Author: ANI
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 20, 2004
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/856878.cms
A recent report prepared by Society
for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPACE) says that Pakistan
has literally ignored the UN Convention of the Rights of Child (UNCRC)
on the involvment of children in armed conflicts.
Young childrens are not only given
being trained for war but are used in select armed conflicts, the Daily
Times said quoting the SPARC report.
The Pakistani government has yet
to ratify an optional protocol to Article 38 of the UNCRC that states "No
child below the age of 15 shall have any part in hostilities or shall be
recruited in the armed forces.
"States shall also ensure the protection
and care of children who are affected by armed conflicts as described in
international laws," the report said.
It further says that the "recruitment
of children continues, despite the government's attempts to curb the use
of madrassas as breeding grounds for jihadis".
"Poverty, unemployment, adventure,
physical punishment, religious glory and feeling of being powerful at a
young age are factors that prompt some of these children to join the jihadi
outfits that manage most of these madrassas," the report adds.
It further claims that there are
over 70,000 madrassas in Pakistan, some of which actively recruit thousands
of children to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir, the government's madrassa
reforms plan notwithstanding.
"Children are also recruited by
political factions, various sects and nationalist movements to wage an
internecine war inside the country. Boys as young as 14 have been victims
of such conflicts in Pakistan. In sectarian conflicts, young boys are recruited
to kill members of opposing groups," claims the report.
The SPARC report also alleges that
at least 1.2 million poor and marginalised children were trafficked for
various forms of child labour ranging from forced labour in hazardous conditions
to sex exploitation.
Trafficked children, both male and
female, were used for prostitution, camel races, organ transplants, drug
smuggling, begging, forced child marriages and other purposes, it claimed.
