Pakistan joins the world community today in celebrating
the Universal Children’s Day 2017, which is an occasion for us all to reaffirm
our commitment to the fundamental principles laid down in the United Nations
Declaration of the Rights of the Child as well as our national obligations
under the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child.
Children are the most precious
resource of any nation and the sole guarantee for its future. The Government of
Pakistan is fully alive to its responsibilities towards our children, and is
determinedly striving to ensure that children’s to inclusive development,
education, healthcare, participation, dignity and security, as envisaged in the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, are fully implemented and
protected. Only recently, we have taken a very significant step towards this
objective by promulgating the National Commission on the Rights of the Child
Act, 2017, which provides for an effective institutional mechanism not just to
monitor implementation of children’s rights, but also to ensure that laws
relating to children’s rights and the administrative agencies responsible for
implementing these laws are producing the requisite outcomes. Further, we are
strengthening existing legislation and introducing new laws to protect the
rights of children in areas where they are most vulnerable, such as employment
and marriage.
We have instituted the
National Plan of Action for Human Rights, which embodies substantive
interventions to address issues relating to, amongst others, child protection,
discrimination, labour, and education. The provincial governments have also
taken various legislative and programmatic initiatives to safeguard the rights
of children. There are, of course, many predicaments, including social
imperatives and resource constraints, but the Government of Pakistan stands
resolved not to jeopardize the nation’s future by ignoring our greatest common
asset. I am confident that with government organizations, civil society bodies,
philanthropist establishments, human rights groups, the corporate sector and
international development partners all coming together on one platform, no
difficulty will be insurmountable, and very soon our children will also enjoy
the same care, nurturing, protection and opportunities that are available to
children in the more advanced nations of the world.