Know your rights: govt publishes four booklets

Rights ministry wants to sensitise people about available facilities

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Human Rights (MOHR) has kicked off a campaign to create awareness among the people at grass-roots level for their education, guidance and easy accessibility to the mechanism developed for implementation of human rights serving departments.

For the purpose the ministry has got published four booklets containing vital information on human rights laws, including punishments for human rights violations, policies and mechanisms.

The main objective of the booklets was to create awareness about the mechanisms created by federal and provincial governments to address human rights violations in the country, official sources said.

"The government is constantly trying to improve and strengthen laws and policies to ensure rights to every citizen according to the Constitution and international commitments. Unfortunately, all negative developments are highlighted but the positive steps are ignored," the sources said.

The first booklet titled ‘Action Plan for Human Rights’ provides details of the action plan approved by the prime minister on February 13, 2016 to further improve human rights situation in the country.

The second booklet `Human Rights Legislation in Pakistan' describes fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution and human rights related major laws enacted so far at federal and provincial levels.

The third one `Human Rights institutions in Pakistan' comprises a directory of human rights institutions in Pakistan containing information on major government organisations and institutions working for the protection and promotion of human rights.

According to the booklet, there are major 54 institutions functioning at federal and provincial levels for human rights. One can find details about the names, objectives, functions, addresses and contact numbers of all institutions in the booklet.

The fourth booklet `Punishments for Human Rights Violations in Pakistan'  elaborates a matrix of major categories of human rights violations against women, children, minorities and persons with disability and punishments under relevant laws.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2018.