UN rights panel welcomes Pakistan's marriage age law, questions bonded labour

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights closed its review of Pakistan's second periodic report under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on Wednesday, welcoming 2025 legislation that sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage for men and women and pressing the Pakistani delegation on bonded labour and flood reconstruction.

Committee expert Michael Windfuhr welcomed the amendment to the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, which raised the minimum marriage age to 18 for both genders, according to Minute Mirror's account of the session. He asked whether the change had reduced the number of child marriages and what was being done to protect children from early marriage.

Another committee expert, Lazhari Bouzid, raised bonded labour in agriculture and the informal sector. He cited the continued exploitation of workers in brick kilns and asked about reports that construction companies and government agencies were buying bricks produced through debt bondage.

The experts also sought details on recovery from the 2022 and 2025 floods: the rehabilitation of displaced families, reconstruction of damaged houses and restoration of affected communities' access to land.

Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik led the Pakistani delegation. He told the committee that Pakistan had introduced legislative, policy and institutional reforms since 2017. Legislation has set 18 as the minimum marriage age for boys and girls in Islamabad, Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh, and criminalised child, early and forced marriages, he said.

On bonded labour, the delegation said the Constitution prohibits slavery and forced labour and that the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 abolished the practice. Punjab has documented more than 210,000 brick kiln workers, district vigilance committees monitor labour conditions in several areas, and labour inspectors identified more than 2,900 victims of forced labour in the previous year, the delegation said.

On flood recovery, officials said the government has set up a national emergency operations centre and a flood protection programme that aims to protect at-risk populations, 8 million acres of agricultural land and 2.2 million housing units. The delegation reported that 600,000 of the 2.1 million houses destroyed in the 2022 floods had been rebuilt, with work continuing on the rest.

Julieta Rossi, a committee expert and task force leader, said in her closing remarks that a gap remained between legislative progress and the actual implementation of rights. She said the committee would include its assessment in its concluding observations and hoped Pakistan would carry out its recommendations in good faith.

Barrister Aqeel Malik said Pakistan was working to turn constitutional guarantees into practical protections and had made considerable progress despite economic and institutional challenges. Asraf Ally Caunhye, the committee's vice chair and acting chair of the dialogue, thanked the delegation for its participation.