37,618 calls received on helpline, related to human rights issues, Senate told

ISLAMABAD, Feb 11 (APP):The helpline 1099 established by Ministry of Human Rights received 37,618 calls out of 866,010 related to human rights issues in last three years, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati told Senate on Tuesday.

Responding to a question of Muhammad Talha Mehmood, he said the helpline, primarily works to provide legal advice and referral services. It is necessary that the complaints received on helpline were genuine.

Giving year-wise details of the 37,618 cases registered in last three years included 4,571 cases in 2017, 22,710 in 2018, and 10,337 cases in 2019.

He said the helpline, after thorough examining, provided legal advice in 6,888 cases. Some 29,822 cases were referred to relevant authorities for necessary action and 908 cases of visitors/ applications were provided legal advice.

The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) received 3,713 human rights violations cases and took 568 suo moto notices in the last three years, he added.

Swati said Ministry of Human Rights in collaboration with UNICEF launched National Child Labour Survey on March 25, 2019 and it would be completed in 2020.

He said Ministry of Human Rights has constituted and notified 12 Child Protection Committees at ICT level comprising of local teachers, doctors, religious and local political leaders, psychologists, house wives, philanthropists, businessmen, youth representatives and social workers, etc.

Swati said Ministry of Human Rights has conducted two situational analysis studies on “out of school children” in selected union councils and kachi Abadies of Islamabad.

These studies identified child labourers including domestic workers. The findings and recommendations of the studies were shared with Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training and National Commission for Human Development for addressing the issue effectively, he added.