Women empowerment panel demands constitutional rights

Inter-Provincial Ministerial Group reaffirms commitments to elimination of discrimination

ISLAMABAD: The 14th meeting of Inter-Provincial Ministerial Group (IPMG) for Empowerment of Women held on Tuesday reiterated the resolve to ensure guaranteeing equal rights to all its citizens without any discrimination on the basis of caste, colour, sex, or race as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan.

The meeting reaffirmed international commitments of Pakistan, including the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action and SDGs which demonstrate its commitment on women’s empowerment and rights as well as for ensuring full participation of women in all public and private spheres, and living a life free of violence and discrimination.

The participants stressed on recognising the implementation role of Women Development Departments and the overview and guiding and monitoring role of the National and Provincial Commissions on Status of Women and the Ministry of Human Rights as the national machineries for the advancement of women within the Government of Pakistan and institutional catalytic agents for gender equality;

They went on to call for recognising the strategic support from and collaboration with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and its enhanced focus on implementation at national and provincial/regional levels;

They agreed on committing further to the provisions in the Constitution of Pakistan and CEDAW focusing on ensuring women’s voice, visibility and agency in development activities by supporting innovative and experimental activities in line with national and regional priorities.

The gathering highlighted considering the monitoring and reporting responsibilities under national and international commitments of the government and the need for the provincial Women Development Departments and Commissions to coordinate with the federal machinery for women’s empowerment in that regard;

The meeting passed a resolution: “We the ministers, representatives of Ministry of Human Rights, Women Development Departments of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K), National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and Provincial Commissions on the Status of Women (PCSW) Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on this 29th Day of October 2019 hereby agree to mutually cooperate to:

Use the GMIS established in Punjab as a Model and take steps to establish Provincial GMIS systems in all provinces which will be connected for data collection and analysis at the Federal level by the MoHR. Indicators on VAW developed by NCSW can be used for standardisation of related information system.

Establish an online portal with the facility/ability to take input of significant initiatives from all provinces in a standardised format to develop a national database or information repository with an interface for HRIS.

Finalise provincial, regional and state gender equality and women empowerment policy frameworks and implementation strategies with clear timelines and identification of responsible entities, and ensure implementation across government departments. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2019.