Rabia Mustafa

Two-day Training for Lawyers on Child Sexual Abuse and Child Domestic Labour was conducted on 28-29 December 2022 at Roomy Signature Hotel, Islamabad. This two-day training was led by HSU Advocates (Hassan, Sharafat and Umar Advocates) and GDP (Group Development Pakistan). Almost 25 lawyers from various areas surrounding Islamabad attended the training sessions. Overall objectives of the training were to:

  • identify the primary provisions of domestic and international law that serve as the foundation for protecting children’s rights and safety from child domestic labor and how this issue intersects with the child protection and juvenile justice systems;
  • know the main international guidelines on prevention; and know the cross-cutting principles of children’s rights to protection, which are applied throughout the manual;
  • understand how, according to international standards, to legally define a child and what constitutes a person being a child;
  • understand the different, varied, and special needs of children both psychologically and physically and the different developmental stages of a child;
  • comprehend and be able to use victim-centric best practices for CDL cases involving child sexual abuse and children in conflict with the law cases. Understand what practices are better for which case and how legal aid attorneys can provide appropriate representation; and
  • Know and be able to put into practice standard operating procedures for cases of child abuse involving child domestic labor, including child sexual abuse, and children in conflict with the law.

In order to achieve the objectives, multiple laws were briefed while presenting examples from the current scenario, case laws, and judgments, so on. Ms Saima Qadeer, Executive Director GDP, explained objectives, agenda and expectations of the training. Also, she elaborated the concept ‘what is a child?’ in terms of law and society and why there is a need to train the lawyers on the said topic. After that, Mr Sharafat Ali Chaudhary, the senior managing partner of HSU and Chairperson of SLD, trained the lawyers on multiple updated laws with recent amendments related to child rights and juvenile justice. The Laws included The National Commission on the Rights of the Child Act, 2017; The Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018; The Juvenile Justice System Act (JJSA), 2018; The Employment of Children Act, 1991; The Islamabad Child Protection Act, 2018; The Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act, 2017; The Sindh Child Protection Authority Act, 2011; The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection Welfare Act (KPCPWA), 2010; The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prohibition of Employment of Children Act, 2015; The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Based Workers Welfare and Protection Act, 2021; The Khyber Paktunkhwa Bonded Labour System Abolition Act, 2015; The Balochistan Child Protection Act, 2016; The Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery (Amendment) Act, 2020; the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act, 2021, and so on.

Also, he briefed the participants regarding the rights given to the children by the Constitution of Pakistan and various international institutes such as ICCPR, UNCRC, UNHR, and ICESCR. Moreover, he got the participants involved in an activity where participants compared these UN organizations with the Constitution of Pakistan. It was a beneficial activity where participants got to know how and where our constitution is linked with international treaties and organizations.

Overall, it was a beneficial and productive training event for the lawyers. There were multiple activities arranged by Ms Saima Qadeer and Mr Sharafat Ali during the two-day training sessions where participants were involved actively and learned a great deal about Child Sexual Abuse and Child Domestic Labour. In the concluding ceremony, the representative from the participants shared her views that how these training sessions were helpful for their profession.

The concluding ceremony was graced by the Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice, Ms. Mehnaz Akbar Aziz. She was delighted to see such a training event and shared here views. In the end, she distributed the certificates to the participants of the training.

The writer is a Senior Research Fellow at the School for Law and Development

Leave a comment