Senate Committee passes key children’s rights bills
FILE PHOTO: Children walk at a camp for people recently displaced by fighting in Yemen's northern province of al-Jawf between government forces and Houthis, in Marib, Yemen March 8, 2020. Picture taken March 8, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS
The Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights unanimously passed three important bills related to the rights of children while the committee did not pass Women’s workplace harassment bill due to a need for further deliberation.
A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights was held under the chairmanship of Senator Waleed Iqbal on Friday. The meeting unanimously passed 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.
The meeting also considered an amendment bill for the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, which was opposed by the committee Chairman and some members of the opposition. The Chairman Committee said that he did want to pass the bill prematurely and added that he would like to hear the views of all stakeholders on the bill.
Chairman Waleed Iqbal decided to hold a public hearing on the bill and recommended consultations with women's rights and other human rights organizations. He said that this piece of legislation is very important and needs to be thoroughly reviewed. The committee decided to hold a public hearing on the matter on December 6.
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During the meeting, Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari and members of the opposition had a heated exchange of words. Mazari said that the members of the opposition were deliberately postponing the Human Rights Bill to which the opposition members replied that they cannot allow the bill to be bulldozed through the committee without reading it.
They stated that the bill does mention the harassment of female domestic workers to which Shireen Mazari replied that the bill covers harassment of women in all places of work. She added that the amendments in the bill are intended to prevent the misuse of harassment cases.
While talking to the media, Minister Shireen Mazari denied the allegation of location tracing of government members during the last joint session of Parliament. She said that the location tracing of certain parliament members has been misreported by the media.