Child Protection and Human Rights: The Role of Social Workers in Ensuring Children's Rights in Pakistan

Abstract

Although Pakistan has legal obligation to safeguard children under the constitution and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) there still exists major loopholes in enforcing child protection acts which exposes many children to abuse and exploitation, as well as neglect. The lack of structural factors such as resources, lack of professional training, and poor coordination between the government and non-government agencies hinder the effective implementation of child protection services.

The current research was conducted, to investigate the position of the social worker in advancing and protecting the rights of the children in Pakistan, to determine the major issues and obstacles facing social workers when implementing child protection, to determine the effectiveness of the existing social work interventions in ensuring the implementation of the children rights and to suggest solutions and proposals on how the social work practices can be reinforced to improve child protection and child rights advocacy in Pakistan.

The research was carried out to look at the role of social workers in supporting and defending the rights of children in Pakistan. The qualitative research design is used in the study, which is appropriate to comprehend complicated social phenomena like child protection and human rights.

There is a phenomenal approach that is made to comprehend the experiences of social workers. This method is based on the opinion of participants on their professions, issues, and practices in child protection. The sample is a group of social workers working in the governmental and non-governmental organizations dealing with child protection in Pakistan. Purposive sampling was used to sample participants who had the relevant experience and expertise. The semi-structured interviews were the method used to collect primary data, as it gave the participants a chance to discuss their experiences but within a standardized framework. The interviews examined the work of social workers, their challenges, and coping mechanisms related to the advocacy of children rights. The data was processed through thematic analysis in order to determine the patterns and themes. This was conducted by familiarization with the transcripts, coding of the important statements and clustering the codes into larger themes that are associated with the roles, challenges and strategies.