ISLAMABAD, Nov 20 : The federal and provincial governments should immediately release children languishing in prisons or under-trial for more than a year, for petty offences.

In its Universal Children’s Day message, Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) requested the authorities concerned to take a lenient view towards children below the age of 18 years and to keep them separate from adults, including persons in the age group 18 to 21 years.

It has welcomed ratification of the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (No 182) by the government. However, ratification will remain useless without the enabling legislation in this regard just like the case with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Government’s signing of the Optional Protocols to the CRC is also a welcoming development but they should also be ratified by the government.

It has also asked the NWFP and Balochistan governments to introduce laws relating to child rights as there are presently no such laws on the statute books; to establish reformatory schools in Borstal jails, and to introduce rules under the Employment of Children Act.

Sparc has lastly called for an introduction of universal but uniform and free education for all up to the secondary level and a complete ban on all forms of child labour below the age of 14 years.—APP