AIHRC protecting children’s rights: official

KABUL’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is working closely with UNICEF and other organisations for the protection of children’s rights, an official said on Monday.

“We have managed to bring positive change to legislation on child trafficking, juvenile justice and the age of criminal responsibility,” AIHRC member Dr. Ahmad Zia Langari told a ceremony in Amman.

He was a guest speaker at the ceremony for the launch of a new report by the UNICEF Office of Research, Championing Children’s Rights: A global study of independent human rights institutions for children.

The study is globally the first comprehensive review of independent human rights institutions for children. It says the global trend has seen a mushrooming of organisations that seek to ensure the voices of young people are heard, their best interests are represented and their complaints addressed.

More than 200 such bodies have been established in over 70 countries in the last two decades, including the AIHRC, which was established as an independent constitutionally-mandated body in 2004.

Peter Crowley, UNICEF’s Afghanistan representative, hailed the work of the AIHRC’s Child Rights Unit over the past few years as crucial to joint efforts to ensure that child rights were respected.

“Having local, constitutionally mandated, advocates for children’s rights who are able to access public and private spheres helps us all to better understand the situation of children in the country…” Crowley added.

He referred to the killing of previous Child Rights Commissioner Hamida Barmaki, her husband and their four children in a bomb attack in Kabul in January 2011. The post has since been vacant. “It is high time that a new appointment be made to this key function.”

pr/mud

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