PESHAWAR, Sept 5: A three-day workshop on juvenile justice began at a local hotel here on Friday.

NWFP Inspector-General of Police Mohammad Raffat Pasha who was chief guest on the occasion, inaugurated the workshop, which was organized by the France-based Penal Reform International and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan for the police officers.

Speaking at the workshop, the police chief said that the human rights begin with children rights and there was no duty more important than ensuring that their rights were respected. Fundamental rights, he said, must be protected and promoted and young offenders be given chances of reintegrating into the society.

Mr Pasha told the participants that slow implementation of the law had left thousands of young offenders to languish in jails which was posing serious threat to their future.

Working children easily fall prey to the criminals, who lure them towards earning more money in less time by using them for smuggling narcotics and other contraband goods and such poor children could not get proper legal protection because their parents were not able to hire legal services for them, he maintained.

He hoped that the workshop on such a vital issue would go a long way in enhancing the information level of the police officers about children rights.

Earlier, director training programme of Penal Reform International, Hans H Wahl, explained aims and objectives of the three-day workshop and identified in details the requirements of the children rights.

A senior retired police officer of Britain police, Richard Miles, also threw light on juvenile justice system.

Twenty police officers including sub-inspectors, DSPs and SPs are imparting training in the workshop. Additional IGP investigation, Peshawar-based all DIGs, AIGs and SSPs were largely present on the occasion.