Islamabad: Civil society activists urged the government to recognise the important role of women human rights defenders and provide them with a secure and equal environment to carry out their work.
The issue was discussed at large at a conference titled ‘Opening up spaces for women human rights defenders’ organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Wednesday to commemorate International Women’s Day.
Among others, eminent women rights defenders including Nasreen Azhar, Kishwar Naheed, Marvi Sirmed, Fauzia Saeed, Mangla Sharma, Tahira Abdullah, Farieha Aziz, Sheema Kermani, I. A. Rehman, and Harris Khalique spoke on the occasion.
The panellists expressed concern over the increase in intolerance and use of threatening tactics against women rights defenders. They stressed the need to train young women activists on ways to manage such threats targeting their character, sect, cast and family in most of the cases.
A resolution adopted by the participants at the conference urged the government and the overall society to recognise that human rights defenders include anyone working for the promotion and protection of human rights such as professional as well as non-professional human rights workers, volunteers, journalists, lawyers, academics, cultural activists and anyone else carrying out, even on an occasional basis, human rights work.
The declaration also called for acknowledging the valuable work of human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, in promoting civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development. The statement expressed concern that people engaged in promoting and defending human rights, including women human rights defenders, frequently face threats and harassment and suffer insecurity as a result of those activities.
The declaration highlights the fact that women human rights defenders are at risk of and suffer from violations and abuses as any human rights defender, but in addition, can also experience gender-based violence; rape and other forms of sexual violence; harassment, verbal abuse and attacks on reputation, online and offline, by state actors, including law enforcement personnel and security forces, and state actors, such as those related to family, community and outlawed forums like ‘jirgas’ and ‘panchayats’.
The declaration also noted with concern that impunity for violations and abuses against women human rights defenders persist owing to factors including a lack of reporting, documentation, investigation, access to justice, social barriers and constraints with regard to addressing gender-based violence, and a lack of recognition of the legitimate role of women human rights defenders, all of which entrench or institutionalise gender discrimination,
It underlined the fact that information-technology-related violations, abuses, discrimination and violence against women, including women human rights defenders, such as online harassment, cyber-stalking, violation of privacy, censorship and the hacking of e-mail accounts, mobile phones and other electronic devices, with a view to discrediting them and/or inciting other violations and abuses against them, are a growing concern.
The statement stressed the fact that respect and support for the activities of human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, is essential to the overall enjoyment of human rights:
The HRCP called on the government to publicly acknowledge the important and legitimate role of human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders in the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy, the rule of law and development, including by publicly condemning violence and discrimination against them and ensure that human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, can perform their important role in the context of peaceful protests, and ensure that no one is subject to excessive or indiscriminate use of force, arbitrary arrest or detention, torture or ill treatment, enforced disappearance, abuse of criminal and civil proceedings, or threats of such acts.
The commission urged the government to exercise due diligence in preventing violations and abuses against human rights defenders, including through practical steps to prevent stigmatization, threats, harassment and violence against women human rights defenders and in combating impunity by ensuring that those responsible for violations and abuses committed by state and non-state actors, including online, are promptly brought to justice through impartial investigations and prosecutions
It demanded strengthening and implementation of legal, policy and other measures to promote gender equality, promotion of women’s autonomy and equal participation in all spheres and demanded the government to take all measures for changing Pakistan’s hostile attitude towards human rights defenders on international human rights forums, where Pakistan has a sorry record of either voting against or watering down resolutions that seek to protect human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders.
It also demanded the public institutions to take meaningful measures to change social and cultural patterns that are based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women, thereby addressing harmful attitudes, customs, practices and gender stereotypes that underlie and perpetuate violence against women, including women human rights defenders. The declaration also called for provision of access to comprehensive support services for those women human rights defenders who experience violence, including shelters, psychosocial services, counselling, medical care and legal and social services.
