factsheet
It’s a hard life
It’s high time both the federal and the provincial legislatures responded to the state of child rights in the country and enacted all pending bills related to child rights
By Arshad Mahmood

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group’s 14th session was scheduled to take place from October 22 to November 5, 2012 in Human Rights Council, Geneva, Switzerland. Pakistan’s review is scheduled from 09:00 to 12:30 hours on Tuesday October 30, 2012 while the report on Pakistan will be adopted on Friday November 02, 2012.

The UPR is a United Nations review mechanism of the overall human rights situation of all UN Member States, by all UN Member States. This includes child rights issues.

The review is based on three reports: 1) the State’s national report, 2) a compilation of UN information on the State prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) and 3) a summary of other relevant stakeholders’ information, including NGOs’, prepared by the OHCHR.

From Pakistan a number of stakeholders’ reports have been submitted by different civil society organisations focusing on different areas such as human rights, women’s rights, minorities’ situation, labour rights, right to information and child rights. I’ll briefly discuss the concerns and recommendations raised by the Child Rights Movement (CRM), a coalition of 108 national and international organisations working for child rights in Pakistan in its report.

The CRM report highlights the fact that there is no an independent body at the federal level with a statutory status for reporting, coordination and monitoring for the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and its Optional Protocols and have recommended that the Government of Pakistan should establish an independent National Commission on the Rights of Children (NCRC) by passing the long pending NCRC bill.

While highlighting the issue of malnutrition, the civil society report states that malnutrition is contributing to 35 percent of all under-5 deaths in Pakistan. According to UNICEF, 32 percent of infants have low birth-weight (recorded in 2006 and 2010). In 2010, the infant mortality rate was 70/1000 and under-5 mortality rate was 87/1000.

As a result, Pakistan is at risk of failing to reach its MDGs targets on maternal and child health. Pakistan should take all legislative, administrative and other appropriate measures to develop and implement comprehensive food security and malnutrition prevention and response programmes recommended the CRM.

The report further states that Pakistan has ratified three conventions related to children: UNCRC and ILO’s Conventions 138 (the Minimum Age Convention) and 182 (Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour) however, little progress has been made in amending existing or introducing new legislation to comply with the provisions of these conventions. The report also highlights cases of severe torture and abuse of child domestic workers.

The civil society report recommends that Pakistan should introduce new laws and where required amend existing laws to implement the provisions of these conventions and to ban child domestic labour under the Employment of Children Act (ECA) 1991.

The report also highlights child protection issues like corporal punishment and child marriages and recommended to immediately enact the long awaited Prohibition of Corporal Punishment and the Child Marriages Restraint (Amendment) Bills to prohibit corporal punishment in all its forms and raise the minimum marriageable age for girls from 16 to 18 years, along with strict penalties for violations.

The CRM report highlighted stark statistics related to the number of child sexual abuse cases (1,839 in 2008, 2,012 in 2009, 2,595 in 2010): On average, six children are sexually assaulted every day, but reported cases are only a fraction of all cases due to social taboo. CRM recommends that Pakistan should ensure that professionals working on the front line with children, such as teachers, medical professionals, school counselors, and police personnel, are sensitized and trained to appropriately respond to child sexual abuse, including prevention, detection and management.

There are an estimated 1.2 million children living and or working on the streets in major cities of Pakistan. Following the floods in 2010 and 2011, and ongoing conflict in the tribal areas, there has been a surge of street children. The federal and provincial governments in Pakistan should support mechanisms for rehabilitation and reunification of children living and or working on the streets recommended the CRM.

The civil society report further states that the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO), 2000, is little recognised or known among law enforcement agencies, and officials are generally not sensitized or qualified to deal with children’s issues. Furthermore, the law does not override, but is in addition to, several laws such as         the Army Act, Frontier Crimes Regulation, Action (in Aid Civil Power) Regulation, Anti-terrorism Act, Control of Narcotics Substance Act, Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying Ordinance and the Railways Act to name a few.

Under these laws, harsh punishments including death sentence and life imprisonment can be imposed upon children. The Government of Pakistan should take measures to ensure that the JJSO overrides other laws in cases involving children and take solid steps for the implementation of the JJSO including the establishment of exclusive juvenile courts, appointment of probation officers and budgetary allocation.

Similarly, the minimum age for criminal responsibility that currently stands at 7 years under Section 82 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) should be increased immediately to an internationally accepted level i.e. 12 years. A Child Protection Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill has been pending since 2009 in which the minimum age of criminal responsibility was proposed to increase from 7 to 10 years under Section 82     and from 12 to 14 years under Section 83 of the PPPC.

National birth registration average is at a dismal 29.5 percent as Pakistan has not taken sufficient measures to remove structural obstacles to birth registration and harmonize birth registration systems across the country.

The CRM recommended that Pakistan should take legal and administrative measures to remove obstacles to birth registration (particularly for marginalized segments of society, e.g. single parents children, children out of wedlock, street children and orphans) and harmonize laws related to birth registration across the country by 2015.

While highlighting the state of education in the country, the report stated that about 7 million children are not attending primary school in Pakistan; approximately 60 percent of these are girls. Accordingly, more than 50 million Pakistanis above 10 years of age are illiterate.

Through a positive constitutional amendment Article 25A was inserted in the Constitution of Pakistan in 2010, where education has been made a fundamental right of every child from 5 to 16 years of age however; neither the federal nor provincial governments have introduced laws to implement the Article. Both the federal and provincial legislature should enact laws Pakistan that should comply with Article 25-A (the Right to Education).

Pakistan ratified the Optional Protocol to the UNCRC on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography in October 2011; however, the Child Protection (Criminal Law) Amendment Bill 2009, which would provide for preventive and protective measures against sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography is still pending to be placed before the National Assembly of Pakistan for enactment. Pakistan should translate ratification of the Optional Protocol on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography into national laws.

Pakistan has introduced the Action in Aid for Civil Power Regulations (AACPRs) for the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas and Provincially Administrated Tribal Areas. These regulations allow for the confinement of an individual for 120 days without the authority of the magistrate.

Furthermore, the Regulations state that for 120 days, there will be no legal representation or trial, and a single statement by an official from the Law Enforcement Agencies is sufficient to prove a suspect guilty of an offence and set a death sentence, which cannot be challenged at any other legal forum. Pakistan should immediately abolish the AACPRs and proper administrative and judicial procedures should be applied in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan in FATA and PATA.

The issues raised and recommendations made in the civil society report clearly highlight the state of affairs in the country as for as child rights are concerned. Pakistan’s periodic report being party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child is also due later this year.

Therefore, its high time for both the federal and provincial legislature to respond to the state of child rights in the country and immediately enact all pending bills related to child rights. Similarly, budgetary allocation should also be made to ensure that the laws are not limited to law books only and a visible change is witnessed in the child rights situation in the country.

The writer is a member of the Child Rights Movement and tweets @amahmood72

The ABC of primary education
Focusing on primary education should form the basis of our debate on improving education standards
By Irfan Mufti

The ratio of children dropping out of schools is increasing at an alarming pace. The phenomenon has many reasons mostly related to poverty, poor quality of education, and resistance to girls education, etc.

Pakistan is among the few countries of the world where school drop-out rate at primary level is big. According to Annual Status of Education Research (ASER) 2011 released by South Asian Forum for Education Development (SAFED), more than 20 million children from the age 6 to 16 are out of school and of them 15 million never enrolled and about 5 million are dropped out at grade one.  Ironically, 60 percent of these are girls.

Out of 5 million drop-outs, mostly in the age bracket of 14 to 16, 60 percent are from government schools, 18 percent are from private schools and about 1.7 percent come from madrassahs. 57 percent of these children are less than 5 years of age. It is also important to note that only 80 percent of enrolled children finish primary school education and roughly 20 pc are dropped out at different stages. These figures speak volumes about the quality of public school system in Pakistan.

The ASER report also highlights some of the key challenges facing the education sector in Pakistan. In rural areas, one out of every five children between the age of 6 and 16 is not enrolled in school. The numbers jump to almost 60 pc when it comes to access to pre-primary education. Even the children who attend schools are not gaining the skills schools are expected to teach them.

Only 41 percent of Class 3 children are able to read a sentence in Urdu. The numbers are much lower when you look at the data from government schools. According to World Development Index 2010, the total enrollment at primary level is 74 percent as opposed to an estimated world average of 90 percent which means 26pc children are out of school. Percentage of children from the age of 3 to 5 is very high. Ratio of children out of school or dropped out is very high in Sindh, Balochistan and FATA. It is 62.4pc in Sindh, 64.7pc in Balochistan and 65pc in FATA.

The has also been dismal, particularly in government schools and in rural areas. Government schools are often characterised by severe limitations, such as a lack of basic facilities, inadequately trained and often absent teachers, and a severe shortage of learning materials and books.

Similar to the trends of other countries, the primary school system seems to be failing children right from the start. Of children who do enroll in school, less than half complete primary school. The drop-out rate is highest in the first grade — with approximately one out of every six children who is enrolled never makes it to the second grade.

The gender ratio in education is also disturbing. There is a great difference in the rates of enrollment of boys, as compared to girls in Pakistan. According to ASER 2011 figures, primary school enrolment for girls stands at 34 percent as compared to 66 percent for boys. The secondary school enrolment rate stands at a lower rate of 32 per cent for females and 46 per cent males.

Regular school attendance for female students is estimated to be at 41 per cent while that for male students is 50 per cent.  These figures also vary sharply from province to province. In Punjab, against 59.2 percent boys enrolled in primary schools only 40.8 pc girls are school-going. In Sindh, male/female ratio is 65:34, Balochistan 71:29, KPK 65:35, and in FATA the contrast is sharpened with 78:22.

Female to male ratio of enrollment in primary education has improved in the last two decades. In 1990-91, the female to male ratio of enrollment was 0.47 for primary level of education. It reached to 0.74 in 1999-2000, showing some improvement. For the middle level of education it was 0.42 in the start of decade and increased to 0.68 by the end of decade, so it has improved almost 62%. In both cases, the gender disparity is decreased but relatively more rapidly at middle level.

The gender disparity in enrollment at secondary level of education was 0.4 in 1990-91 and 0.67 in 1999-2000, showing that the disparity decreased by 67.5% in the decade. At the college level, it was 0.50 in 1990-91 and reached 0.81 in 1999-2000, showing that the disparity decreased by 64pc. Gender disparity has decreased comparatively rapidly at secondary school.

However, gender disparity is affected by the Taliban enforcement of a complete ban on female education in the Swat district, as reported by authentic sources. Some 400 private schools enrolling 40,000 girls have been shut down. At least 10 girls’ schools that tried to open after the January 15, 2009 deadline by the Taliban were blown up by the militants in the town of , the headquarters of the Swat district.

More than 170 schools have been bombed or torched, along with other government-owned buildings. Similarly, hundreds of schools in other strife stricken areas of FATA, PATA, KPK, Balochistan are either destroyed or are dysfunctional due to unrest.

The other factor behind poor performance of education sector is mainly caused by low level of public investment. Public expenditure on education has been 2.2 percent of GNP in recent years, a marginal increase from 2 percent before 1984-85.

In addition, the allocation of government funds is skewed towards higher education, allowing the upper income class to reap majority of benefits of public subsidy on education. Lower education institutes such as primary schools suffer under such conditions as lower income classes are unable to enjoy subsidies and quality education.

As a result, Pakistan has one of the lowest rates of literacy in the world, and the lowest among countries of comparative resources and socio-economic situations.

Recently, in the 18th constitutional amendment, a new article is added to the Constitution. Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan obligates the state to provide free and compulsory quality education to children of the age group 5 to 16 years. “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by law.”

With these fundamental rights now enshrined in the constitution, the government must fulfill its constitutional duty by providing free and quality education to children upto 16 years of age.

This long-awaited constitutional provision provides hope for all those deprived of access to educational opportunities, due to poverty, gender, ethnic and religious discrimination, or geographic immobility.

As a first step in June 2012, the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2011 has been passed by the Senate of Pakistan for Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). While this is, indeed, a positive initiative, more efforts are required to expedite the process in other provinces, FATA, PATA and Gilgit Baltistan.

There is an active campaign of citizens to collect one million signatures from out-of-school children (5-16 years) for the implementation of Article 25 A and demanding education shall be acknowledged as the highest priority. Parliamentarians and political parties must ensure new laws and policies to support education and allocate at least 4pc of the GDP for education.

Pakistan should also learn from other countries putting emphasis on quality education. In most countries of the world education is considered a basic human right and appropriate resources and arrangements are being made to ensure that right to education reaches to all in this age bracket.

The mission of Malala becomes extremely important in the backdrop of education status in Pakistan. By risking her life she has raised our consciousness on education and that too for those living in conflict areas. Her mission is clear: that the war against hatred, extremism, terrorism and bigotry can only be won through quality education for all.

The writer is Deputy Chief of South Asia Partnership Pakistan and Global Campaigner

irfanmufti@gmail.com