ARY News 12 PM News Bulletin | 7th Dec 2024 | Justice Mansoor Ali Shah's speech - video Dailymotion

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ARY News 12 PM News Bulletin | 7th Dec 2024 | Justice Mansoor Ali Shah's speech

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00:00Justice Mansoor Ali Shah Taqreeb se khitab kar rahe hain.

00:06In our country.

00:07So, children who are sitting here, now I am addressing my judges how to do things for

00:12you.

00:13You see, so you are at the heart of it again.

00:15So that deserves a big clap for you and thank you for being here also.

00:20So thank you to UNICEF, thank you to Valerie Khan also who is actually the silent worker

00:25behind all this and she is not only on the stage but she is the one who has done a lot

00:29of work.

00:30Big clap for her too actually.

00:33So all these people and of course the dynamic team at FGA, how could I not sort of appreciate

00:38them which includes the DG, Fakhar Sahab and Shahzia and the others also who have done

00:43a lot of work behind this child justice.

00:45So child justice means a lot to us and I am sure later on you will see there are some

00:50activities here.

00:51We are trying to set up a center at the FGA for children so that when judges come for

00:56training, they sort of go into that center and get more sensitized towards child rights.

01:02We are also, you know, thinking of other things that I will talk about like child court, court

01:06country, we will talk about that in just a while.

01:09So I just want to share a few things, some of the ideas that I had on this subject.

01:14But let me just start off by saying that children are not only our future, they are our present

01:20also.

01:21So that's very important.

01:22Sometimes we think it's about future, it's not the future, it's right now and I think

01:26we need to take stock of things right now as we speak.

01:30So and I rely on this wonderful, I mean, while preparing this I got to know a number of child

01:36right activists who have written wonderfully well over the years.

01:39So Janusz Korczak, must be Polish, has written wonderfully, he says that children are not

01:45the people of tomorrow, they are people today.

01:49They have a right to be taken seriously.

01:51So that's something.

01:53And also want to quote another saying by Desmond Tutu, who said children are a gift from God.

02:02They are not just tomorrow's citizens, they are citizens today.

02:06So a lot of people are emphasizing the contemporary understanding of children, you see, we all

02:11think that's the future.

02:12No, it's not the future, it's today and we must think of that way.

02:16I want to start off by talking about a wonderful person which I discovered during my research.

02:23This is Eglantaine Jep.

02:27This is, she's born in England in 1876 and was a pioneering social reformer and I would

02:34urge the children and others to read up about her.

02:37And she founded an organization called Save the Children way back in early 18th century,

02:44an organization dedicated to improving the lives of children worldwide.

02:49After witnessing the devastating impact of World War I on children, so that Save the

02:56Children organization and the work she did, she came up with the Declaration of the Rights

03:00of the Child in 1924, which became the foundation for the UNCRC, which was later on the convention

03:09that we talk about the UNCRC, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child.

03:14So she was a pioneering lady, you see, and I would urge everybody to read up about her

03:19because she's written wonderfully well and her iconic quote is, the only international

03:25language in the world is a child's cry, which has become, the quote becomes iconic for its

03:31simple yet profound acknowledgement of children's universal vulnerability and the need for collective

03:37responsibility.

03:39Yet across the globe, millions of children suffer in silence, disregarded, overlooked

03:45and deprived of justice that they deserve.

03:48So UNICEF's profound concept of voice of the child, I'm really actually impressed by the

03:53phraseology of it, voice of the child reminds us that justice is incomplete without listening

03:59to those it serves.

04:01The voice of the child isn't just about hearing children, but about amplifying their voices

04:08and we need to understand that.

04:10We don't really in the courts, frankly, judges sitting here, we don't really listen to children.

04:16In our courts, the child is presented and we ask the parents what to do, what to do.

04:21And as if this is a commodity standing on the side, you agree with this, don't you?

04:26We don't interact with the child.

04:28The child is standing in the court, we talk to the parents, we make a decision about their

04:32life, they also have a right to say something.

04:35So one of the biggest things that is coming out of this convention is that listen to children.

04:40Please, they also have a mind, they also have a thought, they also have feelings, listen to them.

04:46So the first message will be, please listen to the children in the court.

04:50That would be the first lesson for me as a judge.

04:53Next time a child appears in your court, listen to the child, talk to the child, have a conversation

04:59with the child, make him participate, her, participate in the proceedings.

05:15So the Voice of the Child program of the UNICEF is actually designed to ensure that children

05:20are actively involved in matters that affect their lives, promoting their right to be heard

05:26and participate in the decision-making process.

05:29This, to my mind, and this to the world perhaps, is child justice that we want to talk about.

05:36So children are defined by law as who are under the age of majority in this country

05:41or in any country, usually 18 years old.

05:45Child justice refers to a specialized system of laws, policies and practices designed to

05:50address the unique needs and rights of children, ensuring their protection, rehabilitation

05:56and reintegration into the society.

05:59We need to put the children back into the society.

06:02Earlier, Madam Rabia also referred to the fact that if a parrot is stolen, it is in jail.

06:07That's not it.

06:08The children have to go back into the society.

06:10We'll talk about diversion and other things.

06:12Reintegration is critical for children.

06:14I mean, you can't treat them like ordinary adults.

06:17They have to go back into the society.

06:21So when we established the first child court in Lahore, the concept was that the children

06:26should not be disturbed by the formative years of the judicial system.

06:31They should not be involved in the judicial system.

06:33So we made the child court separate, on the outside of the complex, so that the child

06:37can come and do whatever he wants.

06:38Get done with his case so that he gets back to life.

06:41You see, rather than his case is tagged along with all the other cases.

06:45And for a 15-year-old or 20-year-old child, it is not necessary that it is a criminal case.

06:50The child could be a witness in a case.

06:52The child could be just a respondent in that case or a defendant or could also be an accused.

06:56So that was the concept of child courts that we tried to establish.

07:03And we plan to do that.

07:05And just as Jamal is here, who is very actively participating in a number of reforms, that

07:08we need to take child courts in the country, all over the country.

07:12It is not difficult to make it.

07:13It is just a matter of case management that all the cases of children go there.

07:17I'm sure Islamabad High Court could have a look at that also.

07:21So this system emphasizes restorative approach over punitive measures.

07:26That's the critical part.

07:27Aiming to create opportunities for children to leading fulfilling lives.

07:32As Nelson Mandela aptly said, there can be no keener revelation of a society's soul

07:38than the way in which it treats its children.

07:47So like all of us here, these children have human rights.

08:06We need to understand that.

08:08Which includes the right to speak out and express opinions as well as right to equality,

08:14health, education, a clean environment, a safe place to live, and protection from all

08:19kinds of harm.

08:20This is the mandate.

08:22In fact, the approach is that the children should be more dear and more important to

08:27us than ourselves.

08:29That should be the approach of a judge to my mind.

08:32Children, a child walks into your court, you know, you need to get very sensitively alert.

08:37Oh, let me just sort this out first.

08:39You can't make the child sit the whole day and not listen and forget about that.

08:43That case must automatically, that file must speak to you immediately.

08:47That this is the case I must address immediately.

08:49And with compassion and all that that I'm going to talk about in a minute.

08:53So statistics, briefly, they've been mentioned earlier also.

08:56So according to UNICEF, again, there are about 2.4 billion children in the world,

09:01nearly a third of the total human population.

09:04Global challenges include, we come down to Pakistan, but global challenges are children

09:08in conflict zones.

09:10Over 450 million children live in conflict-affected areas where justice is often inaccessible.

09:16And it's very heartening and depressing, actually, to talk about genocide at Gaza and

09:21the figures that are coming out are disturbing.

09:25I move on to child labor and exploitation, another global challenge.

09:29The juvenile justice system is another challenge because incarceration rates remain alarmingly

09:35high and rehabilitation systems are often punitive rather than restorative.

09:40This is a global dilemma.

09:41Digital vulnerabilities is a new thing.

09:44Online exploitation, cyber bullying, and trafficking are emerging threats to child safety.

09:50This is a global threat also.

09:52Coming to Pakistan, as of 2023, there are 107 million people under the age of 18 in

09:59Pakistan.

10:00Out of these, 71 million children are aged 5 to 16.

10:05And it's a unique situation that Pakistan has a young generation than any other country.

10:10I think 60-62% are young people in this country.

10:13So we need to be overly alert as to what we're doing because we need to channelize this energy

10:18into something more fruitful.

10:20Our issues in Pakistan would be child health to start with.

10:24Nearly half of Pakistan's children are deficient in critical vitamins and minerals.

10:29More than one-third of households are food insecure and with 18.3% of households are

10:36affected by severe food insecurity.

10:39One of the eight adolescent girls and one in five adolescent boys is underweight.

10:4456.6% of adolescent girls in Pakistan are anemic.

10:49So this is worrying.

10:50This is worrying.

10:52We don't see this, but when we read about this, this is certainly very disturbing.

10:57The second big area is the child education itself.

11:00An estimated of 36% or 25.3 million of these children are out of school.

11:08I mean, this is a big responsibility.

11:10How could this be possible?

11:12I mean, any adult sitting in this room, you know, 25.3 million children in this country

11:19are out of school.

11:20We need to be doing something about it.

11:23I don't want to quote other figures.

11:25I'll just move on.

11:26Children with special needs, I mean, that doesn't even show.

11:29Nobody even looks at that.

11:31According to the survey of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics taken by Nadra, there are 0.4

11:37million.

11:37That's 0.4 million is about 300,000, 371,000 children.

ARY News 12 PM News Bulletin | 7th Dec 2024 | Justice Mansoor Ali Shah's speech

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