Pakistan Passes Its First National Child Abuse Law

Pakistan’s parliament has just passed its very first national law against child abuse, introducing a life imprisonment penalty, according to the country’s human rights minister, for the violent crime.

A child protection organization called Sahil estimates that around 10 cases of child abuse are reported every day in Pakistan. The Zainab Alert Bill passed two years after the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl, Zainab Ansari, and will require police to register a case within a couple of hours of any parent reporting their child missing.

“Finally, we have emerged today successful, getting the Zainab Alert Bill sailed through the National Assembly with a majority of votes,” says Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The new law intends to speed up the process of reported child abuse cases, including establishing a dedicated helpline and a new agency focused on issuing alerts for missing children.