PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will introduce a strategy soon to guide police department about supporting and helping victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

A press release said that the ‘victims support strategy’ would ensure effective police support for women, children and other vulnerable victims of violence. The home department developed the strategy in partnership with foreign-funded Aitebaar programme to strengthen trust and confidence between the citizens and provincial government departments.

The releases said that a one-day dialogue on collecting viewpoints of civil society and government department officials on a comprehensive strategy to help support the victims of violence was held here on Thursday.

Secretary Home Akhtar Ali Shah said on the occasion that government was aware that there were segments of society who were more vulnerable to violence than others and they required a support mechanism. Concrete steps were needed to protect them, he added.

The dialogue was aimed at collecting opinions of the varied groups and relevant stakeholders to incorporate their input in the strategy before its endorsement at the levels of law enforcement agencies across the province.

Home department devises strategy to guide police about helping victims

The Aitebaar programme works closely with police department in its reforms agenda. The dialogue, arranged to formulate a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-specific implementation plan on victims’ support, discussed all the challenges and ways forward from strategy to implementation.

The participants called for a gender responsive police mechanism which should also have a human resource ability to handle victims of violence. With adequate staffing, positioning and placement of women police officers in the department, police could play an effective role in that regard, they said.

They also stressed the need for specialised trainings regarding gender-based violence cases, investigation and practices for the victim support police officers.

The participants said that multi-agency working was essential in the area of violence against women and children.

The victims support strategy should specify different departments and their role in specific delivery methods as well as mechanisms to ensure cooperation among them. The government should have a strategic coordination role, they added.

The participants said that there was need for formal partnership between different stakeholders including police, social welfare department, child protection commission, provincial commission on the status of women, health department and civil society organisations.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2014