By: Nabila Feroz Bhatti
Pakistan has been a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) since 1990 and is obligated to submit the periodic/progress reports on the situation of children to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The 6th report was due in June 2021, but like some previous reports submission was delayed. The state submitted the 6th -7th reports together in August 2023, which covers the period from June 2016 to June 2021. It was published on the UN website on February 5, 2024.
The state claims that several laws have been enacted to harmonize the definition of child with international standards. However, there are several discrepancies at both national and provincial level legislation which do not define the child as a person of 18 years. Just at the national level; The age of child is 14 years in Employment of Children Act, 1991; The age of minor/child is not defined in Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016; The marriageable age for girls is 16 years overall Pakistan except Sindh.
Child Marriages:
According to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017-2018, 3.6 percent of girls under the age of 15 are married off while 18.3 percent of girls married off are below 18. UNICEF reports 21 percent of Pakistani girls are married by the age of 18, and three percent before 15 years. In 2020, 119 cases of child marriages were reported in the country, of which 95 percent were of girls and five percent of boys. The state report does not describe when the government will strengthen laws to prevent child marriage, particularly setting the marriageable age at 18 years for girls. What measures have been taken to combat child marriage and facilitate the complaint registration and the justice for this crime? How many cases have been registered under Child Marriage Restraint Act in Islamabad and provinces in the reporting period?
Child Labour:
Another claim is that Federal and Provincial Governments have taken various measures to eradicate child labour. However, estimated 12 million children are victims of child labour in the country. There is no official data on child labour; no information about the number of labour inspectors in different territories. How many culprits have been convicted after the registration of cases against them? What has been done by child protection authorities to protect children from economic exploitation?
The report describes that Child Domestic Labour (CDL) has been banned in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). It is inserted in Part-I of the Schedule of the Employment Children Act, 1991, as a prohibited occupation where the minimum age of a worker is 14 years. CDL is also banned in Punjab below the age of 15 years under The Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2019.
Analytically, why is the age of a child not harmonized to 18 years in these laws? Why are all territories not enacting comprehensive laws against CDL? How many child domestic workers were abused by their employers during the reporting period? How many culprit employers were prosecuted and led to conviction?
The state did not provide any information on measures taken to identify and rescue children working under slavery-like conditions in bonded labour, particularly in domestic work, brick kilns, agricultural sector and carpet weaving.
Child Protection:
The government claims multiple child rights bodies were made at federal and provincial level in the reporting period. The report does not explain what measures were taken to clarify the mandates of these bodies? How many resources are allocated for implementing child protection laws in different territories? What measures have been taken to hire professionals to provide child protection services to the survivors of abuse, violence, exploitation, neglect, and harmful practices?
Moreover, it is claimed that governments have established various child protection centers for street children, providing services like protection, shelter, health care, and educational opportunities. However, child protection bodies are simply often asked to round up street children, which results in their temporary removal from the streets, and makes them even more vulnerable in the wake of hasty measures which do not meet child protection standards. Many times, this type of removal is done using the police, which is notorious for abusing children.
Many children seem to be begging on the streets, why are they not approached by the government? Has the government arrested any adults employing children in the beggary? What measures has the government taken to strengthen the child protection mechanism and de-institutionalize children in the street situation? Recently, Gilgit-Baltistan has enacted the child protection policy for the province, however, child protection policies are urgently required in all territories.
The state report is silent about the discrimination experienced by children born out of wedlock, children of Dalit communities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children although this question was asked with reference to the 5th report.
Juvenile Justice:
The state further describes that many laws for children’s betterment were enacted in the reporting period. However, several laws are not notified and have no rules of business in place. For instance, rules under the Juvenile Justice System Act (JJSA), 2018 have only been notified in ICT and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Only 13 Child Protection Courts are established. These are not inclusive juvenile courts while according to JJSA inclusive juvenile courts are required. However, while these court performance assessments demonstrated a high efficiency and increase in child-sensitive justice procedures, a decision from Peshawar High Court took away the jurisdiction of these courts to try juvenile cases. Overall, judicial authorities in all provinces have issued a blanket notification that appoints all additional district session judges as juvenile judges which totally ignores the special characteristics of a juvenile court.
Additionally, at the time of writing only 8 have been notified and are dysfunctional while there are 166 districts in Pakistan and JJSA requires an active committee in every district. Furthermore, the state report does not mention how much is the resource allocation to provide free legal assistance to juveniles in different territories. How many inclusive Observation Homes and Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre have been established? How many cases of juveniles are pending at the appellate court? What measures are being taken for the speedy trial of juveniles? There is an urgent need to enforce the JJSA in letter and spirit in line with guidance of General Comment 24 of UNCRC.
Health of Children:
The report describes that health-related expenditure was 145.97 billion PKR in 2016–17, which has increased to 482.3 billion PKR in 2019–20. The question arises what is the percentage of the health budget with respect to the total budget and GDP?
The spread of the Polio virus remains an alarming issue in Pakistan. There were forty cases reported till polio day in 2024, six cases reported in 2023, and twenty cases in 2022. The fact is despite the significant investment of 46.8 billion PKR between 2019–2021, the Polio eradication campaign failed to achieve its results.
Over 40 per cent of Pakistan’s under-five children are stunted, so nearly 10 million Pakistani children suffer from stunted growth. The state alleges that many Stunting Reduction Programmes with huge budgets under different names in different territories were implemented until June 2021. The government could not justify why a high rate of stunted rate persisted in the following years?
Education of Children:
According to the state report, the education-related expenditure was increased while the given figures in the report showed a decrease of 52 billion. Moreover, there is no mention of the percentage of the federal and provincial education budget to the total budget and GDP. The state claims that laws have been enacted to uphold the right to education enshrined in Article 25-A of the Constitution. However, a recent report by the Pakistan Institute of Education in collaboration with UNESCO has revealed that the number of out-of-school children has increased to 26.2 million. Why are projects under Ehsaas Programme and other social security programmes those are conditional with children’s education not decreasing the number of out of school children? Why haven’t laws related to the right to education been fully implemented?
According to the government there were several measures to decrease the disparities between out of school children. However, about 2 million more girls than boys are out of school in Pakistan–or 12 million girls in total. At the end of sixth grade, the school dropout rate is 59% for girls and 49% for boys, highlighting a concerning difference.
Minority Children:
The results of the 1998 census revealed that minorities lagged up to 11- 20% behind the average / national literacy rates. The survey on the Economic and Social Well-being of Women by the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women in 2017 also showed that minority women lagged 12.2 % behind in literacy than average (48.4%) in the province. The low literacy rates cannot be detached from the choices imposed in the curriculum and religious discrimination in education system. For instance, the textbooks in use in federal and provincial educational institutions carry up to 30-40% content regarding Islam in compulsory subjects including English, Urdu, General Knowledge, Social Studies, Pakistan Studies and History, which is a violation of Article 22 (1) of the Constitution. When is the government going to implement the provision of textbooks and teachers for the subject of religious education as a substitute for Islamiyat for minority students? Why Muslim students are awarded 10-20 marks for being Hifaz-e-Quran for admission in professional colleges and employment through the Public Service Commission, etc. Has the government thought of introducing an alternative for minority students?
The report claims for establishing National Commission for Minorities (NCM). In reality, since 90s the toothless NCM has existed under different notifications. On precise demand of religious minorities to establish a commission through act of parliament, some draft bills are being tabled for which minorities retain serious concerns. When will the Law be passed to constitute an effective National Commission for Minorities Rights through the act of parliament, in conformity with UN Paris Principles?
On 22nd September 2013, a twin suicide bombing took place at All Saints Church Peshawar, leaving around 200 victims (83 fatalities + over 100 injured, including children). 20 million Rupee were transferred by the Federal government to the KP government to distribute among the victims. KP government enacted the Rehabilitation of Minorities (Victims of Terrorism) Endowment Fund Act, 2020, and retained money for the minority victims of terrorism in future.
The report does not mention why victims of suicide attacks of All Saints Church have not been compensated despite ten years having passed? Why has the judgment by Retried Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani not been fully implemented over last decade?
State claims, Pakistan’s constitution guarantees religious freedom to all. However, articles 41, 91 and others are discriminatory in the Constitution of Pakistan.
The report does not speak about any steps Pakistan has taken to eliminate constitutional discrimination.
Another claim is that Pakistan is fully committed to preventing abuse of blasphemy laws. There is no mention that children are severely affected mentally, physically and economically by ongoing massive abuse of blasphemy laws when there is false propaganda, cases against them or their family members, mob attacks on their neighborhoods or children are used for mob attacks.
According to conservative estimates, 57 students and teachers had been implicated in blasphemy-related cases, at least 10 were killed after being accused. State does not mention information on the measures taken to protect children from religious and sectarian violence and attacks like Jaranwala, Sargodha and Swat. It does not indicate any measures taken to prevent the recruitment of children for using in hostilities or terrorist activities.
United Nations special rapporteurs’ communication to Pakistan in 2022 followed by reminders in 2023 and 2024 have expressed serious concerns at the upsurge in abductions, forced conversions and forced marriages of underage girls from religious minorities. However, the state report is silent on it. How many cases have been registered under section 498-B of the PPC, dealing with forced marriage of minority girls? How many cases of forced faith conversions of minority girls have been prosecuted?
Birth Registration:
Government reports that National Database and Registration Authority introduced the Civil Registration Management System in all local governments across the country to increase birth registration. However, according to United Nations only 42 percent children under five years are registered. How does Pakistan protect the rights of children when millions are unregistered? The state report does not tell about the disparity between registration of girls and boys?
Corporal Punishment:
The state reports that ICT Prohibition of the Corporal Punishment Bill 2021 prohibits corporal punishment on children as Islamabad High Court suspended Section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code in 2020. The Sindh Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act, 2016 also outlaws corporal punishment. However, the state has not repealed section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code with reference to the 5th report which allows corporal punishment on children.
Honour Killing:
State describes that Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2016 has been promulgated to amend the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860, and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, to deter offences in the pretext of honour in Pakistan. The report is silent about reported cases of honor killing of girls. How many perpetrators were convicted during the reporting period? Does the 2012 Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Act apply to all provinces and how it is implemented in practice?
Child Sexual Abuse:
It is claimed that Government has adopted laws that explicitly define and prohibit child sexual abuse and exploitation. However, the data show that more than 10 children have been abused per day during the year 2021. Cases of child abuse have increased by 30% compared to 2020. The government does not report outcomes if collecting data about sexually abused children’s cases. But one must ask, how many culprits were arrested and convicted?
Optional Protocols:
In the end the report tells that Pakistan ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in the Armed Conflict on 17th November 2016. The report is silent on when will it sign and consequently ratify the Optional Protocol on Communications Procedure?
Additionally, Pakistan’s Initial Report to the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography was submitted to the Committee in November 2020. However, there is no mention of Pakistan’s submission of the Initial Report to the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict as it was ratified in 2016.
What Next?
August 12, 2024 was the date for submission of the list of issues by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). CSOs will further be able to submit alternative/shadow reports around July 2025. The review by Committee is expected around September/October, 2025. For now, there are many unanswered questions, half-truths and undue claims in Pakistan’s report which need to be addressed to make the review process meaningful. It might help alleviate the quality of life for millions of children in Pakistan in dire need of constructing initiatives.
About Author:
The writer is a human rights activist and columnist. She is Member Working Group at National Commission on the Rights of Child. She can be connected on X: @NabilaFBhatti
