PESHAWAR, Dec 4: Expressing concern over the non-implementation of laws aimed at protecting children’s rights, participants of a workshop urged civil society groups to launch joint efforts to stop child exploitation.

The workshop — titled “Code of ethics for media on reporting of children issues” — was organised by the Step Towards Empowerment of Pupils, a non-governmental organisation, in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) here on Monday.

The one-day workshop was attended by journalists and representatives of NGOs.

Speaking at the workshop, Waseem Ahmad Shah said: “It is unfortunate that there is no specific law to curb child abuse. If at all a person involved in abusing a child is arrested, the court cannot award him proper punishment in the absence of a relevant law, therefore legislation should be made for the purpose.”

There was also no law to discourage domestic child labour, he said. Mr Shah stressed the need for a legislation prohibiting pre-natal sex diagnosis of a baby to discourage discrimination against female babies, as many of the parents wanted to abort female foetuses.

He said there was a law in India under which the health practitioners were not allowed to disclose the sex of a baby before birth. Mr Shah also stressed on proper enforcement of existing laws.

He said the NWFP government had introduced a law on compulsory education for children, but the law still awaits enforcement.

Ghafar Ali of the Unicef said that children issues were not considered hot topics in media, unless something scandalous happened.

He urged media people to raise the genuine issues of juveniles and play their role in protecting children’s rights.

He stressed the need to discourage the practice of giving names and addresses of children in news report. Other participants of the workshop were of the view that every one in the society should feel his or her responsibility and play a role in protecting children’s rights.