PESHAWAR: Panelists at a project launching event have identified technical gaps and lacunas in implementation of laws on women rights and stressed the need for creating awareness among policymakers of challenges confronting women in accessing justice.

A number of pro-women legislations have been enacted, but the conviction rate remains low and still women cannot access justice, said Shabeena Ayaz, regional director of Aurat Foundation, while speaking at the launching ceremony of the project at Peshawar Press Club on Thursday.

The project titled ‘policy advocacy and research to strengthen implementation of pro-women legislation and gender-based violence response services in KP’ is being implemented by Blue Veins organisation with the assistance of foreign donors in major cities of the province.

Qamar Naseem, program coordinator of Blue Veins, Tahira Kaleem, the project manager, Ayesha Alam from Gender Studies Department of the University of Peshawar, Khushood Amjad, a legal expert on women rights, Abdul Qadir, an officer from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women, Niaz Khan from police department were the key speakers at the event.

Ms Ayaz said that women didn’t get real benefits from initiatives of economic development. She said that women were much vulnerable in disaster situation and stressed the need for proper mechanisms to address the challenges and issues being faced by women in accessing justice. She called for strict implementation of laws to prevent the cases of violence against women.

She emphasised that the government should take proactive steps for resolution of women issues. She called for increasing wages of women and lifting ban on formation of women’s unions in the country. She urged the women parliamentarians to play their active role to give due rights to women.

She also demanded an independent and autonomous status for all commissions of women so they could freely work for their rights.

Ayesha Alam pointed out the policy gaps and lacunas in implementation of laws on women rights and stressed the need for collective efforts to address the challenges confronting women.

Khushood Amjad said that laws were the major tool in promoting and protecting women’s rights, but the judgments of courts in most of women’s cases were not implemented to the letter.

Abdul Qadir said that the domestic violence bill would be soon tabled in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, while acid throwing and burning bill would be enacted shortly. He said that the commission was working on harassment law in consultation with the relevant stakeholders.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2017