G-B to formulate first human rights policy

The Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government has announced formulating its first human rights policy to strengthen the protection and promotion of citizens’ rights in the region.

It was decided at the concluding session of a two-day training programme titled “Pakistan’s International Human Rights Reporting Obligations” organised by European Union funded ‘Huqooq-e-Pakistan’ (HeP) programme in collaboration with the G-B government.

HeP project will work with government institutions and civil society organisations (CSOs) to develop the policy which will build upon legislative and policy initiatives already undertaken in G-B and expand the scope and scale of future endeavours.

Caretaker Minister for Environment Maulana Syed Sarwar Shah and Minister for social welfare Sheikh Nasir Hussain Zamani jointly attended the concluding event as chief guests..

The training was aimed at enhancing the technical and operational capacities of the G-B Treaty Implementation Cell and the Social Welfare, Population Welfare, Women Development, Child Rights, Human Rights and Youth Affairs Department.

Around 25 focal persons from all key departments participated in the training.

Minister Zamani appreciated the support of HeP project for strengthening the capacity of rights related G-B institutions.

He expressed hope that the collaboration and support will continue in future. “It is the responsibility of the state to protect the rights of citizens,” he said.

Secretary Social Welfare and Human Rights for G-B Sanaullah appreciating the HeP’s initiative said the training was attended by around 25 relevant officers of the key departments and the knowledge gained would be integrated in the reporting mechanism of G-B government.

Senior Key Expert HeP programme Ali Dayan Hasan said the training on Pakistan’s International Human Rights Reporting Obligations is part of the overall HeP initiative which also includes formulation of first G-B Human Rights Policy and deployment of young experts in Social welfare and Human Rights Department to bridge human-resource gaps in successfully carrying out its mandate besides training of Microsoft Office, communication skills and personal development.

The project will also be working on development of human rights knowledge base and preparing guidelines for cooperation and collaboration between Ministry of Human Rights and G-B human rights department.

He hailed the historic steps being taken by the G-B government for human rights protection and assured the participants of further trainings and other initiatives to support these measures.

The purpose of the EU funded HeP programme is to strengthen the institutional and policy framework at the federal and the provincial level for the promotion and protection of human rights.