ISLAMABAD: National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) Chairperson Afshan Tehseen Bajwa said on Monday that an empowered NCRC is essential not only for assisting the government in safeguarding the rights of children but also for the image building of the country.

She was speaking at a consultation on “30 years of advocacy on United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)”, organised by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc).

The implementation of the UNCRC that have already been ratified by Pakistan can only be achieved through cooperation of official forum, civil society and media.

Ms Bajwa said NCRC had been set up to make recommendations for effective implementation of policies related to children and recommend to the federal government to sign, ratify or accede to any proposed international treaties and protocols in the best interest of children.

Though the commission has been recently launched, it has an integral role to play for the promotion of child rights.

Khalil Ahmed Dogar, Sparc programme manager, said UNCRC defines the civil, social, health, cultural, political and economic rights of children under the age of 18.

He said Pakistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Nov 12, 1990, and the successive governments renewed their commitment to creating friendly environment for children.

‘Unfortunately, huge challenges remain to be tackled in the country,” Mr Dogar said, adding there are laws regarding child education, health, nutrition, juvenile justice, violence, neglect, labour and marriages but these have not been fully implemented across the country.

Amjad Nazeer, executive director Institute of Development Research and Corresponding Capabilities (IDRAC), said Pakistan submitted its fifth periodic report to UNCRC in 2015 but several issues were pointed out in the report by the UN body ranging from incapability of the state to legislate in favour of children, barriers to enforcement of child laws and weak coordination among stakeholders.

The UN committee also mentioned meager funding of interventions related to child welfare by the government as well as neglect and corruption of local level government officials to check child labour and child abuse.

Senior child rights activist Syed Safdar Raza said Pakistan has come a long way since 1990. The country’s work against child trafficking, sale and prostitution has been praised internationally.

“However, we still fall behind most of the indicators of human development,” he added.

Mr Raza said out of the 110 child related laws in Pakistan, only 24pc were in compliance with UNCRC.

He said the observations of UN committee on the 2015 report mentioned political and economic instability, and resultant fuel and food crisis as main reasons for Pakistan not achieving targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA). Unless these issues are addressed, Pakistan will fall behind in Sustainable Development Goals as well.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2021