Child Sexual Abuse: Life sentence for assaulters demanded

CRM officials demanded that the federal and provincial governments urgently enact Child Protection Amendment Bills.

ISLAMABAD: Children are increasingly becoming vulnerable to sexual assaults and federal and provincial governments must take effective steps to protect them from predators, said officials of the Child Rights’ Movement (CRM) Pakistan while speaking at a press conference on Thursday. CRM officials demanded that the federal and provincial governments urgently enact the Child Protection (criminal laws) Amendment Bills, which have been pending for a long time. The laws should include maximum punishments of life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole, remission or pardon for paedophilia, rape and gang-rape convicts, the CRM officials said. The CRM said news channels should respect the dignity of sexual abuse survivors and follow an ethical code of conduct in reporting on cases of sexual abuse. It said the broadcast media should devote five per cent of airtime to public service messages for sensitisation of general public on changing societal attitude toward women and children.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2013.