Pakistan’s Compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child Alternative Report about the Impact of the Death Penalty on the Rights of Children
Country: Pakistan
Partners: Legal Awareness Watch , World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Issues: Children's Rights, Death Penalty
Mechanism: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Report Type: Shadow/Parallel Report
This report examines the impact of the death penalty on children in Pakistan, focusing both on children facing or risking capital punishment themselves and on children whose parents are sentenced to death or executed.
Part I focuses on children in conflict with the law who are at risk of the death penalty. Pakistan retains the death penalty as a lawful form of punishment and in practice may be imposing the death penalty on individuals who were under 18 at the time of the alleged offense. Weak implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018 (JJSA) results in inadequate safeguards for children in conflict with the law and exposes them to the risk of the death penalty.
Part II focuses on child marriage as a pathway that can place girls and women at an increased risk of being sentenced to death.
Part III focuses on the rights of children whose parents are sentenced to death or executed.
These children face severe and lasting consequences, including psychological trauma, social
stigma, economic hardship, and disruption of education and development. Children who live
with their mothers in prison face harsh conditions, which are even worse on death row. And
after they age out of the program that allows them to stay in prison with their mothers, their
fate is often uncertain. Systemic failures demonstrate that Pakistan does not adequately
integrate the best interests of the child across legal, judicial, and administrative processes.
