'Inclusive consultation crucial for human rights plan'

Holding consultation meetings with business enterprises, labour unions and government departments across Pakistan is essential for devising a successful and inclusive national action plan on human rights, highlighted Ministry of Human Rights joint secretary Malik Kamran Azam Khan Rajpar on Friday.

He was speaking on the second day of a two-day consultation workshop, titled 'Developing a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in Pakistan', jointly organised by the Ministry of Human Rights and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Participants of the workshop were familiarised with the process of developing the national action plan on business and human rights and were engaged in a panel discussion with Pakistan Institute of Labour, Education and Research joint director Zulfiqar Shah, Abira Ashfaq, a lecturer at the Institute of Business Administration, and former Sindh Labour Department director Ghulam Nabi Memon.

As Rajpar highlighted the significance of consultation meetings for drafting a national action plan, he said the Ministry of Human Rights had opted for making the process transparent and inclusive, ensuring the involvement of relevant stakeholders from various government departments, civil society and business enterprises, so as to make certain the plan could be implemented effectively across the country.

He informed the participants that the ministry had the project late in 2018 and since then, it had organised consultation sessions in Lahore, Silakot, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Gilgit. He stressed the need for an extensive consultative process, acknowledged by international stakeholders, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights in particular, for developing a successful national action plan.

Also speaking on the occasion, UNDP assistant representative Kaiser Ishaque pointed out that as economies recovered from Covid-19, such consultation sessions gave everyone an opportunity to develop better business practices than before.

He said human rights was an aspect that cut across all sustainable development goals (SDGs) and as Pakistan was one of the first countries to commit to SDGs, the session was relevant in terms of facilitating their achievement as well.

The workshop provided a platform to the stakeholders to share their recommendations and identify priority areas to be incorporated into the national action plan.

According to the Ministry of Human Rights, it is interested in seeking input from each province, and key stakeholders who attended the consultation session will provide recommendations specific to Sindh for the plan.

Earlier last month, the ministry conducted a consultation in Quetta to seek recommendations specific to Balochistan.