PESHAWAR, Jan 16: Speakers at a workshop on human rights have observed that the police can play a vital role in people’s character-building, so that society have a crop of law-abiding citizens instead of criminals.

The three-day workshop was organised by the department of law, justice and human rights for the west cantonment and women police stations. Wednesday was the second day of this workshop.

Explaining ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’, Shireen Niaz, principal trainer at the Save the Children, said it was the most widely accepted international law which had the consent of all the UN member states. They were bound to bring all of their laws in conformity with this convention.

She said this historic convention was adopted in 1989.

She said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined that recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all human family members was the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world, but it was the glorious Islam that gave this theme 1,400 years ago.

She said though this declaration contained clauses concerning protection of the rights of children, these were inadequate for addressing the needs of the children, who were amongst the most vulnerable sections of society.

Pakistan, she said, was amongst the pioneers who worked tirelessly for the formulation of this law and was included in the first few members which ratified it.

“It is very discouraging that children are not treated as bearers of equal rights and they are not even considered as complete persons,” she added.

This approach, she said, had already caused considerable damage and a large number of innocent children turned into hardened criminals, owing to negligence either on the part of their parents, teachers or society. “By paying special attention and care to them, they can be moulded and shaped into very useful citizens,” she added.

She said the police could shape the young minds into law-abiding citizens or criminals, depending on how it acted.

The children need special attention and care. You must realise your legal and moral obligation towards reforming them, she told the workshop participants representing the police.

Ms Shireen praised the role of those police officials who had already been sensitized, by way of workshops and seminars, on this important role they were supposed to play.

She hoped that the “new batch of policemen will also dedicate themselves to the noble cause of saving our children, which is exactly like saving our own future”.