Listed below are some of the Laws and Acts prevalent in Pakistan with regards to Children Rights

Source:  http://ombudsmanpunjab.gov.pk/children-complaint-office/child-right-acts-laws/

1.	Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act, 2004
2.	The Punjab Compulsory Primary Education Act, 1994
3.	The Child Nutrition Act, 2002
4.	Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000
5.	West Pakistan Juvenile Smoking Ordinance 1959
6.	Child Marriages Restrained Act, 1929
7.	The Child Marriage Restraint (Punjab Amendment) Ordinance, 1971
8.	Abolition of Whipping Act, 1996
9.	Guardian and Wards Act 1890
10.	Restriction of Child Labor Act 1890
11.	The Factories Act, 1934
12.	The Factories (Punjab Amendment) Act 1940
13.	Employment of Children Act, 1991
14.	Employement of Children Rules, 1995
15.	Workers’ Children Education Ordinance 1976
16.	West Pakistan Control of Orphanage Rules, 1958
17.	The Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870
18.	The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1886
19.	National Database Registration Authority Ordinance 2000
20.	Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non Smokers Health Ordinance 2002
21.	Mental Health Ordinance for Pakistan 2001
22.	The Punjab Supervision and Control of Children Homes Act 1976
23.	Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992
24.	Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Rules, 1995
25.	Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance, 2002
26.	Preventation and Control of Human Trafficking Rules, 2004

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Tobacco and the rights of the child

This report was released by WHO to encourage countries to abide by the terms of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by taking necessary legislative and regulatory measures to protect children from tobacco, and ensure that the interests of children take precedence over those of the tobacco industry.

In addition to the harmful effects caused by direct use of tobacco, children are also exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke. Nearly 700 million, or almost half of the world’s children, breathe air polluted by second-hand smoke, according to the report. In almost all cases, they have no choice in the matter, as they are unable to protest or protect themselves. The report also deals with the issues of child labour. Tobacco companies have been implicated in child labour in the major tobacco producing countries such as Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malawi, the USA and Zimbabwe.

There is overwhelming scientific evidence for the harmful impact of tobacco use and second-hand smoke on child health, as well as wide documentation on the targeting of children by tobacco companies. Comprehensive tobacco control is not only a valid concern falling within the legislative competence of governments, but also an obligation under the Convention, according to the report.

Source : http://www.who.int/tobacco/resources/publications/rights_child/en/

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Trends in reported cases of CSA (Sahil)

Sexual abuse has for long been neglected by various segments of our society where social norms and cultural anecdotes have played an active role in suppressing these issues. These practices have affected the response of law enforcing agencies towards these issues of violence. There are many victimized segments in the society. However one segment that stands helpless due to its dependence on elders, and has less or no access to resources, is children. Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is prevalent worldwide and is one of the menaces that are persistent in all classes. In Pakistan, children less than 18 years of age are falling prey to CSA at the ratio of 6 children per day. Sexual abuse is perceived as shameful and not to be discussed and hence hundreds of innocent lives live with the shadow, memories and trauma of the assault. Several children surrender their lives in the name of honor or absorb the pain for fear of losing a loving one, if the secret is revealed. In the past, cases related to child sexual abuse were published in newspapers using humiliating words that could create more harm than good to the victim. However, in recent years various advancements in media and the steps taken by Social Organizations, National Commission for Child Welfare and Development, and Press Council of Pakistan have succeeded in sensitizing the reporters on following a code of ethics set for reporting a sexual abuse case. Sahil working on child protection with a special focus on sexual abuse, has been publishing Cruel Number reports for the last 15 years, which is based on data collected through monitoring online and printed newspapers, direct calls received at Sahil for free counseling services, free legal aid and cases shared by other organizations working on CSA. The report has been helpful in identifying the target groups for awareness raising. Moreover it has also been of a great help for other organizations to steer advocacy campaigns. The current publication is a five year trend analysis of the reported CSA cases from 2007 to 2011. We hope this report will benefit our stakeholders in particular and society in general.

Source : http://sahil.org/five-year-analysis/

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SPARC Gets New Executive Director

Ms. Sadia Hussain joined SPARC as Executive Director in November 2015. She has been working in Pakistan on diverse areas of education, monitoring and research for the past fifteen years. She has worked on several DFID and ADB funded projects as a self employed educational research consultant, running her own company successfully for more than five years. Currently, her focus is on research and advocacy for alternate methods of teaching and learning through technology integration.

Ms. Sadia Hussain holds a Masters degree in Educational Leadership and Management from the University of New England, USA, and a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering. She has also completed several continuous professional development courses from Harvard School of Education and University of Missouri, USA.

Source : http://www.sparcpk.org/

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Solar kids treatment successful

The two children who live in a suburb at Quetta city suffer from a rare disease. When the sun rises they are bright and chirpy, when it sets they become lifeless.

“I have five children. But only these two suffer from this disease,” said Hashim, their father.

Doctors at Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where the children have been brought for treatment, are perplexed at this strange case.

PIMS Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram said, “This case is a challenge for the entire medical community. We need to first identify their defective genes. Their entire data is being shared with Johns Hopkins University [in the United States] and hospitals for neurological diseases in England.”

Doctors have recommended over 200 tests to the duo they have named as ‘solar kid

Treatment :

According to PIMS Vice Chancellor (VC) and Head of the medical board Dr. Javed Akram, this was the minors’ first night where they behaved and played like normal children. Dr. Javed Akram also lauded Media efforts for highlighting the issue which led to successful treatment of the ‘solar kids’.

Father of the affected children, Hashim, was also overjoyed to see his children healthy and act normal.

The ‘solar kids’ of Quetta were seen playing in the hospital and taking selfies in front of a mirror, proving that they will finally be able to live normal healthy lives.

The children had long suffered from strange symptoms where they seemed to be active, full of life and normal during day time however, as soon as the sun set, their bodies started becoming dysfunctional and they seem to be half dead.

The father of the three children spent many years of his life rejoicing upon the sight of dawn but every sunset used to leave him gloomy. Now at last he will also be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

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I am 12 years old and I wish there was no child labour!

That cruel man became angry and kicked the boy really hard on his back. That poor small boy who was wearing dirty black clothes filled with mud ignored him and continued to fix our cycle. PHOTO: REUTERS
Yesterday, I went to my friend’s house to play. We wanted to go cycling on the road in his neighbourhood.Since, there was no air in the tyres we had to go to the cycle tyre shop. We went to the nearest cycle shop which was at Saba Avenue. We had to stand in line to get it fixed.
On our turn, an 11-year-old boy started fixing the puncture. While he was fixing it he noticed that the brake wire was also broken. When he had fixed the two punctures he turned the cycle around to fix the wire. While he was fixing it he needed pliers to tighten the wire.
While he was busy tightening it another man came who needed to fix his motorcycle handle. He asked that small boy;
“Yeh plas mujhe abhi doh”
(Give me those pliers right now)
That small boy refused saying;
“Yeh cycle mien abhi bana raha hoon, jab khatam kar liya hai phir le lena, ya waha plas para hooa hai wo le lo”(I am fixing this cycle at the moment, when I have finished you can take them then, or there is another one lying there, you can take that.)
That cruel man became angry and kicked the boy really hard on his back. That poor small boywho was wearing dirty black clothes filled with mud ignored him and continued to fix our cycle.
Then that man kicked that small boy again, harder this time. The boy ignored it again.
Then the cruel maniac said;
“Ye plas abhi do warna mein tumhe aur zyada maroo ga”(Give me these pliers now or I will beat you more)
The polite little boy ignored him.
The boy took a stool from the other corner to sit on, tired, sad and miserable. Picking up the pliers, the evil man charged to where the boy was sitting and roughly pressed the pliers on the boy’s eyelid.
The sad little boy, now scared started crying, but nobody in that neighborhood cared. We were trying to tell that evil cruel maniac to stop doing that to a poor helpless boy, but we were scared that he might start hitting us.
We felt very sorry for that small boy.
Alas, we could not help him.
We wished that there could have been some law to prevent this child labour. This boy should have been in school instead of facing such gross brutalities by his customers.

Originally shared at : http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/14216/i-am-12-years-old-and-i-wish-there-was-no-child-labour/

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Sahil Organization

Vision

Har Bacha Mehfooz…Safe, Secure and Protected

Mission

To develop a protective environment for children free from all forms of violence especially child sexual abuse

Introduction

Sahil has been working for the last 20 years on child protection especially against child sexual abuse.

Our services include free legal aid and free counseling.  Along with Sahil legal officers we have the services available of 100 referral lawyers for legal support across the country. Free legal and counseling  services are available at Sahil head office and four  regional offices Abbotabad, Jaffarabd, Lahore, Sukkur.

In 2011 Sahil has started to reach out to communities build their capacity on child protection, and establish child protection networks at the village level. These child protection networks are linked up with the local and district administration,  INGO’s, NGO’s,  private sector and other stakeholders  to enable them to refer cases to the required  service.

Sahil’s advocacy works involve research and publication work. This include the publishing of quarterly magazine on relevant topics and publication of an annual research of CSA newspaper reports.

Other Sahil activity include internship and volunteer program and resource center.

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