Every day, millions of children face violence, exploitation, and neglect, often in countries that have already pledged to protect them. Three decades after the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the world still has not adequately funded or prioritised the protection of its youngest citizens.
The CRC is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, yet its implementation remains constrained by resource limitations and inconsistent political prioritisation. States have formally committed to protecting children from all forms of violence, and the Sustainable Development Goals reinforce that obligation. But in practice, child protection continues to receive some of the lowest levels of investment within national and international human rights systems.
When global leaders gathered in Bogotá in November 2024 for the first-ever Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, many hoped it would mark a turning point. Representatives from 119 countries, including 63 ministers, pledged to strengthen laws, expand prevention systems, and invest in safer childhoods. A year later, however, the gap between speeches and resourcing remains unchanged.
Despite near-universal recognition of children’s rights, public debate and donor priorities still centre predominantly on adult-focused agendas — political freedoms, governance crises, and economic stabilisation are all important in their own right, yet too often prioritised ahead of child protection. Meanwhile, one billion children, including adolescent girls, experience some form of violence, abuse, or exploitation each year, yet less than one per cent of official development assistance is allocated to addressing it. According to UNICEF estimates from Hidden in Plain Sight: A Statistical Analysis of Violence Against Children (2020), an estimated 90 million children alive today have experienced sexual violence globally, a stark reminder of what weak protection systems and under-resourced services mean in practice.
Global funding uncertainty and shifting aid priorities have also constrained civil society and UN-led mechanisms that rely on predictable resources. As financing is redirected towards humanitarian emergencies and geopolitical conflicts, child-protection programmes are often among the first to face reductions. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the treaty body responsible for monitoring global implementation of the CRC, was unable to convene its 100th session in September 2025 due to funding shortfalls. When the world’s primary oversight forum for children’s rights cannot meet for lack of resources, it exposes the fragility of the broader international protection architecture.
Child protection is not charity; it is justice. A child forced into labour or domestic servitude loses dignity, safety, and the right to a childhood
Bogotá reaffirmed that progress against violence is possible but only when political commitments are matched with sustained fiscal allocation. Declarations without investment remain symbolic. In many countries, including Pakistan, bilateral and multilateral actors still treat child protection as a cross-cutting theme rather than a governance priority in its own right. Programmes frequently reference “child rights” within education, social protection, or gender portfolios, yet few commit dedicated resources to strengthening protection systems or supporting survivors. Without measurable and sustained financing, the Bogotá commitments risk remaining aspirational rather than structural.
Pakistan’s experience reflects this wider implementation gap. The country has enacted several important laws and policies, including the Juvenile Justice System Act (2018), the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, provincial Restriction on Employment of Children laws, and related provincial child-protection legislation. Punjab has recently approved a Provincial Child Protection Policy, and other provinces are developing similar frameworks. But laws, policies, strategies, and frameworks require functional implementation arrangements supported by adequate financing, institutional capacity, and sustained political commitment. In practice, these systems remain weak and chronically under-resourced.
Millions of children continue to work in hazardous environments, while cases of child domestic labour and sexual abuse are reported with alarming frequency. Provincial child-protection bodies operate on constrained budgets, face persistent staff shortages, and lack both robust monitoring arrangements and the legal backing required to run effective referral systems.
A government delegation from Pakistan, including the heads of the National Commission on the Rights of the Child and the Child Protection & Welfare Bureau of Punjab, participated in the Bogotá Conference, signalling a willingness to remain engaged in the global agenda to end violence against children. Yet the broader national response remains constrained by limited budgets, fragmented coordination, and donor-driven shifts in funding priorities.
At the same time, many international child-rights organisations operating in Pakistan do not prioritise child-protection-focused programming, including policy and governance engagement and continue to treat it largely as a cross-cutting concern. This reinforces the perception that child protection is a secondary concern rather than a core human rights obligation. Local non-governmental organisations face similar constraints, not due to a lack of commitment, but because few funding opportunities support prevention, survivor assistance, or community-based protection systems. When priorities are shaped externally, and child protection remains low on the agenda, the resulting inaction at the grassroots is not accidental; the funding system itself produces it.
Child protection is not charity; it is justice. A child forced into labour or domestic servitude loses dignity, safety, and the right to a childhood. A child subjected to sexual exploitation or early marriage carries trauma into adulthood. Ending this cycle requires governments and donors alike to recognise child protection as a stand-alone development and governance priority; ensure predictable financing for protection and prevention systems; integrate child-protection indicators into human rights and Sustainable Development Goal monitoring; and support the meaningful participation of children and young people in policy processes that affect them.
Three decades after the CRC and a year after Bogotá, the distance between commitments and lived reality remains wide. And when even the UN’s monitoring body cannot meet because funding has dried up, it is little surprise that national systems continue to struggle. It is time for governments, international organisations, and bilateral donors in Pakistan and beyond to keep ending violence against children at the centre of their funding and policy priorities, and to demonstrate, in budgets as well as declarations, that children are not an afterthought in the human rights agenda.