|
|
Mr. Chairman,
Nelson Mandela rightly said that “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children”. Investing in our children is not a matter of choice. It is a personal and collective obligation.
The highest importance attached to children’s rights by the international community is testified by the near-universal ratification of the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’ as well as its two protocols. Pakistan was one of the six co-initiators of the 1990 World Summit for Children, which provided a fillip to the accelerated ratification of the Convention.
Despite notable progress in advancing the rights of children, serious challenges persist. Being the weakest and most vulnerable segment of societies, their rights are often forgotten or taken for granted. Children in all parts of the world face neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation. Their misery and vulnerability is especially acute in situations of armed conflict, foreign occupation and humanitarian emergencies.
Non-achievement of MDGs, also, is affecting the rights of children. We, therefore, need to do a lot more nationally and as members of international community to ensure protection and promotion of their rights on all fronts and around the globe.
Mr. Chairman,
In addition to the Convention on Rights of the Child, Pakistan is a state party to all ILO core conventions and the SAARC Convention on Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution. We have also ratified the Optional Protocol on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Pornography and ratification process of the Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict is almost completed.
With an unflinching commitment, the Government of Pakistan is pursuing the agenda of promotion and protection of rights of the children at all levels. Pakistan has made progress towards achieving MDGs relating to Gross Enrolment Rate and infant mortality rate. Comprehensive efforts have also been made to eliminate child labour.
Strategic priorities of our Comprehensive National Plan of Action for Children include political commitment, capacity building, awareness raising, advocacy and social mobilization as well as enhanced allocation of resources and setting up and strengthening of functional structures and systems for the promotion and protection of child rights in the country. Continued progress is being made on all priority areas.
Our National Commission for Child Welfare and Development is dedicated to promoting the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Child. It also assesses the impact of the constitutional, legal and administrative provisions on welfare and development of children and suggests further measures for improvement. Commissions for Child Welfare and Development are also operational at the provincial and district levels.
Mr. Chairman,
The Government of Pakistan has also undertaken a number of projects for child welfare and protection throughout the country. These include establishment of specialized protection and rehabilitation centers for child laborers, working and street children and juvenile convicts. It has also introduced social protection schemes for children with disabilities as well as provision of formal and non-formal education, pre-vocational training and skill development programmes. Many of these projects have been pursued and accomplished in partnership with UN Agencies particularly UNICEF and ILO as well as the civil society.
Besides establishing Children Complaint Desks in offices of the Federal and Provincial Ombudsmen, a Child Protection Management Information System has been set up in collaboration with UNICEF.
Mr. Chairman,
Allow me to conclude by echoing the Secretary General’s call for all Member States to enhance efforts to implement the commitments made during the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children. We feel that failure to respond to the SG’s call will significantly undermine efforts to realize our collective vision embodied by the UN Millennium Declaration and MDGs by 2015. This necessitates concerted and sustained action at national and international levels. Only then would we be able to look the future generations in the eye and say with confidence that our pronouncements on child rights were not mere rhetoric!
I thank you.