Child marriages remain a pressing issue globally, affecting the lives of millions of young girls. According to UNICEF, one in every six young women is married during childhood. To combat this harmful practice, the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) has taken significant steps towards legal reforms in Pakistan. The NCRC recognizes that early marriages hinder girls’ education, empowerment, and overall well-being. To address this, they have proposed legal reforms that set
Child Rights in Focus
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber crime circle had apprehended an accused for his alleged involvement in sharing child pornography content online. As per reports from officials, the suspect, identified as Hasan Amin, was apprehended during a raid in the federal capital. He was found to be sharing objectionable photographs and videos of children online as well as engaging in blackmail using such content. The suspect distributed objectionable content to the victim through platforms
The 18th Amendment, enacted on April 19, 2010, was a blessing for Pakistan. It achieved many vital shifts; abolishing the Concurrent List (47 subjects) including education (#38), devolving those to the provinces in a multi-tiered governance system; ‘decolonising’ the NWFP by renaming the province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; providing new fundamental rights, including the Right to Education under Article 25-A and the Right to Information under Article 19-A; and much more. Also in 2010, the Annual
Islamabad: Child Protection Institute (CPI), Ministry of Human Rights, has dealt with 260 cases of child protection since its inauguration in June 2021, says the data released by CPI. Among the total number, 243 were boys and 17 were girls. Out of the total number of cases, 125 cases were of beggary, 56 of child labour, 30 of garbage pickers, 15 cases of drug abuse, 9 of sexual abuse and 20 cases were of
TOBA TEK SINGH: Five out of the 12 workers, including a 12-yearold boy, who had suffered burns in a steam boiler explosion in a textile mills located on Sargodha Road near motorway M-4 at Faisalabad on April 20, succumbed to their injuries on 23rd April night and 24th April. The deceased workers include a minor boy Salman (12), his father Fayyaz (40), residents of Bahawalnagar, Waseem (18) and Mustansar (24), both of Arifwala and
ISLAMABAD: Education Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on 23rd April 2024 said challenges of education could not be addressed until the provinces and the federation worked in unison. He highlighted the importance of ensuring that all stakeholders were on the same page and owned the direction taken by the federal government in resolving the current challenges of the education sector. The minister said access to quality education, teacher training and infrastructural and curriculum limitations
RAWALPINDI: The District Education Authority Rawalpindi has issued a notification for the establishment of school councils or school management committees. The number of council members will be a minimum of nine and a maximum of 17. According to the notification issued by CEO Yasin Baloch, the committee in each school will comprise two notables of the area, a retired schoolteacher, one member each from the armed forces and civil services, two members from parents
Whenever the country is hit by an economic crisis, news media starts brimming with reports of children abandoned by parents, inside garbage cans and at shrines, out of which only a lucky few end up in the custody of trusted orphanages or doting adoptive parents, the rest however, are left stranded at the mercy of wild stray dogs and illegal shelter homes. In Punjab, several shelter homes are working at the government and non-government
PESHAWAR: Experts have called upon policymakers to integrate mental health services into primary care settings to scale up awareness and reduce stigma associated with mental health illnesses among people. At the concluding session of fourth International Public Health Conference at Khyber Medical University (KMU) on 20 April 2024, they termed strengthening primary healthcare important to put brakes on increasing number of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the country. Health Secretary Mahmood Aslam Wazir, who was
April is recognised as the Sexual Assault Awareness Month globally. In Pakistan, though, sexual awareness remains a controversial topic and it is often falsely equated with promoting immorality and indecency. In reality, it is to the contrary and sexual awareness plays a pivotal role in preventing sexual violence, which is rampant in our society. Sexual violence in general, and against minors in particular, is a crime that is under-reported, with an extremely low conviction
ISLAMABAD: While every year 600,000 children die in the emergency room (ER) across the country, the number can be reduced by 50 per cent by pumping just a nominal amount of money (Rs2,000 per child) to improve the emergency response. Child Life Foundation Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Ahsan Rabbani made these remarks in a conversation with Dawn. ‘It is unfortunate that the number of children who die in the ER is more than
LAHORE: In the wake of rapid technological advancement and rising cybercrime , the Punjab home department has prepared a first draft of the “Punjab Cyber Crime Control, Prevention and Punishment Act, 2024.” The first draft of the proposed cybercrime control law has for the first time identified all kinds of offences, including electronic financial frauds, fraudulent sales through online auctions or retail sites or through fake websites, mass marketing frauds and consumer scams. In