‘Women must be supported, protected until VAW ends’

National consultation on essential services package for women and girls held

Like in other parts of the world, violence against women impedes the goal of achieving gender equality. And until women and girls are assured the right to live free of violence, they must be provided with the requisite support and protection.

This was stated by Australia’s acting High Commissioner Brek Batley on Thursday during a national consultation on the Essential Services Package (ESP) to ensure the provision of quality services to women and girls who are subject to violence. The consultation had been organised by UN Women Pakistan in collaboration with the Federal Human Rights Ministry.

The ESP is a global, joint programme of the United Nations on essential services for women and girls subject to violence. It aims to provide greater access to a coordinated set of essential and quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls who have experienced gender-based violence. The programme identifies essential services to be provided by the health, social services, police and justice sector stakeholders as well as providing a set of guidelines to improve coordination of essential services. It is being piloted in Pakistan along with several counties. “Pakistan, Australia and many other countries of the world are faced with the issue of violence against women,” said Batley in his remarks, adding that women and girls have the right to live free from all forms of violence.

“Until we achieve this right, we need to support women and girl survivors and provide them with protection and services,” the acting high commissioner said.

Batley hoped that Australia’s contribution and commitment will help the ESP improve the quality of services provided to survivors of violence.

Federal Human Rights Ministry Director-General Hassan Mangi spoke about the importance of localising the guidelines of ESP at the district level with a comprehensive integrated approach to make sure that no women and girl subject to violence is left behind.

“Together we need to strengthen coordination and support mechanisms so that we end exploitation and violence against women and girls.” UN Women Pakistan Deputy Country Representative Aisha Mukhtar said that their priority remains provision of comprehensive guidance on quality essential services through the development of internationally agreed guidelines and tools for enhancing the capacity of service providers.

“We hope that today’s national consultation will bring Pakistan one step closer in fulfilling its national and international commitments to ending violence against women and girls,” she concluded.

Earlier, UN Women Pakistan EVAW Advisor Younas Khalid gave an overview of the ESP joint programme and UN Women’s work with government partners to respond to violence against women. UN Women Pakistan EVAW, Governance and HR Manager Saman Ahsan gave a presentation on the implementation of ESP modules. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2019.