First step: ‘Ministry working on child labour, women laws’

Ministry of Human Rights DG says draft policy to be sent for approval.

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Human Rights is working on devising a law to address child labour in the Islamabad Capital Territory, Ministry of Human Rights DG Hassan Mangi said on Thursday.

“We are also working on to finally fine tune the policy draft for home-based women workers and adopt it for implementation. Laws Reforms Committee in the Senate is also reviewing the law to end violence against women and girls workers”, he said.

Speaking at a show and tell convention organised by Aurat Foundation, Mangi stressed that the ministry is proactively working on fine-tuning of various women and children friendly laws and would be sent to parliament soon.

“The draft policy on violence against women, which was recently developed in collaboration with Aurat Foundation, would soon be sent for approval,” he said adding that the ministry had successfully introduced some legal amendments, which were signed off on by the president.

National Police Bureau Deputy Director Mahreen Maqsood appreciated the reporting of violence against women by the Gender Crime Cell and National Police Bureau.

“The National Police Bureau acts as a think tank for the Ministry of Interior on collecting and analysing the data on cases of violence against women,” she said.

Ministry of Health Director General Shafqat Javaid said that violence against women was a public health issue.

“We need to see if the health policy also addresses violence against other sections of society such as the transgender community,” he said
adding that there were a lot of gaps in the medico-legal services in addressing the gender-based violence, and such gaps should be addressed.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2016.