NCRC’s dysfunctionality after completing first term
ON 28 February 2020, the Federal Government issued a notification for constitution of the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) in exercise of powers conferred by section 3(1) of the National Commission on the Rights of Child Act, 2017 (XXXII of 2017). Under section 6 of NCRC Act 2017, the tenure of the NCRC’s chairperson/members for a period of three years, which was expired on 28 February 2023. I had a privilege to work as a Program Policy Advisor at NCRC during the last six months of its first term completion. I was also assigned the additional responsibility of focal person for NCRC’s business with parliament, federal/provincial govt. ministries/divisions/wings and departments.
During my job at NCRC, I observed that the Commission had been doing some extra-ordinary work to deliver its mandate on monitoring, recommending, sensitizing and protecting child rights in the country. The Commission had made several developments as per its mandate through inter-provincial coordination, and mobilized policy makers to earnestly take up child rights causes. The Commission had also been addressing the child abuse cases from all over Pakistan by adopting the referral/redressal methods. During its tenure, the Commission had adjudicated several high-profile cases of child rights violation by conducting in-person hearings at its office.
Notwithstanding the outstanding performance of the Commission, several attempts have been made by the parliamentarians to limit/restrict Commission’s powers/functions, but remained unsuccessful. One of such attempts was ‘NCRC (Amendment) Bill 2023’ moved by Senator Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur, which proposed that Commission shall not inquire into any matter related to children, which is pending before any other Commission duly constituted under any law for the time being in force. Similarly, another attempt was made by Senator Kamran Michael by moving ‘NCRC (Amendment) Bill 2023’, in which the constitution of the Commission was re-defined by reducing its members from six to five. Both of these bills were opposed by the MoHR. Besides, I also observed disparities among the Commission members in discharge of their functions.
Being a focal person for NCRC’s business with parliament, ministries/divisions/wings/departments, I handled several starred questions, legislation, policy matters, privilege motion and concerns, which were raised/moved by the parliamentarians, ministries/departments/wings, parliamentary committees on human rights and parliamentary caucus on child rights. I drafted the responses of all these referred issues after internal consultation and submitted them back. I along with Secretary NCRC also briefed the Minister for Human Rights on starred questions related to NCRC, raised in the parliament to be answered by the minister. I also represented the Commission as a team member before the parliamentary committees on human rights on issues related to NCRC. Meetings held at MoHR pertaining to review of Pakistan’s human rights record during 4th UPR cycle at Geneva were also attended by me.
Being a Programme Policy Advisor at NCRC, I reviewed various human/child rights policy documents, laws, rules and advised the ministries/wings/departments and NCSW for harmonization of those policies/laws with international standards/treaties ratified by Pakistan. I also reviewed various policy briefs on child protection themes and drafted two policy briefs on child protection themes, one is on juvenile justice system and other one is on trafficking and migrant smuggling of children. Any assistance required by the parliamentarians related to any child protection issue/theme was also provided to them by answering their queries in writing. Because of my timely response to the issues raised by the parliamentarians, MoHR and other ministries/departments/wings, I received various appreciation messages/calls from parliamentarians and the Council Section of MoHR.
Because of the NCRC’s outstanding work for promotion and protection of children rights during its first term, MoHR had sent the summary for extension of tenure of its chairperson and members to the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Notwithstanding, the terrific performance of the Commission, there were some parliamentarians in the present coalition government who were not happy with the extension of the Commission and opposed it to federal govt. In order to revoke the extension of the Commission, a privilege motion was even initiated by the members of the Parliamentary Caucus on Child Rights against the NCRC’s chairperson exactly at that time when the extension was under consideration.
So, the matter of extension of tenure of the Commission was politicized by the parliamentarians just for their personal interests and appointment of their favourite persons. They didn’t even consider that despite the financial, human resource constraints and without proper office in the first two years, the Commission survived and done some outstanding work for promotion and protection of children rights. Resultantly, the summary was not signed by the prime minister and on 01 March 2023, the Commission became dysfunctional after completing its first term because new appointments of chairperson/members were not made. All the projects, programs, activities and parliamentary/ministerial business undertaken by the NCRC became dormant. This severely affects the fulfilment of children rights and esteem of NCRC, which were established in the last tenure.
It took Pakistan 30 years to establish this independent national child rights commission in compliance to Pakistan’s international obligations under UNCRC and Paris Principles that set out the minimum standards required for national human rights institutions to operate efficiently and be considered credible. The minimum standards provided under Paris Principles require that NHRIs have a broad mandate, broad functions, independence from Govt., pluralism in membership, adequate powers, adequate resources, cooperative work, quasi-judicial activities and engagement with international bodies.
Today, UN strongly encourages all states to establish or strengthen the NHRIs in compliance with the Paris Principles and UNCRC Committee General Comment No 2. Based on these two international instruments, the NCRC’s dysfunctionality by not appointing/renewing its chairperson/members by the government is not in line with the minimum standards required for national human rights institution to operate efficiently and be considered credible. Therefore, it is strongly advised that the present government must immediately appoint the chairperson and members of NCRC to fulfil Pakistan’s international obligations and for the best interest of children of Pakistan.
