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Islamabad, May 08, 2013 (PPI-OT): Federal Ombudsman, M. Salman Faruqui today chaired a meeting attended by all Provincial Ombudsmen, Secretary Ministry of Human Rights and Country Representative UNICEF.
During the meeting, he approved the recommendations of the consultant Mr. Reidar Hjermann, who had been an outstanding child ombudsman of Norway for 8 years. The recommendations related to upgrading the Children’s Complaint Offices at the Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat and in the offices of Provincial Ombudsmen.
The Wafaqi Mohtasib while appreciating the hard work done in putting together the recommendations also approved the appointment of Mr. Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi, former Federal Secretary and Chief Secretary Sindh and KPK, as Commissioner for Children in the Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat. Mr. Qureshi will act as National Commissioner to deal with not only individual complaints of Children but systemic issues impacting on child rights.
He is tasked to coordinate and monitor child right activities with a view to ensure effective implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of children. For the purpose, a strengthened and empowered institution would be setup in the Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat with greater human and financial resources to accomplish its mandate.
All the Provincial Ombudsmen and the Country Representative UNICEF agreed to support the concept and recommendations of the Consultant. Based on the model developed and setup at the federal level, the provinces will follow suit as per their requirements and resources.
It may be recalled that Children’s Complaint Offices had been working at the federal and provincial levels with the support of UNICEF since 2009. It is a major breakthrough and landmark decision to upgrade and improve the performance and output of these offices and towards setting up a child ombuds-system in Pakistan. UNICEF agreed to provide necessary financial assistance for the transition period, and later, for a well crafted awareness campaign to enable children to make greater use of the redress mechanism for their complaints.
In the past three years, Children’s Complaint Offices have handled thousands of complaints relating to children. Federal CCO assisted some provinces and areas to develop child protection laws, and commissions while carrying out research studies on important areas of child protection.
Recently, an authoritative report on the State of the Children in Pakistan was published where in all the provinces and special areas of Pakistan contributed chapters relating to their situation. It was very well received by the civil society, donor community and it would act as a baseline study for future programmes and activities. Appointment of a National Commissioner for Children would go a long way in establishing institutions and develop practices towards alleviating the plight of children.
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