By APP
ISLAMABAD: First Lady Bibi Asifa Bhutto Zardari on Friday said every child had an absolute right to grow up safe at home, school, in the community and increasingly, in the digital world.
In a statement on child protection, she said violence, abuse, exploitation or neglect of a child could never be dismissed as a private matter, social custom or an unfortunate circumstance.
“When a child is harmed, society has failed in its most basic duty of care,” she said.
Asifa said children across the world continued to face physical and sexual violence, trafficking, forced labour, child marriage, exploitation and abuse online.
She said the United Nations had repeatedly warned that violence against children remained widespread yet preventable, adding that protecting children required political will, strong institutions and sustained action.
“In Pakistan, this responsibility is especially urgent,” she said, adding that recent evidence concerning online exploitation of children reminded that threats to childhood were evolving rapidly.
She said technology must expand children’s opportunities, education and knowledge and must never become a doorway through which predators entered their lives.
The first lady said child protection could not begin only after a tragedy had occurred and must begin with prevention, including informed parents, safe schools, trained teachers, responsive police and social services, stronger protection mechanisms, responsible digital platforms and communities willing to speak when they saw a child at risk.
She said where a crime against a child had occurred, there must be no silence, stigma or protection for the perpetrator.
“A frightened child must be heard. A harmed child must be protected. A survivor must be treated with dignity. And an offender must face the law,” she said.
Asifa said children should never have to prove that they deserved protection, as their age and vulnerability imposed that responsibility upon all.
She said Pakistan must continue strengthening a child-protection system in which prevention, reporting, investigation, rehabilitation and justice worked together, where children and families knew where to seek help and where institutions responded swiftly, sensitively and without subjecting survivors to further trauma.
She also stressed the need to listen to children themselves, saying their fears, experiences and voices must inform the policies that affected their lives.
“Protecting childhood is not an act of charity. It is a matter of rights, justice and the kind of nation we choose to become,” she said.
The first lady called upon government institutions, provincial authorities, law-enforcement agencies, schools, civil society, religious and community leaders, the media, technology companies and families to make the protection of children a shared national responsibility.
“There can be no stronger investment in Pakistan’s future than protecting the child who will inherit it,” she said.
She said children deserved more than sympathy after they were harmed, adding that they deserved vigilance before harm reached them, protection when they were threatened and justice when their rights were violated.
“That must be our promise to every child of Pakistan,” she concluded.
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