Sindh govt asks SHRC to create awareness about children, women’s rights

The Sindh government has directed the provincial human rights commission to launch a campaign to spread awareness among the masses about the rights of women and children.

The direction was given by Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah as he met in his office the chairperson of the Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC), Justice (retired) Majida Rizvi, on Thursday.

Rizvi presented to the chief secretary the annual report of the commission for the period 2019-20. The report mentions that the SHRC received a total of 728 complaints of human rights’ violations from across Sindh during 2019-20.

These complaints relate to the instances of honour killings, kidnappings, domestic violence, harassment and forced marriages. Out of these complaints, 195 were from Karachi, 43 from Hyderabad, 39 from Badin, 47 from Dadu, 20 from Ghotki, 14 from Jacobabad, 28 from Jamshoro, seven from Kashmore, 13 from Khairpur, 11 from Larkana, eight from Matiari, 57 from Mirpurkhas, 14 from Naushahro Feroze, 21 from Qambar Shahdadkot,

44 from Tando Mohammad Khan, eight from Shikarpur, 45 from Tharparkar, 19 from Thatta, and 27 from Umerkot.

The SHRC chairperson informed the chief secretary that the commission had been acting on a system of receiving applications from aggrieved public members and also taking cognizance on its own of instances of human rights’ violations in the province.

The commission in this regard seeks the help of the provincial police force and the relevant district administration to ensure timely dispensation of justice to the aggrieved persons. The SHRC has recently launched its office in Sukkur, while it has also launched its website to make people aware about the human rights.

The chief secretary praised the performance of the Commission in enforcing human rights in the province. He said the government would provide utmost assistance to the SHRC in its drive to ensure protection of human rights in the province.