Statistics: Child Marriage, Child Sexual Abuse, Human Trafficking, Honour Killing and Acid Suvivors

In 2010, in Sindh province alone, 50 cases of child marriage were reported.[1]

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, in 2008-2009 of the total children from the age group 10-14 (20.19 million) and 15-19 (19.88 million), 0.12 (in numbers 24228) and 5.18 (in numbers 1029784) percent were reported married. It does not include details of the children below 10 years of age.[2]

According to Sahil, the number of child sexual abuse cases (male and female) has increased yearly, from 1,839 cases in 2008 to 2,012 in 2009 and 2,595 in 2010. On average, six children are sexually assaulted every day, but reported cases are likely only a fraction of all cases. In addition, child victims and their families are dragged through the criminal justice system; there are no programmes, policies and systems in place to facilitate victims of abuse children and their families seeking justice. [3]

According to the reports of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in 2008, 472 women and girls were killed in the name of honour; and, in 2009 and 2010, 647 and 791 females respectively were murdered in the name of honour.[4]

The representative of the Acid Survivors Foundation shared that 53 acid attack cases were notified in 2009, 65 in 2010 and 150 in 2011. At least 200 attacks occur a year, out of which 20 percent are children.

According to Madadgar in 2011 there had been a total of 105 men, 90 women and 93 children that had been smuggled. From January to March 2012, 112 men, 33 women and 45 children had become victims of human trafficking in Pakistan.[5]

Footnotes

[1] Saleem, S (2010), Child marriages: 10-year-old girls for Rs100,000; The Express Tribune, December 21, 2010, Karachi.

[2]Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan; Accessed on January 2011 at www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/.../lfs2008_09/t04.pdf.

[3] Sahil (2008, 2009, 2010 and 2010)Cruel Numbers; Islamabad, Pakistan. [4] Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (2008, 2009, 2010), State of Human Rights; Lahore, Pakistan.

[5] The News International (2012), 190 cases of trafficking already reported in 2012; March 21, 2012, Karachi.

Senate and NA committees

HERE are 42 standing committees in the National Assembly and 24 standing and functional committees in the Senate of Pakistan. There are also special and select committees in each house of parliament. Each committee is headed by a chairperson having a number of members. In Senate committees only senators and in National Assembly committees only members of the National Assembly can be members. Among a list of committees, there are two committees in the Senate and one in the National Assembly on the subject of human rights. There are also other committees which can address human rights-related issues and violations such as health, water, education and narcotics. According to their rules of business, these committees are empowered to invite or summon before them any member or any other person having a special interest in relation to any matter under its consideration and may hear expert evidence and hold public hearing. The government has not yet highlighted the importance of committees which could be very helpful in resolving issues and problems. These committees might have been a useful source of remedy and relief for thousands of people if these would have performed accordingly. Interestingly, when civil society organisations have not been able to meet these committees and their members to share their concerns, how is it possible for the common man to access these committees? The government may initiate a public awareness campaign about the committees’ roles and functions to help resolve matters that other institutions are not able to do. There is a need to allocate office address to each committee having fax and phone numbers so that the public can access these easily. I believe the committees are forums of elected representatives and may be of great help. ABDULLAH KHOSO Islamabad From the Newspaper | Letters | 19th February, 2012 http://www.dawn.com/2012/02/19/senate-and-na-committees.html

Dear sir, madam, I hope this email finds you well. I have sent you an e-mail with a request to nominate a child for the Children’s Peace Prize 2012. This prize is awarded annually to a child, whose courageous or otherwise extraordinary efforts have made an impact on behalf of the Rights of the Child. With this e-mail we would like to inform that after several requests we have decided to extend the deadline with 2 weeks, to send in nominations until March 15th 2012. We would be very appreciative, if you could send us your nominations before this date. May I also request you to please send the information to your contacts/network so that they also have the opportunity to nominate a child. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank those who have already sent their nomination form. Attached to this e-mail you will find the nominating form for 2012 and information about the previous winners of the International Children’s Peace Prize. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know. We will be glad to assist you in any way we can. Also visit our website www.childrenspeaceprize.org Warm regards, Ellen Vroonhof cid:77F67E6A-82BE-4710-B28F-8ABF2D60C8EB Ellen Vroonhof Programme Manager KidsRights Foundation P.O. Box 283 - AC 6011 1000 EA Amsterdam, The Netherlands E: ellen@kidsrights.org T: +31 (0)20 343 99 89 F: +31 (0)20 629 9860 www.kidsrights.org www.childrenspeaceprize.org / www.kindervredesprijs.nl