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Thursday March 28, 2024

Draft of policy on ending violence against women discussed

By Myra Imran
February 07, 2016

Islamabad

Stakeholders discussed draft ‘National Policy on Ending Violence against Women and Girls’ at a national consultation organised by Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) on Thursday.

The policy dialogue, held with the collaboration of National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), AAWAZ and Aurat Foundation, was attended by representatives of federal and provincial governments, parliament, relevant UN agencies and civil society organisations. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Human Rights Barrister Zafar Ullah presided over the consultation. Manager Law and Governance for Aurat Foundation Barrister Benazir Jatoi presented the draft policy, which was followed by extensive discussion on the contents.

The draft policy aims to provide a framework on how to implement the constitutional obligations as well as international conventions and treaties ratified by Pakistan that speak of its commitment to protecting fundamental human rights and to eliminate gender based violence. It also aims at bringing existing laws in line with this policy in order to address the already existing direct and indirect discrimination that exists against women and girls and recognizes the fact that policy made at all levels including national, provincial and local must be coherent and comprehensive. The policy framework consists of four basic components including prevention, response, protection and rehabilitation.

The document reaffirms that violence against women and girls is manifested in layers of multiple faceted, interrelated and reoccurring forms. It can include physical, sexual, psychological, emotional and economic abuse and exploitation, occurring in both private and public spaces and are grounded in elements of situational and socio-cultural factors.   The draft endorses that a zero tolerance policy must be adopted across all systems, sectors, structures and settings, formal and informal, without any loopholes or caveats. It states that any future plan stemming from this policy in relation to violence against women and girls, should be ethical, culturally and gender sensitive, accountable and sustainable.

The policy states that as an ongoing practice, scenario based education is advisable in order to address the anti-women and girls attitudes, customary practices and raise questions in the mind of youth to reject these customs. It states that it is also important that the curriculum leaves room for youth to question concepts such as masculinity, self-entitlement, dominance of one sex or another, the notion of the weaker sex, among other similar concepts. Revising the curriculum to reflect this is imperative.

The policy also talks about establishment of a collaborative and coherent response system between all agencies to ensure the safety of the survivor. This also requires that systems that are weak or non-existent be strengthened or built to cater to respond to incidents of violence against women.

The document says that the police, justice, health care system and any other relevant structures must be is accessible and available to all women, the confidentiality and privacy of victims and survivors shall be maintained besides the safety and wellbeing of women and accompanying children in addition to ensuring the accountability of perpetrators.

The draft policy stipulates that gender based violence centres shall be introduced in all districts of each province.  The centres would include all women staff trained in first aid, police reporting, FIR lodging, medical examination, collection and analysis of forensic and other evidence, psychologist evaluation and post-trauma rehabilitation.  

This policy further stipulates that more crisis centres should be set up either independently or as units within hospitals for women.  Doctors, nurses and psychologist specifically trained to deal with gender-based violence are key to comprehensive care, which requires budgetary allocations and ongoing training for staff. Procedural operating standards are imperative to the effective working for such units. The policy also calls for equipping lady health workers with the training and necessary tools, to identify early signs of VAW.

The policy also asks for a clear systemic and specific protocol, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and referral networks must be established between and across various departments that may come across gender based violence related cases. The principal sectors are the health care system, police and the judicial system as one of them is likely to be the first point of entry into the system by the survivor of violence -- the woman.

The policy states that it is essential that various actions and strategies at various levels address underlying causes of violence against women in order to prevent it before it occurs. The policy calls for the use of mass media and communication channels by the State, at informal and formal levels to disseminate awareness and knowledge to reject gender stereotypes; mass media awareness on anti-women customary practices that cause violence against women and girls and propagate legitimate societal and institutional actions to end these customary practices. 

Speaking on this occasion, Barrister Zafar Ullah said that the government has established a separate ministry for ensuring human rights in Pakistan.  He said that the ministry enjoys huge mandate to develop pro-women laws, undertake reporting on international treaties and address the fragile situation of human rights in the country.  Director General Ministry of Human Rights Hassan Mangi said ministry and civil society organisations were struggling towards the eradication of violence against women from Pakistan but there was a strong need for a comprehensive policy to address violence against women.   Aurat Foundation Chief Operating Officer Naeem A Mirza said that emergence of institutions like MoHR, NCSW and women’s ombudsperson has seen the emergence of important pro-women legislations during the decade.