UN officials welcome Pakistan’s ratification 

of treaty on sexual exploitation of children

Two senior U.N. officials Friday welcomed Pakistan’s ratification of an international treaty that prohibits the sale of children and bans child prostitution and child pornography, saying the move reflects the country's commitment to uphold children's rights.

Pakistan has become the 144th country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography that makes it mandatory for States to end the sexual exploitation and abuse of children..
“The ratification of this Optional Protocol marks a significant milestone in the efforts to protect children from sexual exploitation in Pakistan. This is also part of a global effort to bring the international community together in the fight against the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography,” said Dan Rohrmann, the Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan, according to a news release issued at UN Headquarters in New York.
Welcoming the ratification, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais, said: “I salute this solemn commitment by Pakistan to criminalize these serious child rights violations, to protect child victims and witnesses and to fight impunity within and across borders.”


“Pakistan was an early leader in the international community’s commitment to defending the rights of children around the world, ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1990,” said Rohrmann.