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| April 29, 2003 | Tuesday | Safar 26, 1424 |
Steps urged to improve HR record
ISLAMABAD, April 28: Pakistan will have to go a long way to improve its poor human rights record and achieve a respectable position among the comity of nations.
This was the outcome of the first day of a two-day workshop on human rights, here on Monday.
The programme has been organized by the Mass Awareness and Education Project (MAEP) of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights under the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the Embassy of Switzerland to share experiences with NGOs working on human rights issues and the media.
The ever-rising violation of the fundamental human rights which are enunciated in Islam, declared in the Constitution of Pakistan, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women came under discussion.
The positive outcome of the inclusion of human rights as a subject in educational institutions was also brought into focus.
The participants also highlighted gross violations of human rights in jails as well as the slow and tiresome process of getting justice from judicial system. They also criticized sexual abuses committed against children and women in jails as well as the provision of drugs to jail inmates at the behest of jail staff.
Tracey Wagner-Rizvi, national office coordinator of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) criticized the government for dilly-dallying the implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 in letter and spirit. She deplored the awarding of death sentences to two juveniles by a court in Swat as well as the alarming increase in the number of child beggars.
The participants also criticized the weak role played by the National Commission for Child Welfare in safeguarding the rights of the children in jails as well as in courts.
Shahnaz Bukhari, chairperson of the Progressive Women’s Association, and Sadia Malik, the representative of Sahil, an NGO, deplored absence of any burn-care centre in Rawalpindi and Islamabad despite the fact that cases of masterminded burning of women were on the rise.
Ms Bukhari said there were many philanthropists who could donate for the construction of the building of the proposed burn centre but it was the government which was not providing a plot of land for the purpose.
She said condition at the so-called burn ward at the Rawalpindi General Hospital was pathetic and that there was no female staff for dressing of women burnt victims at Pims.
The speakers asked the authorities as to why the word “sexual abuse” could not be mentioned on the state-owned electronic media and why only talk-shows were telecasted on human rights issues.
UN goodwill ambassador Faryal Gauhar also criticized the feudal and bureaucratic system of the country as well as the unprecedented human rights violations by US forces in Iraq. She lamented the poor facilities provided to teachers by the government.
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