Child Trafficking in Pakistan and India: A Comparative Legal Analysis under International Law
Abstract
Child trafficking remains a pervasive and largely unresolved human rights violation across South Asia, sustained by entrenched poverty, limited access to education, adverse cultural practices, and weak institutional capacity. International law addresses this harm through a cluster of binding and interpretive instruments most notably the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, the Palermo Protocol supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000), and International Labour Organization Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour each of which obligates states parties to criminalize trafficking, protect child victims, and cooperate across borders. This article undertakes a doctrinal, comparative legal analysis of how Pakistan and India have translated these international obligations into domestic law, and where implementation continues to fall short of treaty commitments. The analysis centers on Pakistan's Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2018 and India's Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, examining statutory design, underlying drivers of trafficking, and judicial responses through comparative case law drawn from both jurisdictions. Relying on statutory interpretation, international treaty analysis, and judicial precedent, the article finds that although both states have ratified core international child-rights and anti-trafficking instruments with the notable exception of Pakistan's non-ratification of the Palermo Protocol itself domestic enforcement in each jurisdiction is undermined by fragmented and overlapping statutory provisions, weak inter-agency coordination, corruption, inadequate victim support services, and persistent socio-cultural stigma. India's more expansive statutory architecture and comparatively active civil society offer instructive, though imperfect, lessons for Pakistan's ongoing legislative reform. The article concludes that meaningful and durable protection for trafficked children in the region requires closer alignment of domestic law with international standards, harmonization of overlapping national legislation, strengthened enforcement capacity, expanded child-centred rehabilitation services, and sustained cross-border regional cooperation between Pakistan and India.
Keywords: Child trafficking, Pakistan, India, international law, Palermo Protocol, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
