UN Authority Figures

U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) President: Pakistan

"In November 2012, Pakistani parents in a remote village allegedly killed their 15-year-old daughter by pouring acid all over her face and body after they caught her talking to an unknown boy, according to local police and hospital officials. "

Mission of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF): "UNICEF is mandated by the UN General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children. UNICEF mobilizes political will and material resources to help countries, particularly developing countries, ensure a "first call for children" and to build their capacity to form appropriate policies and deliver services for children and their families. UNICEF is committed to ensuring special protection for the most disadvantaged children - victims of war, disasters, extreme poverty, all forms of violence and exploitation and those with disabilities. UNICEF responds in emergencies to protect the rights of children. In everything it does, the most disadvantaged children and the countries in greatest need have priority." (U.N. Children's Fund web-site, "UNICEF's Mission Statement")

Term of office: 2010-2014; reelected

Pakistan's Record on Children:
"Child abuse was widespread. Young girls and boys used as domestic servants were abused, beaten, and made to work long hours by employers, who in some cases were relatives. According to an August 26 article in Dawn, more than 170,000 children lived on the streets. Up to 90 percent were abused sexually on the first night that they slept outside, and 60 percent accused police of sexually abusing them...child marriages occurred. The act sets the legal age of marriage at 18 for men and 16 for women and prescribes punishment and fines, ranging from imprisonment up to a month, 1,000 rupees ($11), or both. In practice the penalties were too low to have any deterrent effect...Many children working in exploitative begging situations at bus terminals and on the side of the road were abused sexually and physically. Karachi and interior Sindh saw an increase in cases of sexual abuse of children in madrassahs." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2011, Pakistan)

In October 2012, Malala Yousufza, a 14-year-old girl who was awarded Pakistan's first National Peace Prize for her online diary reporting on the Taliban's ban on education, was shot and wounded on her way home from school. /victims/voices/?p=2247

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