Ombudsman stresses on Govt agencies, civil society to work for the protection of children’s rights

ISLAMABAD, January 31: The Hon’ble Federal Ombudsman Mr. Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi has said that childrenrights is a cross-cutting theme and requires concerted efforts by allstakeholders. He said most of the countries have a Child Ombudsman but in theabsence of Child Ombudsman in Pakistan, the Federal Ombudsman has been workingfor children rights. He said, unfortunately, violence against children is amajor issue in Pakistan, therefore we have to collectively safeguard ourchildren rights as a society. He said that we have more than 100 millionchildren of less than 18 years age who have no right of vote. He stressed on government agencies and civilsociety organizations to work for the protection of child rights and to addresstheir grievances through a well-coordinated effort. He said that due to our Islamic and socialvalues, parents are always ready to discharge their responsibilities towardstheir children and make every sacrifice for them. He was chairing a first meeting of the National Committee for Children at Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat Islamabad, today which was alsoattended by Ms. ShaheenAtiqurRehman, Vice-Chairperson Bunyad Foundation, Mr.Zia Ahmed Awan, Founder of Madadgar National Helpline Sindh, Begum RaheelaDurrani, MPA/former Speaker of Balochistan Assembly, Ms. Samar Minallah,Anthropologist/Film Maker, Ms. AfshanTehseen, Chairperson NCRC and other HumanRights activists. Keeping in view the importance of the issue at nationallevel, the National Committee on Children includes professionals,parliamentarians, experts, government officials and activists with meaningfulcontribution in protection and promotion of child rights, he said. Themeeting aimed to brief the Committee members on the progress of the initiativestaken by the office of WafaqiMohtasib and to discuss the Strategic Vision. Theplan is aimed to strengthen the mechanism for the protection and promotion of children rights. The committee was briefed that the responsibility toaddress children’s issues is not limited to any particular agency but requiresconcerted efforts by all stakeholders. The Committee is vested with the mandateto monitor the status of children rights in Pakistan, especially the childrenat risk; and redress grievances of children through the WafaqiMohtasib’s Grievance Commissioner for Children. The Committee will alsoaddress the systemic issues relating to children rights. The Federal Ombudsmanhas also taken on board the Provincial Ombudsmen to address children rights atprovincial level. The meeting reached a consensus to carry out a study onthe issues concerning the street children in Islamabad and for preparation of aparticular plan of action to address the issues involved. The meeting also reviewed the progress onsteps being taken to control violence and cybercrimes against children. -PR