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[PESHAWAR, 30 April 2008] - The NWFP government has failed to provide 276 juvenile prisoners their legal rights, Regional Society for the Protection of the Rights of Childern (SPARC) manager Jehanzeb Khan said. The juveniles have been deprived of their rights guaranteed under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) 2000, Khan said. The ordinance calls for the establishment of borstal institutions in each district of the province, where the juvenile inmates would be given education and vocational training for their mental, moral and social development. “The provincial government had allocated funds for setting up borstal institutions in 2002 but no progress has been made in this regard,” Khan said, adding that according to the JJSO 2000 the government was required to establish separate jails for female juveniles to protect them against exploitation and abuse. Khan said the former Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal-led provincial government had promised to establish borstal institutions in major prisons of the province. But work has started on only one such institution, which happens to be in the home district of the former NWFP chief minister. The project has yet to be completed. “We ask the government to ensure the implementation of the laws concerning juvenile prisoners because Pakistan is a signatory to the United Nations conventions on children rights,” Khan said. Khan expressed concern over the non-implementation of the JJSO 2000. He asked the authorities for its enforcement in letter and spirit in order to ensure the protection of the rights of the children both during trials and when in prison. Out of school Around 2.5 million children in NWFP are out of school, Khan said, and that about 50 percent children leave school after their primary education. The figures are even more startling in case of female children, he said. Every year SPARC celebrates Education Week to highlight the importance of education and to urge the government to provide the fundamental right of education to every child. “This is a global movement with the aim of bringing education on top of governments’ agenda,” khan said. SPARC is working in six districts of the NWFP through its Children Rights Committees (CRCs), Khan informed. The theme of the event this year is: “Quality Education to End Exclusion”. Khan said that the SPARC representatives and the CRCs approach the provincial legislators to get their support. Khan further said that the NWFP Education Minister would be approached with a one-point agenda that government schools should be opened in jails. In NWFP 2.6 million children are denied the right to education. The Pakistan government spends less than two percent of the federal budget on education, short of the four percent required by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Pakistan has the lowest budget allocation for education (2.5 percent) in the region and is ranked among the bottom dozen countries of the world. Further information