ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari on Tuesday said it was the state’s responsibility to protect the rights of every citizen particularly the rights of women, children and minorities.

The minister was addressing a seminar on Living with Dignity: Post Shelter Integration of Women Survivors of Violence organized by Rozan in collaboration with National Commission on the Status of Women.

The purpose of the seminar was to promote evidence-based advocacy dialogue and to share finding from a qualitative research study, titled Against all odds: Post shelter lives of women survivors of violence to fill the gap in knowledge by investigating the post-shelter trajectories of women survivors of violence.

The minister said the government was determined to ensuring the protection of human rights.

She said: “As a nation we need to change our mindset to safeguard human rights especially the rights of women.”

Dr Mazari said the ministry was also going to put more emphasis on securing inheritance rights for women to ensure their economic empowerment. She said that Ministry of Human Rights along with the law ministry had formalised distress and detention fund and it would be available for use by the public.

“We are taking concrete measures not only to implement prevailing laws, but also introducing new legislation besides awareness raising campaigns to change the mindset of the society including motivation to ensure documentation through registration of births and marriages,” she said.

Chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women Khawar Mumtaz welcomed the initiative to fill the knowledge gap about women’s experience of life after leaving shelters that provided temporary succour in times of distress.

The seminar was attended by Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Margaret Adamson, Chairperson Punjab Commission on the Status of Women Hina Jillani.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2019