LAHORE: Participants of a policy dialogue on Tuesday highlighted the dismal state of human rights in the country and demanded protection for minorities and implementation of labour laws.

Government representatives, civil society members, non-government organisations (NGOs) and representatives from the Ministry of Human Rights and the National Human Rights Commission spoke on the occasion. The dialogue was organised at a local hotel by Democracy Reporting International and Women in Struggle for Empowerment (WISE).

WISE Executive Director Bushra Khaliq said that they had held talks with various human rights organisations and developed a charter of demands that stated that all marginalised communities must be given protection and new policies and plans include all stakeholders.

“The government must accelerate steps for the implementation of all 27 international conventions,” she said.

South Asia Partnership Pakistan Deputy Director Irfan Mufti said the space for democracy was shrinking, but expanding for a select few. Registration for NGOs was being made complex for no reason. He demanded that policies and initiatives be inclusive and stakeholders’ participation ensured.

“There is a systematic censorship on media and civil society,” he added.

Lubna Mansoor from the human rights ministry said they were working day and night, but a lot more needed to be done.

Punjab Human Rights Director Muhammad Yousaf said that the department had made a policy on human rights and would get it approved by the cabinet soon. “We have a policy based on inclusiveness as well as a provincial task force on human rights,” he added.

Peter Jacob of Centre for Social Justice appreciated the role of the Supreme Court in a recent judgement, but said the Tasadduq Hussain Jillani judgement must be properly implemented. He maintained that exploitation in the name of religion must be stopped.

Tahira Habib of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan claimed that rights of the ethnic minorities were not protected in the country, especially due to lack of identity cards.

Transgender persons’ representative Neeli Rana said that the national census had not properly counted their community. She appreciated the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2017 as a welcome step and demanded provision of economic opportunities to the community.

Punjab Labor Director Muhammad Shahid promised to review all lacunae in the labour laws and their implementation. “We are currently working on increasing our own human resource so we will be able to cover more areas that were earlier ignored,” he said. “This year’s labour policy will hopefully be including the legal recognition of informal sector workers such as home-based, brick kiln and agriculture workers.”

He further said that there would be child and brick kiln labour elimination programmes, adding that it was a disgrace that workers’ and children’s rights were not respected and there was little implementation of the relevant laws.

Umme Laila from the HomeNet Pakistan highlighted the need for home-based women workers, saying that they comprised 65 per cent of the total labour force. Khalid Mehmood of Labour Education Foundation highlighted the need for unionisation of labourers and demanded implementation of minimum wage and living wage for workers.

Aurat Foundation Regional Director Mumtaz Mughal said that local workers felt harassed when law enforcement personnel went to their offices and sought information. The Violence Against Women Centre was not able to deliver because of lack of funds, she claimed.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2018