RAWALPINDI: Police officers at a workshop were informed on Friday that efforts to end violence against women would only bear fruit if police personnel developed a thorough understanding of dynamics of domestic violence.

The two-day capacity building workshop, titled Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW), was organised by Individualland Pakistan, a research-based consultancy and advocacy group, in collaboration with UN Women Pakistan.

The participants of the workshop were informed how the police could support survivors of the violence as first responders and play a critical role in ensuring their access to justice.

Moderators of the workshop Mushoud Ali and Sundas Syeda highlighted recent amendments to PPC and some special laws related to violence against women, which were not disseminated to the police department due to lack of such structure in the official system.

The police personnel were informed about types of violence, including structural violence, cultural violence, physical violence and financial violence, and relevant laws covering them.

“Cases of domestic violence are generally considered a low priority area by police as crimes of more serious nature such as terrorism etc consume most of their time,” Mushoud Ali said, adding that “police can collect sufficient evidence in cases of domestic violence and focus on such issues with the help of modern tools”.

It was highlighted that some minor mistakes at the initial stage of the case could lead to failure of provision of justice to victims.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2020