After 18th Amendment : Provinces yet to address children’s rights
Committee blames lack of attention for failure to meet MDGs
PHOTO: PAKISTAN CHILD RIGHTS
ISLAMABAD:
When it comes to addressing the needs of children, some provinces have not even bothered to get started with legislative discussions, let alone craft and implement policies that would help Pakistan meet the Millennium Development Goals.
This scathing indictment of provincial governments, quoted in the annual report of the Federal Ombudsman, was made by the National Committee on Children (NCC), which met earlier this year and is led by Senator SM Zafar. The NCC is an independent commission created by the government that operates as a branch of the office of the Federal Ombudsman, and its goal is to help the federal and provincial governments with the policymaking process with respect to children. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has representation on the committee as an observer.
Following the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the majority of matters relating to children and their rights now fall under the jurisdiction of provincial governments. Yet it appears that some provincial governments have not even started thinking about how to tackle the issues of one of the largest and most important segments of the population. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, for instance, have not even created a committee in their respective provincial assemblies. And the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) do not even have a legislature that can address such matters.
Yet as much as the NCC criticised the provincial governments for not doing enough to address the rights of children, or meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, the committee itself appears to be little more than a talking shop that does not appear to be fulfilling its mission of making recommendations to the government about policies for education, healthcare and the environment.
For instance, at the meeting of the NCC, the members listed a litany of problems facing children, such as the destruction of girls’ schools by the Taliban and boys being forced to join militants. The committee talked about how this is harmful to children, but stopped short of proposing an actual action plan to deal with the problem, though they did recognise that an action plan was needed.
The one concrete proposal to come out of the NCC meeting was to spread an idea that the Punjab government is already implementing, which is to designate at least 36 local administration officials – district commissioners, tehsil commissioners, as well as union council liaison officers – as official ombudsmen for any complaints received by the government with respect to violations of children’s rights. The NCC also proposed creating a helpline for children and using a television ad campaign to promote its existence.
The NCC also met with President Mamnoon Hussain and delivered a presentation regarding some children’s rights issues that they felt were being neglected by the government, a senior official told The Express Tribune.
The NCC comprises Feryal Ali Gauhar, an actress and former UN goodwill ambassador; Raheela Hameed Durrani, a member of the Balochistan Assembly; Farzana Bari, director of the Center for Excellence in Gender Studies at the Quaid-e-Azam University; Farah Pervez Saleh, executive director of the Citizens’ Commission for Human Development; Perveen Qadir Aghan, a former federal secretary; Shahnaz Wazir Ali, the president of the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology; Samar Minallah Khan, an anthropologist; Begum Jan, the founder of the Tribal Women’s Welfare Association; and Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, the National Commissioner for Children.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 1st, 2015.
When it comes to addressing the needs of children, some provinces have not even bothered to get started with legislative discussions, let alone craft and implement policies that would help Pakistan meet the Millennium Development Goals.
This scathing indictment of provincial governments, quoted in the annual report of the Federal Ombudsman, was made by the National Committee on Children (NCC), which met earlier this year and is led by Senator SM Zafar. The NCC is an independent commission created by the government that operates as a branch of the office of the Federal Ombudsman, and its goal is to help the federal and provincial governments with the policymaking process with respect to children. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has representation on the committee as an observer.
Following the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the majority of matters relating to children and their rights now fall under the jurisdiction of provincial governments. Yet it appears that some provincial governments have not even started thinking about how to tackle the issues of one of the largest and most important segments of the population. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, for instance, have not even created a committee in their respective provincial assemblies. And the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) do not even have a legislature that can address such matters.
Yet as much as the NCC criticised the provincial governments for not doing enough to address the rights of children, or meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, the committee itself appears to be little more than a talking shop that does not appear to be fulfilling its mission of making recommendations to the government about policies for education, healthcare and the environment.
For instance, at the meeting of the NCC, the members listed a litany of problems facing children, such as the destruction of girls’ schools by the Taliban and boys being forced to join militants. The committee talked about how this is harmful to children, but stopped short of proposing an actual action plan to deal with the problem, though they did recognise that an action plan was needed.
The one concrete proposal to come out of the NCC meeting was to spread an idea that the Punjab government is already implementing, which is to designate at least 36 local administration officials – district commissioners, tehsil commissioners, as well as union council liaison officers – as official ombudsmen for any complaints received by the government with respect to violations of children’s rights. The NCC also proposed creating a helpline for children and using a television ad campaign to promote its existence.
The NCC also met with President Mamnoon Hussain and delivered a presentation regarding some children’s rights issues that they felt were being neglected by the government, a senior official told The Express Tribune.
The NCC comprises Feryal Ali Gauhar, an actress and former UN goodwill ambassador; Raheela Hameed Durrani, a member of the Balochistan Assembly; Farzana Bari, director of the Center for Excellence in Gender Studies at the Quaid-e-Azam University; Farah Pervez Saleh, executive director of the Citizens’ Commission for Human Development; Perveen Qadir Aghan, a former federal secretary; Shahnaz Wazir Ali, the president of the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology; Samar Minallah Khan, an anthropologist; Begum Jan, the founder of the Tribal Women’s Welfare Association; and Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, the National Commissioner for Children.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 1st, 2015.