ISLAMABAD: The government and Unicef on Friday reiterated their resolve to further enhance their working collaboration for protection and promotion of child rights.

The commitment was made at a meeting between Minister for Human Rights Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Abdullah Fadil, the Unicef representative in Pakistan.

The government through the Economic Affairs Division has launched the Pakistan-Unicef Country Programme 2018-22.

Under this programme, two-year rolling work plan (2021-22) has been signed between the Ministry of Human Rights and Unicef.

Unicef official says there is need to engage more stakeholders and social mobilisers to create awareness about prevention of child abuse

The goals of this work plan were the prevention and protection of children from abuse at the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) level.

Abdullah Fadil acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts for realisation of child rights.

He expressed his satisfaction over the ongoing projects and said Unicef would extend its support and assistance towards the Ministry of Human Rights for the cause of child rights.

He said there was a need to engage more stakeholders and social mobilisers to create awareness about child rights and prevention of child abuse.

The minister appreciated Unicef’s team for their perpetual support, collaboration and coordination for development activities in the country. He outlined the government’s commitment to the promotion of child rights.

The minister said the ongoing child labour survey being conducted with the help of Unicef would play an instrumental role in generating data on child issues leading towards better policy formulation.

He said the human rights ministry was working with an agenda to make the capital a child-friendly city that would serve as a model for other provincial governments, strengthening, adding revamping of the Child Protection Institute (CPI) and the National Commission on the Rights of Child was underway.

Islamabad Child Protection Act 2018 was enacted to provide protection services to the vulnerable children. Under Section 10 of the Act, the CPI was established under the human rights ministry to prevent abuse, maltreatment, injury and exploitation of children.

CPI was made functional with the support of Unicef. Its main objectives were to rescue and provide safe shelter, psycho-social, reunification and referral services.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2022