Project for women’s access to justice launched in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A non-governmental organisation, Blue Veins, and Peshawar District Bar Association have jointly launched a project titled “Access to Justice for Underprivileged Women Seeking Justice, Information and Resources.’

The project will help sensitise lawyers in gender friendly legal practices and encourage them to take pro-bono cases and consolidate a database of legal experts.

The initiative will also facilitate information dissemination through establishing two facilitation kiosks for women seeking legal assistance in the district courts at Peshawar. The Blue Veins has also initiated a project “Strengthening District Bar Associations and Setting Up Facilitation Kiosks in District Courts” in collaboration with Peshawar Bar Associations under Gender Equity Programme of Aurat Foundation, supported by the USAID.

Peshawar District Bar Association president Ismail Khalil told The News that through the project, the bar association with better resources and enhanced capacity on gender friendly court/legal procedures would increase access to justice for underprivileged women seeking justice and enable women to access information, resources, and justice.

Qamar Naseem, programme coordinator Blue Veins, said that removing obstacles to justice for gender-based violence was need of the hour. Tahira Kaleem, the project manager Blue Veins, said that challenges faced by the women of Pakistan in accessing the criminal justice sector and justice itself were immense.