UN Committee to review Pakistan’s record on children’s rights

GENEVA (23 May 2016) – Children’s rights in Pakistan will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on 25 and 26 May in sessions that will be webcast live. Pakistan is one of the 196 States that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and so is required to undergo regular examinations of its record by the Committee of 18 independent experts.

Committee members will hold discussions with a government delegation from Pakistan on how the Convention is being implemented. They will base their evaluation on the delegation’s replies, as well as information from civil society groups.

Among the possible issues for discussion are:
·    Execution of people for crimes committed when they were under 18, children on death row;
·    Gender-based crimes, including female infanticide, “honour” killings; 
·    Extremely low rate of birth registration;
·    Protection of children from religious minorities from sectarian violence, forced marriage, forced conversion and prosecution under blasphemy laws;
·    Torture and ill-treatment of children in police stations and prisons;
·    High rates of malnutrition;
·    Children working in slave-like conditions in bonded labour;
·    Protection of schools in view of  attacks, especially on non-religious and girls’ schools;
·    Privatisation of education, growing number of private “madrassas” used by non-State armed groups to radicalize and recruit children. 
·    Prohibition and criminalization of recruitment of children under 18 by State armed forces; and by non-State armed groups, including  for suicide bombing missions.

The full list of issues and Pakistan’s submitted written report can be found here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=987&Lang=en

The discussions will take place at Palais Wilson in Geneva on Wednesday 25 May from 15:00-18:00 (18:00-21:00 in Islamabad) and on Thursday 26 May from 10:00-13:00 (13:00-16:00 in Islamabad). The meetings are public and will be webcast here:  http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

The Committee will hold a news conference at 12:00 on 9 June at the Palais des Nations in Geneva to discuss its findings on Pakistan and the other countries being reviewed – Samoa, Nepal, Slovakia, the UK, Gabon , Bulgaria and Luxembourg. The findings, officially known as concluding observations, will be published on 9 June here:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=987&Lang=en

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell +41 (0) 22 917 9466/ +41 79 752 0488 ethrossell@ohchr.org
Media accreditation – please see:    http://unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpPages)/70991F6887C73B2280256EE700379C58?OpenDocument
Background
Members of the CRC are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee’s concluding observations are an independent assessment of States’ compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. To learn more about the Committee on the Rights of the Child: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx
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