Zafarullah said that now debate had been started on inclusion and exclusion of different topics from the curriculum of Sindh.

“Some elements have questioned inclusion of youngest ever Nobel Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai, in the curriculum,” he said.

Participating in the debate, HRCP Joint Director Najamud Din said that it was unfortunate that issues related to children had never been the priority of the decision makers.

Later, talking to Dawn, Mr Najam said that Pakistan had ratified CRC in 2009 and in 2012 approved 30 child specific recommendations but has not taken serious steps to implement them.

Some of the recommendations approved by Pakistan were: sustain the positive momentum in upgrading its laws and institutions, in particular in the areas of the rights of women and children, enhance efforts to protect women, children and other vulnerable segments of the society, ensure adequate resources in implementing millennium development goals (MDGs) with focus on vulnerable groups.

Pakistan also approved to continue its policies on improving the rights of children, prohibit under-14 child labour, review public school curricula in order to eliminate prejudice against religious and other minorities and include human rights education in school curricula.

Mr Najam said that Pakistan might not achieve MDGs in health and education by the deadline in December this year.

“Now we have coined sustainable development goals (SDGs), which, I am sure, will also be missed because we are not taking steps in that direction. Moreover, we should analyse that why we failed to meet MDGs and what are our capacity issues,” he said.

Civil Society Activist Fatima Atif from Balochistan said there were a number of ghost schools in Balochistan.

“Funds are allocated for the schools and salaries are paid to teachers. In some schools Christian and Hindu children are forced to read ‘Kalma’ and those who refuse are expelled,” she said.

“Moreover children from Shia community also face similar discrimination,” she said.

Representative of NGO Spark Fatima Nasir Raja said that Pakistan was one of the major producers of food and fifth largest producer of milk but its children had been suffering because of the malnutrition.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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