Media urged to create awareness of children’s rights
SUKKUR, May 20 2006: A seminar called on the media on May 19 to play its due role in both highlighting the plight of children in Pakistan and creating awareness of their rights. The seminar titled “Child Rights and the Role of the Media” was organised by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) at press club here. Journalists and office-bearers of the Child Right Committee (CRC) of the district participated in the event.
Manager SPARC Hakeem Ghulam Siddique said 20 million children were not getting education because of poverty and other reasons. He said at least 4,000 children were lodged in different prisons of Pakistan. Out of them, 729 were in Sindh prisons and 75 per cent of these children were innocent. Speakers said the Juvenile Justice Ordinance 2000 was not being implemented and as a result many innocent children could not released from prisons.
Programme Coordinator Akhtar Hussain Baloch presented statistics on violations of children’s rights in Sindh during the January-March 2006 quarter. According to the statistics, 18 women and 28 men were kidnapped; 12 women and 20 men male committed suicide; six women and 10 men attempted suicide; eight men and 19 men were killed; six women were killed in the name of Karo-Kari; 12 women and 24 men were sexually abused; and five women and seven men fell victim to negligence in hospitals.
The speakers stressed that journalists should pay their role in creating awareness about the rights of children. District Coordinator CRC Dilber Khan Mirani, Media Coordinator Gul Munir, Mushtaque Ahmed and Muhammad Usman Arain also spoke.
Source: The News
Date:5/20/2006
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