he International Women’s Day, 2022, affirmed a global commitment to breaking bias, smashing stereotypes, rejecting inequality and eliminating discrimination. Nevertheless, the notion of ‘breaking the bias’ has yet to echo in the tribal culture of Mianwali district of the Punjab where a seven-day-old girl was killed by her father who had wanted a boy.

Ayesha* was married to Arif two years ago. She gave birth to her first child, a girl, and named her Fatima. Her husband believed that the birth of a girl had brought shame to his family. The father, who had desperately wanted a son got so angry that he shot the newborn five times with a 0.30 bore pistol. After the shooting at their home, he fled.

Muhammad Faisal Rana, the Sargodha regional police officer, who monitored the investigation of the case, informed the National Commission on the Rights of Child that an uncle of Ayesha is the complainant against Arif. He said three special teams were constituted for the arrest of the suspect. After 30 raids at different places, he was arrested from Bhakkar district.

The RPO said legal and cultural barriers blocked access to justice in such cases. These include difficulty with protection of witnesses, the compoundable natureof the offence, lack of socio-psychological counselling for the victims, and widely accepted harmful social norms.

The NCRC received 17 complaints from various districts of the Punjab in March. These ranged from child sexual abuse to murder. An eight-year-old girl was allegedly sexually abused by a teacher in a seminary in Golra village of Attock. A 16-year-old boy, who worked as a daily wager, was raped by a man in Pindigheb. An 11-year-old girl, was physically abused allegedly by landlords in Faisalabad. A 10-year-old girl was beaten by her school teacher in Muridke. She suffered a nervous breakdown and died three days later. 14-year-old Hamza died after being subjected to corporal punishment by his teachers.

Our children are safe neither at homes and streets; nor secure at schools and religious seminaries. So why does the Punjab not have a comprehensive law for child protection?

Some initiatives have been taken by the government in that direction over the last few years. These include the establishment of the National Commission on the Rights of Children (NCRC), enactment of the Zainab Alert law, Response and Recovery Act, 2020, the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018 and ICT Child Protection Act, 2020. In 2021, a Senate Standing Committee meeting approved the Juvenile Justice System (Amendment) Bill 2021, the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection (Amendment) Bill 2021, and the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (Amendment) Bill 2021.

A child needs protection if they are subject to physical and psychological violence, sexual abuse or commercial sexual exploitation; forced into the worst forms of the child labour, exploitative labour or beggary; subject to human trafficking within and outside Pakistan.

Besides being part of the drafting committee of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Pakistan was the first Islamic country and the sixth in the world to sign and ratify the UNCRC. The convention elaborates on the Survival, Development, Protection, and Participation rights of the children. The right to protection is described in several articles of the UNCRC, including Articles 3, 19, 20, 24, 26, 27, 28, 32, 33, 34, 36 and 39. The Constitution of Pakistan provides a legal framework for child protection. Article 35 requires the state to protect the marriage, the family, the mother and the child. Articles 11 and 25 of the constitution elaborate further on child protection. However, the increasing number of child rights violations shows that Pakistan faces serious challenges in adhering to its commitments to protect its children and to bring people to justice for crimes against them.

Pakistan has been facing immense pressure from the international community to safeguard child rights. UNCRC is one of the conventions monitored by a Treaty Implementation Cells established at the federal and provincial levels aiming at the implementation of the country’s international treaty obligations.

The Punjab is the most populated province of Pakistan. It is home to 110 million people (53 per cent of Pakistan’s population) and over 22 million children aged 5 to 16 years. However, the situation of child rights protection in the Punjab is far from satisfactory.

According to Sahil, a local NGO working for children’s rights, 57 percent of all cases of child abuse in Pakistan were reported in the province in 2020. After the passing of the 18th Amendment, child-related matters are a provincial subject. The enactment of laws and implementation mechanisms varies from province to province. The Punjab is the only province that does not have a comprehensive law for children in need of protection and care.

A child needs protection if they are victims of violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation. A child needs protection if they are subjected to physical and psychological violence, sexual abuse or commercial sexual exploitation; forced into one of the worst forms of the child labour, exploitative labour, or beggary; subject to human trafficking in Pakistan or abroad; being used for drug trafficking or abusing substances like glue, drugs, spirits; engaged in an armed conflict; without primary caregivers; or affected or infected with HIV/ AIDS.

Since provinces have unique demographic, political, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics, the progress of child protection legislation was up to provincial governments. Islamabad Capital Territory introduced Child Protection and Care Act in 2018; Balochistan enacted its Child Protection Act in 2016. Sindh enacted the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act in 2011, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa promulgated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act in 2010.

The Punjab was the first province to enact a child protection specific legislation in Pakistan: the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2004. The legislation aims at rescue, protective custody, care and rehabilitation of only destitute and neglected children in the province. Proceedings under Part VII of PDNCA2004 can only be initiated about a child who has not attained the age of 15 years, withstanding that during course of such proceedings he may have attained the age of eighteen years. For the implementation of the Act, the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau was established to address child protection issues in the province. The first amendment regarding the composition of the board was made in the Act in 2007. The PDNCA was later amended in 2017 for registration of organisations managing accommodation for the destitute and neglected children, creation of new offences, and increasing penalties for the existing offences.

The government constituted a high-level technical committee on November 15, 2019, to make recommendations for a comprehensive legislation. The committee is headed by the minister for social welfare/ law and includes secretaries of relevant line departments as members (Home, Law, Social Welfare, Human Rights, Health, Local Government, Planning & Development, Labour, Women Development, Prosecution, and Finance Departments) and the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau. Subsequently, the Social Welfare Department proposed new legislation named Punjab Child Protection Bill, 2021, while the CPWB proposed a set of amendments in the PDNCA 2004.

In its recommendations submitted to the chief minister, the NCRC advised the government to act on the recommendations and observations made by the international treaty bodies, including the harmonisation of laws regarding the definition of child. It was further recommended that a comprehensive Child Protection Policy be introduced to provide guidelines to the legislatures for the promulgation of legislative reforms and to introduce child protection systems at the provincial and district levels. Considering the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children’s Act 2004 caters only to the destitute and neglected children, the NCRC has strongly recommended a comprehensive child protection law, covering all children in need of protection.

*Names have been changed to protect identities

The writer is a human rights activist and a   leadership consultant. She is a member of the National Commission on the Rights of Child. She earned her doctorate in leadership studies from the University of San Diego, California. She tweets @RubinaFBhatti