Minimum 1 year prison and 100,000 fine appears like a slap on wrist for such a crime.
Bill against child pornography to be tabled in NA, says Khokhar - thenews.com.pk
Bill against child pornography to be tabled in NA, says Khokhar
Finally taking a bold step forward against child pornography, the Federal Ministry for Human Rights (MoHR) plans to table Criminal Law Amendment Act in the National Assembly, which proposes imprisonment not less than one year and fine not less than Rs100,000 for the perpetrators.
The imprisonment can extend to 7 years and the fine to Rs500,000, depending on the extent of offence and will be applied to whoever seduces a child by any means with an intent to involve him in any sexual activity or exposes him to obscene and sexually explicit material, document, a film, video or a computer generated image or attempts to do the mentioned actions.
In an exclusive interview with ‘The News’, Adviser to Prime Minister on Human Rights Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said that the act proposes to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 7 years to 10 years and also includes a clause to protect children from corporal punishment. “This act will also provide punishment for internal trafficking,” he said. The act has been submitted to the Ministry of Interior for review and will be tabled soon after it is cleared by the ministry. The new act will be another feather in the cap of ministry that has been able to approve the long pending bills for autonomous National Commission on Women, National Commission on the Human Rights (NCHR) Bill and Women in Distress and Relief Fund Bill. The reasons for inactive Women in Distress and Relief Fund Bill for past 16 years were interesting. “The fund used to be managed by the Law Ministry and required the approval of Minister of Law, Secretary and Joint Secretary of the Law Ministry for release of funds. The only technical hurdle was to change the words Minister of Law, Secretary of Law and Joint Secretary of Law to Minister of Human Rights, Secretary of Human Rights and Joint Secretary of Human Rights,” pointed out the advisor.
He said that the fund of Rs55 million will become active in almost one month from now. In addition to that, the ministry has been able to remove the hurdles in the way of the implementation of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention against Torture (CAT) by striking down four out of nine reservations of ICCPR in addition to withdrawing seven out of ten reservations of CAT. “Those reservations were even against the constitution of Pakistan,” said the advisor.
Talking about the recently approved National Commission on the Human Rights (NCHR) Bill, he said that in pursuance of UN General Assembly Resolution passed in 1993, The UN member states are under obligation to establish independent human rights institutions, which is considered as a singular criterion to judge a state commitment towards the protection and commitment of human rights. He said that President Asif Ali Zardari will sign the bill in few days, which will then formally become the part of the constitution. He agreed that the commission will need funds in this budget to start smooth functioning in the next financial year. “Once the bill is signed by the President, budget for the seed money will be submitted to the Ministry of Finance. After that, the Commission will be independent to generate its own funds.”
About the effectiveness of Commission, he said that it will depend on its leadership. “Strong chairperson with extensive experience and national and international recognition will be more affective in protecting human rights of common people in Pakistan,” he said.
Khokhar said that the short listed names for the chairperson of National Commission on Women (NCW) have been submitted to the prime minister who is also the Minister in-charge of Ministry of Human Rights. He will first consult with the leader of the opposition and the further short listed names will be given to the Parliamentary committee. “The final decision for the nomination of chairpersons of NCW and NCHR will be taken by the parliamentary committee,” he said adding that it would take another two weeks to decide the chairperson for NCW. About Universal Periodic Reports (UPR), he said that the ministry has set the target to complete UPR draft report by end of May. The report will be presented before United Nations committee in October.
“We have completed the provincial consultations and the process of compiling the report has been started.”
The UPR is a review of the human rights records of United Nation Member state once every four year. Advisor said that ministry receives hundreds of applications from general public every day in Islamabad and in its Regional Directorate. “Most of these applications relate to police matters and financial help.” He said that the ministry staff sends notices to the relevant ministry. “It is difficult for general public to understand the mandate of MoHR. Many applications we receive have no relevance with our mandate but we make sure to take all possible action on every request.”
He said that right now, the ministry has a revolving fund of Rs3 million only to provide financial help. “We issue small amounts from this fund only to really deserving cases,” he said. The Advisor stressed for bureaucratic reforms to improve the performance of ministries. “Usually, the ministry staff is not well informed and trained in their respective field and that is why they fail to give any results.” He said that human rights is a sensitive subject and requires qualified people to deal with it according to national and international standards. It was interesting to note that the Advisor is the only lawyer in the ministry. “The ministry needs a team of qualified lawyers and trained staff to do justice with its mandate in letter and spirit,” he said.
Or at least it’s a topic that is of little interest to members here in this forum. And yes, it’s too small a punishment, both minimum and maximum. The sentence and fine should be increased many-a-folds.