By: Advocate Amir Bilal
The first article of the universal declaration of human rights tells us that we all should be treated in the same way. Discrimination is prohibited by the international law and in the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973. It is also stated that we all are equal before the law. It is a responsibility of all to protect our rights and no one can take away our rights. From 1991, every year 1st October is observed as International Day of Older Persons. Last year the theme was “Take a stand against Aging”. Aging may be casual or systematic. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors but it is also used discrimination against young persons. Denial of certain rights i.e. electoral rights. Ignoring their ideas because they are considered “too young” or assumptions on their living style.
Ageism is a practice of discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age. In Pakistan, it is present and affecting the youth at large. The behavior could be a special stroke or equally an outcome of a law based on age. It doesn’t have to be intentional to be dishonest. Discrimination has been with us from the very beginning based on characteristics or another that allows one group to identify another less worthy, less intellectual, less competent and on. We have always found a way to stereotype our fellow humans personally based on age. From the dawn of civilizations, we are looking “the others” as in some way unworthy was an acceptable attitude. It is very recent that we have taken discrimination as a problem, not a solution. Youth is being discriminated, harassed and victimized by the society in Pakistan directly and indirectly.
Youth face direct discrimination in Pakistan in comparison to adults because they have less authority. This is a result of youth dependence on adults and adult unwillingness to give them more controls as they progress the ability to exercise this themselves. youth experience direct discrimination, when they are deliberately and unjustifiably treated less favorably than adults or other youth, would be treated in a similar situation. Indirect discrimination is the result when a law which applies to everyone but has an inadvertent but unfair impact on people in a particular group. For example, youth is considered less important in the governmental institutions and policies, nether you can become a president nor a prime minister in Pakistan due to age restrictions. In Pakistan, youth is more than 65 percent of the whole population it is the second highest percentage in the world. 29 percent of the population is the youth with the age bracket of 18 to 30 Years of age. But when we look into the decision-making procedures there is less than 1 percent youth representation. It tells that how our laws and adults are ignoring the youth of the country which could be a dividend. When we talk about the competences, Pakistani youth is more educated than adults, more vibrant and active, familiar to the technology we have to push down the bracket so the generation gap could be illuminated and youth can play their role into the political development of the country. the youth of Pakistan requests the rights so that they can make their own decisions autonomously in the ways adults are permitted to. We need to low the legal minimum age to contest in every kind of politics. Youth rights have increased over the last century in many countries. Intergenerational equality is the essence of this modern time. Pakistan’s major political parties manifestoed the youth as the backbone of the country and mostly the leaders of political parties start their sermons with the name of youth. Youth exclusion has many dimensions in that age, race, gender, class, and lifestyle all disturb youth life practices inside our society. This intersectionality affects the amount to which individual youth experiences prohibiting. Equally, youth exclusion is context specific. This means that youth are excluded from society in diverse modes differing on their ethnic and spatial locations. A naive alteration between the opportunities and resources provided in one community can create a divide among youth who are included and youth who are excluded from their communities.
As a young lawyer with the age discrimination a lot. In front of the court because I have valid points to make yet no one really seems to care. In the end, you kind of end up writing as if young lawyers are a different species and that you weren’t one, once. In my opinion, young lawyers should be treated equally to adults as long as they don’t take advantage of it. They must have equality before the bar and the bench. most countries are protecting older adults from the age-based discrimination but in Pakistan they are overprotected and causing harm to the young generation. Avoiding or segregating someone on the basis of discrimination will take us nowhere. It will enhance the gap between the generations. The actions were taken by adults to deny or limit the opportunities to people in the basis of age. Ageist beliefs and attitudes effects upon all this. It also occurs on the personal and institutional level.
The Writer is lawyer at high courts and a social activist and can be followed on Twitter via @advamirbilal