ISLAMABAD: Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari on Friday said child labour had detrimental psychological and physical impacts on children.

She was speaking in a webinar marking the commemoration of International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The minister outlined the government’s efforts to protect the rights of children through institutional mechanisms, evidence generation, awareness campaigns and legal and policy reform.

In her speech, Dr Mazari stated: “Child labour is a violation of Pakistan’s Constitution, which forbids children under 14 from undertaking hazardous work.”

She said Covid-19 has exacerbated socio-economic inequalities globally but the government was taking proactive measures to ensure children were protected from child labour and its detrimental psychological and physical impacts.

“We are committed to ending child labour in all its forms in accordance to International Labour Organisation laws and the International Convention on Rights of the Child to which Pakistan is a signatory,” she said.

Dr Mazari also described the legislative measures taken by provinces to protect the rights of children. All provinces have enacted laws to prohibit and punish child labour such as the the Balochistan Child Protection Act 2016, and Sindh Prohibition of Employment Children Act 2017. An amendment has also been introduced in the ICT Employment of Children Act 1991 which proscribed domestic labour by children under 14 years of age.

Moreover, the National Commission on the Rights of Child has been enacted under the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Act 2017 to monitor child rights/child labour situation in the country and take punitive measures to redress victims’ grievances.

The minister also highlighted the recently inaugurated ‘Shaheed Aitzaz Hasan Child Protection Institute’ established under the ICT Child Protection Act to provide care and protection services to vulnerable children.

The institute also provided rescue, shelter, counselling, family tracing, and rehabilitation services to street children or children who are trafficked, lost and neglected.

The Ministry of Human Rights is also in the process of finalising a national action plan on business and human rights with the support of UNDP which proposed several federal and provincial actions to be taken for the protection, respect and remedy of human rights within business activity, including actions related to the elimination of child labour.“It is intolerable that children should be working in exploitative or dangerous conditions. They must be protected from the dangers of child labour – in line with Pakistan’s constitutional and international obligations,” the minister added.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2021