Law Event
Establish child rights commission
Speakers at the inauguration of the annual assembly of the Child Rights Governance Assembly (CRGA) urged the government to create a separate division for children under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) and establish a separate child rights commission.
The Chief Guest Mr H T Imam, Adviser to the Hon'ble Prime Minister for Public Administration appreciated the initiative of the CRGA and assured that the government will seriously consider establishment of a separate division for children. He reaffirmed government's commitment to ensure child rights. Speakers said that a separate division for children can work better to fully realize child rights, can work as the coordinating ministry of various initiatives targeted for the betterment of children. They further said that since 45% of the total population is children government should give high priority on this issue. Stressing the need on establishment of Child Rights Commission, speakers said that such an institution can increase the political and national attention to children, act as a watch dog and independently monitor children's right, highlight violations of children's rights, monitor standards of service provision, demand accountability of duty bearers, start immediate investigation and enforcement measures on behalf of the affected children, families and communities to get redress and end the culture of impunity for child rights violations and receive complaints from individual children. The UNCRC Committee in its concluding observations also urged the government to take the necessary measures to establish a children's Ombudsman to specifically deal with violations of children's rights. In this connection a law was drafted in 2006 but not enacted. Establishment of a Child Rights Commission is also part of the new National Policy on Children Policy 2011.
The CRGA is a network of 17 child rights organization that has been advocating for these two critical issues to ensure full realization of child rights. A presentation was made on the rationale of establishing 'Separate Child Rights Commission and Division for Children under MoWCA'. Child Rights Governance Assembly (CRGA) with support from the Save the Children in Bangladesh organised its annual assembly today on 19 December at the LGED Auditorium, Dhaka.
-Law Desk.
