Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Kabul (BNA) Draft Law on Supporting Children is going for poll once again while currently, a large number of children are deprived of their rights in Afghanistan. Indeed, a huge number of the Afghan children are subjected to extreme poverty and violence on a daily basis. Their situation is in fact critical, however they have the right to educate, to access to health services, to have safety, to be secured, etc. but unfortunately they don’t enjoy these rights in the Afghan society. To solve these deficiencies, the ministry of justice has put to poll the draft law on supporting children for the third time in Kabul. The law has been financed and proposed by UNICEF in which majority of the ministries and government organizations are responsible to apply it. Abdul Basir Anwar, the minister of justice told media that the law was proposed in consider with children rights convention and other related protocols and based on laws of the Islamic countries such as, Egypt, Sudan, Tunis, Turkey, etc. and efforts have been made to use the law as children constitution. There are four other independent laws and regulations on children, but this law will be used as children constitution and effort will make for its implementation, Anwar further said. If the law is in contradiction with another law, it will have high position, because, it is a new law and is more important than other laws on children, the minister of justice added. Mohammad Qasim Halimi, the spokesperson for the Ulama council said, ‘the Ulama council supports the people rights and all laws supporting the humans.’
In the meantime, John Libi, the UNICEF program in-charge on supporting children in Afghanistan said that the law on children was like an umbrella on them that enjoys all related issues. The Afghan government has approved the child rights convention and presented its first report to the relevant oversight committee, he said, adding the process has been started in 2011. On the other, Wahidullah Jihadi, the in-charge of the project on children law said, ‘the law protects and promotes the children rights, and we call on all ministries and government organizations to do their duty before children.’ The contents of the law include all children related issues from the placenta to 18-year-old, Jihadi further said. The law has 15 seasons and 105 articles and has not still completed. The law will focus on ensuring children rights and has considered all dimensions. This is while that in Afghanistan a large number of children are working in order to provide food for themselves and their households. Street vendors, water carriers, cardboard collectors, shoe polishers, taxi solicitors, domestic servant, assistants in boutiques, are the kind of odd jobs done by Afghan children.
Shukria Kohistani
