Child protection law on the cards

The government is contemplating a law for protection of children and safeguarding them against abuse by creating an environment to help their upbringing in a healthy and pleasant atmosphere.The law proposes setting up courts to solve custody disputes and checking violations of children’s rights.“The idea to frame such law and set up institutions to provide protection to children came after a recent incident in Karachi in which three women had abandoned their eight children at the Edhi Foundation,” Law Minister Farooq H. Naek was quoted by Local Newspaper.

A meeting to discuss possibilities of framing the law to protect the rights of children was called by the law minister in which Minister for Social Welfare Samina Khalid Ghurki was specially invited to help devise the Child’s Protection Bill as early as possible.

A sub-committee, comprising secretaries of the two ministries and the relevant provincial governments, has also been formed and tasked to come up with suggestions for setting up institutions for protecting children from all kinds of discrimination and abuse.

Despite the fact that Pakistan ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 that calls upon governments to take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination and punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, and beliefs of the child’s parents, but no law has yet been made.

The proposals that were discussed during the meeting suggested the setting up of a national commission on child’s right at the federal level and child protection bureaus at the provincial level.The idea also includes creating posts to appoint protection officers to check violation of rights of children.The proposal suggests setting up courts at the provincial level in consultation with the high courts where the cases of children in need of care would be heard and decided, especially disputes relating to custody.