1.3m children involved in hazardous jobs: Unicef
Thursday, 4 June 2009
FE Report
Some 1.3 million children in Bangladesh are involved in hazardous jobs and only 50.7 per cent of the children who enroll in school complete all five years of primary education, said a Unicef statement Wednesday quoting a government report.
The report, presented on Wednesday to the international Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, also said: "Two in five children are underweight and only 36 per cent of the population has access to improved sanitation facilities."
It also said country's 7.4 million children were economically active.
The government inter-ministerial delegation led by Rokeya Sultana, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs was due to present the third and fourth periodic report on the implementation of the CRC recommendations on the rights of the children in Bangladesh.
UNICEF supported the drafting of the periodic report and the participation of the government delegation to ensure that the Committee has adequate information on the situation of children in the country.
Bangladesh was among the first countries to sign and ratify the CRC in 1990.
The CRC is a legally binding international instrument and state parties are required to report every five years to the committee on the rights of the child on the measures they have adopted to implement the Convention and to what degree they are fulfilling their obligations.
In the last review of Bangladesh's progress on the CRC in 2003, the Committee had expressed its concern that 'domestic legislation and customary law were not fully compatible with all the principles and provision of the Convention and that laws were frequently not applied, particularly in rural areas.'
Among other issues, the Committee had also recommended the establishment of an independent and effective mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights.
It also recommended to adopt a national refugee legislation and to accede to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 which Bangladesh has not yet ratified. This Convention guarantees that the refugee children enjoy the same rights of the other children in the country.
Bangladesh was due to report that progress had been made on birth registration, the collection of data related to children, eradicating the worst form of child labour, improving the juvenile justice system and addressing violence against children.
Some 1.3 million children in Bangladesh are involved in hazardous jobs and only 50.7 per cent of the children who enroll in school complete all five years of primary education, said a Unicef statement Wednesday quoting a government report.
The report, presented on Wednesday to the international Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, also said: "Two in five children are underweight and only 36 per cent of the population has access to improved sanitation facilities."
It also said country's 7.4 million children were economically active.
The government inter-ministerial delegation led by Rokeya Sultana, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs was due to present the third and fourth periodic report on the implementation of the CRC recommendations on the rights of the children in Bangladesh.
UNICEF supported the drafting of the periodic report and the participation of the government delegation to ensure that the Committee has adequate information on the situation of children in the country.
Bangladesh was among the first countries to sign and ratify the CRC in 1990.
The CRC is a legally binding international instrument and state parties are required to report every five years to the committee on the rights of the child on the measures they have adopted to implement the Convention and to what degree they are fulfilling their obligations.
In the last review of Bangladesh's progress on the CRC in 2003, the Committee had expressed its concern that 'domestic legislation and customary law were not fully compatible with all the principles and provision of the Convention and that laws were frequently not applied, particularly in rural areas.'
Among other issues, the Committee had also recommended the establishment of an independent and effective mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights.
It also recommended to adopt a national refugee legislation and to accede to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 which Bangladesh has not yet ratified. This Convention guarantees that the refugee children enjoy the same rights of the other children in the country.
Bangladesh was due to report that progress had been made on birth registration, the collection of data related to children, eradicating the worst form of child labour, improving the juvenile justice system and addressing violence against children.