Malaysia will join two optional protocols of the Convention on Rights of the Child introduced by United Nations (UN), said
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Jalil.
She said the protocols approved at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday cover the sale, prostitution of children and child pornography and to protect children from being involved in armed conflicts.
Malaysia’s participation in the two protocols was to contain problems that often affect children in the country, especially abuse and trafficking in children for sexual exploitation.
“The Cabinet agreed that Malaysia join the two optional protocols in addition to protecting children’s rights,” she said at a press conference after launching State of the World’s Children Report 2011, yesterday.
The ministry will plan several programmes to educate and raise awareness to guardians of youths and teenagers on issues with cooperation of the Home, Health and Education Ministry.
“The government is serious in planning strategies to curb this problem. Children have been know to spread their naked pictures on the internet without knowing the danger.”
Earlier, Shahrizat who participated in a panel talk with six teenagers about their hopes and dreams discussed opportunities provided by the government.
Also in the panel was Unicef Children’s Fund representative Hans Olsen. She said teenagers are the country’s important asset and must be approached and understood and their ideas used in implementing policies.
“They are too old to be treated like a child and yet young to be treated like an adult. At this young age, they can assess the mood to be more accountable to self, family and country,” she said at the one hour talk.
Teenager Alayna Rani Sreenivas said “I feel more responsible for all my action. It is our right to participate towards a better country and world.
“There are 1.2bil youths in the world with so many ideas that should not be ignored,” she added.
– Bernama
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