Employment of minor domestic workers should be declared a crime, urges HRCP

Strongly condemning the brutal torture of Islamabad’s 13-year-old maid allegedly at the hands of her employers, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Sunday demanded the government to declare the employment of minor domestic workers a crime.

In a statement, the HRCP said that such cases occur with alarming regularity in the country and should prompt a call to action by civil society.

“It is not only the extent of violence that Rizwana Bibi has borne that is reprehensible. She was employed as a minor in contravention of a Supreme Court judgment prohibiting the employment of domestic workers under 16,” read the statement.

Reacting to the interim bail to the suspect, the HRCP said that the fact that a more robust FIR was not lodged in the first instance and that the accused was granted protective bail in all likelihood on account of her influence, reflects a system that is rigged invariably against the most vulnerable.

The rights commission expressed concerns, saying that society has normalised not only the employment of minors but also their ill-treatment, whether in homes, schools or workplaces.

“If the statistics are anything to go by, children are seen as easy targets, as punching bags and as prey,” said the HRCP.

At the core of the Convention on the Rights of the Child—to which Pakistan is a signatory—is a commitment to protect children against all forms of violence in the public and private spheres, noted the commission.

The HRCP said the state must prevent and respond to all forms of neglect, abuse, exploitation and violence against children.

“If it is not to fail children such as Rizwana—as it has failed numerous other children like her before—the state must also adopt and implement a national strategy to prevent and protect children from violence, and apply judicial systems that pursue the best interests of the child,” read the statement.