Minister seeks joint global efforts to curb child abuse

islamabad — Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari has called for a greater international cooperation to curb crimes related to child sexual abuse that has become a serious issue in the country.

In an interview with Xinhua news agency, the minister said that child sexual abuse had become a serious issue in Pakistan and it was found that their convoluted strings went as far as Europe after some groups involved in child pornography were recently busted.

“It is a universal problem across the world and while every country tries to deal with it, perhaps greater international cooperation will help get rid of this crime much quicker.”

She said that previously this issue was neglected in Pakistan, but now the country was set to play its part in curbing the menace of child sexual abuse by enacting more laws and rigidly implementing the existing laws relevant to child abuse.

Currently, the maximum punishment of child abuser in Pakistan is life imprisonment, but lacunae in criminal justice system and tediously long court proceeding end up in low conviction rate. The same factors account for outof-court settlements between families of victim and the abuser.

Mazari said that the country’s judiciary departments were in the process of forming criminal judicial reforms and once they were finalised, proceedings of criminal cases will no longer be stretched year after year.

The minister said that an awareness campaign will be launched across the country in schools to educate children how to protect themselves from falling prey to sexual abuse.

She said that parents and teachers will be a part of the awareness campaign as they should learn about relevant laws which can help them take sexual abuse culprits to task.