Women working to defend human rights are national asset

Speakers at a seminar on Friday said that women working to defend human rights in Pakistan should be honoured and considered a national asset.

They were speaking at a day-long consultation to mark the International Day of Women Defenders. The consultation was organised by Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (PODA) to mark the International Day of Women Defenders that falls on November 29 annually. Around 25 women from rural areas of Chakwal, Jhelum, Mianwali, Rawalpindi and Islamabad participated in the consultation.

The speakers urged them to inform their communities about the need to support women defenders and join hands to end violence against women and girls in Pakistan. “Malala Yousufzai is a defender of girls’ right to education in Pakistan so we name this years’ women defenders day to Malala,” said Director PODA Sameena Nazir.

The women participants work in various villages to provide income generation skills along with legal literacy to other rural women and their communities. “It is important for us to learn about our legal rights as well as income generation skills,” said Rahila Emmanuel, the training coordinator.

The day-long consultation provided useful information to the training participants by explaining the history of UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the UN special Rapporteur, who reports to the UN Human Rights Council annually. Pakistani human rights leader Hina Jillani was the first to head this important mission for the UN.

PODA staff also informed the participants about the 16 Days Campaign to End Gender Based Violence and this year’s theme ‘Safety of women at home and at workplace’. The participants shared their activities of 16 days awareness campaigns. The rural women participants made a list of things that women and girls can do to be safe at home and at workplace. They also highlighted the need to educate factory owners in rural areas to provide separate bathroom for women workers. PODA staff encouraged the women to use the new laws passed in Pakistan that provide protection to women and girls in cases of sexual harassment and forced marriages.

A woman participant from Mianwali said Malala’s courage has inspired all of them to do their work more diligently. “If we were afraid earlier, we are not anymore,” she added.

Another participant demanded that Pakistani parliament should urgently pass a law to criminalise domestic violence in Pakistan to protect women from violence at home.

The United Nations’ ‘Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’, commonly referred to as ‘The Declaration on human rights defenders’ obligates all governments to ensure the safety of human rights defenders including women defenders journalists, lawyers, NGO workers, women’s rights leaders, children rights workers, teachers and any other defender who promotes universal human rights standards defined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

The consultation organised by PODA ended with a plan of action prepared by rural women participants on how to share the information with other women and to mobilise their communities, local opinion makers, media and other stakeholders to work for ending violence against women. PODA will assist the women to amplify the learning in more villages as part of its work to build the capacity of rural women. PODA is working with a number of partners including The Asia Foundation, FGHR, GFC, Plan-Pakistan, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and district level department of Social Welfare and department of Education to provide livelihoods skills education and legal literacy to rural women and youth in various parts of Pakistan.

(2012-12-2/thenews)