Children rights in context of Pakistan with a reference of a case study; Child soldiers in Pakistan.

1. Children Under Attack
VIOLATION OF CHILDREN RIGHTS

2. Legal Protection Of Children Rights
 Its articles 11(3), 25 (A), Article 38, 35 and 37 (E) provided the basic
structure for the Child rights including provision of educational facilities,
fixation of their employment age and family affairs etc.
 In September 2001 the government of Pakistan signed the Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement
of Children in Armed Conflict, which requires states to take “all feasible
measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of
legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalise such practices.”

3. Case Study
CHILDREN SOLDIERS: A SHEER VIOLATION OF CHILDREN
RIGHTS.

4. Child-Soldier
 A statement issued by the State Department in
Washington defined the term “child soldier” as: Any
person under 18 years of age who takes a direct part in
hostilities as a member of governmental armed forces,
police, or other security forces.
 A large refugee population and porous borders have
made Pakistan a natural source of recruits for various
armed groups involved in the neighboring conflicts of
Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir

5. Where Child
Soldiers Are
Forced to
Fight?
As of 2016, child soldiers were
still actively being recruited an
d used in combat in 18 countri
es.
Source:
https://junior.scholastic.com/issues/2018
-19/010719/kids-at-war.html

6. Child-soldier in Pakistan
 A large refugee population and porous borders have made Pakistan a natural
source of recruits for various armed groups involved in the neighboring
conflicts of Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir.
 Many madrasas are legitimate, informal educational institutions, serving poor
students with no alternative educational opportunities.
 In February 2000, the Pakistan's Interior Minister claimed that "only one per
cent" of the madrasas in Pakistan sent their students for training in
Afghanistan. In April 2000, he warned that sectarian parties were "spreading
poison" and "polluting the minds" of children: "All their madrasas,
inappropriate literature, weapons and their activities will be stopped.“
 The US has added Pakistan to Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA) list on
Thursday (July 1,2021), a designation that can result in harsh penalties on
military aid and Pakistan’s participation in peacekeeping programs.

7. Case Study
 Amnesty International has reported cases of forced
recruitment of children through madrasas in Pakistan to fight
in Afghanistan. In July 1997 the father of 13-year-old Maroof
Ahmad Awan filed a petition in the Sindh High Court in
Karachi, Pakistan, accusing the principal of the local Jamia
Islamia of sending his son to fight in Afghanistan without
consulting the parents. The father said: "I handed him over to
the school to learn the Qur'an, not to handle guns. He is too
young to fight in a war."

8. • Maroof joined the school in early May and was missing
for several weeks until school authorities admitted he
had left, supposedly of his own volition, to fight in
Afghanistan." A month after the petition was submitted
the boy returned saying "I was persuaded to go to
Afghanistan by the nazim of the school." According to
Amnesty International some 600 other juveniles were
taken in buses to Afghanistan on the same day. The
father withdrew his petition after the Pakistan police
registered a criminal case, although no investigation was
made and no one was arrested.

9. • In relation to the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, sources in
Pakistan suggest that some armed groups might identify
prospective recruits at 15 or 16 (often from poor and
disadvantaged families), but they are generally over 18 by the
time they infiltrate Indian territory or engage in operations. In
May 1999 Reuters reported on 250 young recruits at a Lashkar-e-
Taiba in Pakistani-held Kashmir: "All are Pakistanis from villages
and small towns in Punjab and the North Western Frontier
Province.... The training is divided into three stages: 21 days of
small weapons training, wilderness skills and fitness. The boys are
then sent home, where they are monitored by party elders to see
if they are spiritually and physically fit enough to continue."

10. CHILD RECRUITMENT BY ARMED
GROUPS WITHIN PAKISTAN
 Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM)
 Jeay Sind Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM)
 The Taliban
 Armed groups in Jammu and Kashmir
 Sectarian Groups

11. Helping soldier children in Pakistan.
 While combatting terror groups with the country,
Pakistan’s Armed forces have rescued such “child
soldiers” and have sent them to rehabilitation centers
to de-radicalize them.
 Sabaoon: A non-government organization operats in
Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to rehabilitate, educate,
and reintegrate former child soldiers.
(Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1208602 )

12. What did the government of Pakistan
do for the soldier children?
 In 2019, the Pakistani military announced it would bring more
than 30,000 religious schools under government control,
some of which were used by non-state armed groups to
forcibly recruit child soldiers. Between April 2020 and March
2021, however, the government did not report investigating,
prosecuting, or convicting individuals involved in child
soldiering offenses.
 Source: https://www.stimson.org/2021/cspa-country-pakistan/