Child Rights and Juvenile Justice

Thematic Stream: Child Rights & Juvenile Justice

Problem Statement: As per the constitution of Pakistan, Article 37(A) demands that “no child shall be subject to torture or other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment”. Further, article 25(A) gives every child the right to education, Article 11(3) forbids employment of children, and the Pakistan Penal Code section 82 grants blanket immunity to children below a certain age. The Penal Code sections 375 & 377A also criminalizes engagement in sexual acts with children. However, despite all the legislation, social indicators paint a abysmal picture of progress achieved by Pakistan when it comes to securing child rights and juvenile justice.

Goal: Ensure child rights are secured and juvenile justice is propagated through increase in diversion and focusing on rehabilitative programs for juveniles.

Program Approach: With evidence-based research as one of the core principles, the programs under the thematic area focus on working with various actors within the criminal justice system and community actors to create an environment where child rights are secured and child offenders are not punished but instead rehabilitated.

Target Districts: Karachi, Larkana, and Shaheed Benazirabad

Components:

Research & Advocacy:

Using research as the starting point of all work, the programmatic approach is to understand the juvenile justice system and also map issues that hinder child rights in the country so interventions are adopted according to the local communities context.

State as the Absent Parent: Child Marriage in Pakistan

Children in Conflict with the Law: Socioeconomic mapping of detained children

Capacity Building:

While understanding gaps in service delivery of the CJS is essential, it’s also important to make efforts to fill those gaps. In this regard, LAS works with various government actors to build the capacity of key stakeholders involved in diversion of juveniles and. Key stakeholders such as the Prison Department, Juvenile Courts, and Police are all trained and capacitized to increase rehabilitation of Juveniles.

In case of upholding child marriage laws, key stakeholders such as community leaders and nikkahkhawans and litigators are trained to be able to uphold the child marriage law restrictions.