PESHAWAR: A one-day seminar on “Child Rights in Universal Periodic Review (UPR)” was held on Wednesday in Peshawar. Prof. Dr Meher Taj Roghani, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Social Welfare, was the chief guest on the occasion.
The seminar was organised by the Dost Welfare Organisation. Speakers on the occasion expressed their views regarding basic child rights in the country.
Addressing the participants of the seminar, Dr Meher Taj Roghani said that breastfeeding was a basic right of kids, the principles of which had been described in detail in the Holy Quran. She said that vaccination was very important for the safety of children from fatal diseases but in Pakistan this ratio was below 60 per cent, which was alarming. She said healthcare institutions in the province were providing free of cost vaccination to children and the general public needed to be aware about the facility as well as benefit of vaccination.
While referring to the initiatives taken by the government for the child rights, the special assistant informed that 10-child protection units were functioning in the province under the umbrella of social welfare department and till then at least 1,500 children were facilitated in these units, while the establishment of additional four units was in pipeline. “We should raise awareness. The Breastfeeding Act would soon be implemented in the province,” she added.
Later, Chairman Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Peshawar University, Prof. Dr Altafullah Khan and others also addressed the seminar.
