INTRODUCTION
Child is a person who does not attain the age of puberty. In legal terminology, a child is also termed as minor, which means he/she is less than 18 years old. Since early childhood, a child needs great love & care in which parents play a huge role in his/her growth and development. As children are very innocent, therefore, it should not just be the duty of a family to take care of the welfare of a child, but it should also be a duty of a government to make laws for their protection. Therefore, it is important to make laws for protecting the welfare of children in order to secure their future. Moreover, it is important to provide a secure environment, which could allow children to play freely without any fear.
WORLD AFFAIRS:
In world, multiple laws with regard child rights are in field, which allow them right to play, express, act, love and live his life without any coercion, accordingly, following facilities are made available for the children:
- Free food
- Free shelter
- Free health
- Free education
- Free baby care centres
- Free technical skill development centres.
- Free sports facilities
Moreover, following laws with regard children protection are in field so that no person could misuse their innocence:
- Labour Laws
- Child Marriage Restraint Acts
- Child Abuse Act
- Gender based violence
- Gender discrimination
UNICEF:
To meet the goals of children rights and protection from being misused, the countries make hectic efforts to implement the laws domestically as well as nationally in order to keep the innocence of a child ever growing. Accordingly, countries have joined international organization like UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), who research on the needs and wants of the children and accordingly work on their development for which they have fixed funds to provide to the underdeveloped countries, so that if a country could not protect the rights of children, then, UNICEF help the State, so that no right of a child gets defeated.
PAKISTAN:
Talking specially about developing countries like Pakistan. Here the countries make their own laws as per the available resources to provide care & shelter as per the culture and traditions, while for major projects Pakistan takes help from UNICEF. Moreover, the rights of children are even protected in the constitution of Pakistan under article 37-(a), which is reproduced as under:
“no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Furthermore, following laws are in field in Pakistan with regard child rights and protection:
- The Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929
- The Guardian & Wards Act 1890
- The West Pakistan Probation of Offenders Rules, 1961
- The Employment of Children Act 1991
- The Probation of Offenders Ordinance 1960
- The Pakistan of Breast Feeding and Child Nutrition Ordinance 2002
- The Juvenile Justice System Ordinance
- The Criminal Law Act 2016
- National Commission on the Rights of Child Act 2017
- UN CRC, the comprehensive the approach to Child Rights
CONCLUSION:
So, whether the laws are in field or not, we as a Nation should work together to provide love & care to the children, so that they could be an asset for us in the future.
Written by:
Abdul Wahab
The Lex Blog Department
