ON 24 January 2024, National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) successfully launched the policy brief on child trafficking in Pakistan in a ceremony held at Marriott hotel Islamabad, in which state-of-the-art legislative/policy framework on the issue of child trafficking in Pakistan including recommendations for its effective improvement/implementation were presented. The chief guest of the ceremony was Ms. Mushaal Hussein Mullick, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Human Rights and Women Empowerment and dignitaries from govt. ministries/departments, UN agencies, civil society and academia graced the event. I am the original author of this policy brief and drafted it as a Program Policy Advisor of NCRC during its last term, but the name of author in the policy brief was written as Ms. Aleena Khan, Legal Advisor NCRC which is factually incorrect. The credit of my research and hard work was given to someone else who was not the original contributor/author of this policy brief.
During the last six months of NCRC’s first tenure, I had been honoured to work as a program policy advisor and a focal person for NCRC’s business with parliament, federal/provincial governments, ministries/divisions/wings/departments. My responsibilities/duties inter alia were to assist the NCRC and Govt. of Pakistan in fulfillment of child rights through formulation/enactment/review of policies/laws, submit recommendations for their effective improvement/implementation and to draft the policy briefs on human/child rights related issues. My job at NCRC was financed by the Ministry of Commerce under EDF grant to NCRC and I was under an obligation to draft the policy briefs on child rights protection themes on a quarterly basis and to review 10-15 child-related legislative/institutional frameworks etc. During my job at NCRC, Commission has assigned me two policy briefs for drafting, first one was on ‘Juvenile Justice System of Pakistan’, which was drafted during the period of first three months of my job and second one was on ‘Child Trafficking in Pakistan’, which was drafted in the next and last three months of my job. Under the EDF grant, NCRC was bound to submit the quarterly progress reports to the Ministry of Commerce/EDF Secretariat about the work done under the grant. In these reports NCRC has officially acknowledged my outstanding progress as a policy advisor by sharing the drafts of both of my policy briefs and laws/policies reviewed to ensure that adequate work had been done under EDF grant.
During the preparation of the policy brief on child trafficking in Pakistan, I engaged with numerous national and international organizations, including UNICEF, UNODC, UNHCR, ILO, IOM, FIA, and provincial home departments, to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. After consolidating this information into the draft, I sought input from the NCRC’s chairperson, members and consultants. Subsequently, a consultation was held in February 2023, involving government departments, UN agencies, judiciary, civil society and INGOs, which further refined the draft. The finalized version was then prepared for publication by the NCRC. On 28 February 2023, the first term of the Commission expired and on 1st March 2023, the Commission became dormant, so unfortunately my policy brief on child trafficking in Pakistan couldn’t be published officially. The NCRC remained dormant till the appointment of new chairperson/members on 13 April 2023. The policy brief on child trafficking was the first ever official policy brief of new chairperson/members since assuming the charge of office, which was actually drafted by me in the last term under the supervision of that time NCRC’s Chairperson Afshan Tahseen and members. During the policy brief’s launch ceremony, no official from the previous Commission was invited by the current Commission. I learned about the event through social media and attended. There, I informed the NCRC’s chairperson and members that I was the actual author, and the omission of my name from the author list violated intellectual property rights. They acknowledged this error twice on stage but still did not announce my name as an actual author of this policy brief.
Policy Brief on child trafficking was published by the incumbent Commission with the financial support of UNICEF, whereas, it was drafted by me under the EDF grant by the Ministry of Commerce. Through an EDF grant by the Ministry of Commerce to NCRC, I was hired as a program policy advisor to draft this policy brief and was to be published under EDF grant. Neither EDF grant, Ministry of Commerce, previous Commission nor I were acknowledged in the publication of this policy brief. The policy brief on child trafficking in Pakistan is the official publication and intellectual property of NCRC. However, the omission of the original author’s name, as well as the failure to acknowledge the EDF, Ministry of Commerce and previous Commission’s chairperson/members, constitutes discrimination and malpractice by the incumbent Commission. To rectify this, the incumbent Commission should issue a written apology to the original author and previous Commission, reprint the brief with proper acknowledgments, including the author’s name and the contributions of relevant entities.
—The writer is a former Programme Policy Advisor at National Commission on the Rights of Child, Govt of Pakistan, Islamabad.
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views expressed are writer’s own.
