'Universal Children's Day 2004' was observed here on Saturday like other parts of the world, with a renewed pledge that all out efforts will be made in partnerships of all the public and private agencies, to put in place a child protection system at par with national and international obligations. The day is observed every year in commemoration of two historic United Nations events ie the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1959 and the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1989 which call for promoting the rights of children everywhere around the world.
A spokesperson of NGO-Child Rights Council-told Business Recorder different NGOs organised various programmes in various parts of the country in which speakers urged all concerned to ensure children enjoy good environmental surroundings, access to health facilities, quality education and recreation.
The speakers maintained over one billion children world-wide suffer the severe effects of poverty in terms of not only of income but of deprivation of basic human rights such as shelter, food, water, sanitation, health, education and information.
Moreover, analysts told this scribe one child of every three lived in a dwelling with more than five people per room or with a mud floor. Nearly 20 percent of the world's children did not have safe water sources or had more than a 15-minute walk to water. According to them, over 15 percent of children under five in the developing world were severely malnourished.
In South Asia alone, more than 90 million children went hungry every day. Around 134 million children between the ages of 7 to 18 had never been to school.
They stated the physical, emotional and intellectual impairment that poverty inflicts on children could mean a lifetime of suffering and want, and a legacy of poverty for the next generation. That cycle constrained the overall economic and social development of a nation.
They were of the view nurturing and caring for children were the corner stones of human progress and the organisation worked with other partners throughout the world to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination placed in a child's path. Breaking the cycle of poverty required investments by governments, civil society and families in children's rights.
According to legal experts, children in the country could sometimes spend several months or even years in detention simply because their families could not afford to pay their bail. Once they eventually got to trial, conviction rates were as low as 15-20 percent.
They said the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) did not allow a court to hear children and adult cases on the same day but that happened regularly. That resulted in children, including first-time offenders, being transported and held in lock-ups with adults where they were at risk of abuse in violation of the law.
It may be mentioned Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and introduced domestic measures such as the JJSO which came into force in 2000 to fulfil the obligation to protect the rights of children who came in contact with the law.