Funds should be channelled to strengthen institutional mechanisms to respond to violations of human rights.
LAHORE: The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism under which the Human Rights Council examines the human rights situation in every member state of the United Nations. Each state is examined once every four years. The UPR is an inter-governmental process whereby the human rights records of a given country will be reviewed by other countries.
On October 30, 2012, the situation of human rights in Pakistan was reviewed by the member countries at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, in which Pakistan was given a number of concrete recommendations for taking appropriate administrative, legislative and other measures to improve the situation of children’s rights recognised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Pakistan was urged to undertake measures to the maximum extent of its available resources, including the establishment of independent monitoring mechanism, enact efficient legislation to prohibit and prevent the employment of children as domestic workers, expedite the adoption of the Charter of Child Rights Bill at the national level, which has been pending for the last many years, strengthen measures aimed at providing protection and assistance to vulnerable segments of society, including those children affected by natural disasters to protect them from trafficking and exploitation at work. Moreover, the country was urged to take steps to implement laws and policies with a view to eliminating early and forced marriages.
This is indeed a matter of concern for the civil society that the governments, both at the national and provincial levels, have not come forward to devise an action plan to ensure the implementation of recommendations or to improve the situation of human rights in the country. It is pertinent to mention here that for the last one and a half years, no department in Punjab has come forward as a focal department for smooth coordination among different government departments and agencies to monitor the status of UPR’s recommendations. The government of Punjab must demonstrate seriousness to implement the human rights recommendations. And last but not least, the government of Punjab must show political commitment to improve the situation of human rights in general and children’s rights in particular.
Funds should be channelled to strengthen institutional mechanisms to respond to violations of human rights and the establishment of the Punjab Commission on the Rights of Children. This will not only add a feather in the Punjab government’s cap, but will ultimately contribute towards the protection of marginalised and vulnerable segments of society. Civil society organisation can also join hands to facilitate the process of devising action plans to gradually implement the UPR’s recommendations. Punjab, as the biggest province, should take lead this time to set an example to other provinces as well.
Iftikhar Mubarik
Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2014.
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