Strategy being made to ‘improve human rights situation in Sindh’

The Sindh human rights department is chalking out a comprehensive strategy to improve the situation of human rights in the province and a formal announcement in this regard will be made very soon.

Veerji Kolhi, the special assistant to the Sindh chief minister on human rights, said this on Thursday as he was speaking at the opening session of a consultation, ‘Development of Human Rights Indicators in Pakistan’, organised by the human rights department in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at a local hotel.

No excuse would be acceptable for violations of human rights and the provincial government was fully committed to action over all the human rights-related cases, he said. "Some people say that Karo Kari is a cultural issue or an honour issue but we say no justification is acceptable for violation of human rights in even minor issues leave alone a murder in the name of honour," he said emphatically.

He also spoke about growing concerns around religious extremism in the country. “Extremism has affected our part of the world immensely with cases of human rights violations against minorities rising at a rapid speed.”

Sindh Human Rights Secretary Lubna Salahuddin emphasised the need for making progress in the education, health and social protection sectors. She spoke about the collaboration between the UNDP, the federal human rights ministry and the Sindh government for the development of human rights indicators in the province.

She added that the government of Sindh was fully committed to protecting human rights as the province had passed maximum laws for child rights, women rights and minorities rights.

After the 18th amendment, Sindh was the first province to have fully fledged Sindh Human Rights Commission, Sindh Commission on the Status of Women and other similar bodies for the protection of human rights, she remarked.

“We have also gone one step further last week, where the IGP of the province established a human rights cell,” the secretary said.