Shirkat Gah and Aurat Foundation organized a press conference on Monday to highlight the concurrence of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with its shadow report “Obstructing Progress”.
The committee was reviewing Pakistan’s fourth country report on eliminating discrimination against women in February 2013. Shirkat Gah stressed that discrimination against women could not be eliminated until Pakistan effectively addressed alarming insecurity and violence resulting from the unchecked growth of aimed Jihadi militant groups. The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was an international human rights treaty acceded to by Pakistan in March 1996 for realisation of the principle of equality between men and women in all spheres of life.
The CEDAW Committee, in its concluding observations, appreciated “the numerous ‘laws and legal provisions aimed at eliminating discrimination against women” in Pakistan, however stressed that much more was needed to be done. Recognising the challenges posed by increased violence and threats by non-state actors and the impact of natural disasters, the Committee emphasised that CEDAW was a binding on all branches of the state apparatus and encouraged legislators to take necessary steps to implement the committee observations.
The CEDAW Committee expressed its concern at the status of implementation of measures for women’s empowerment after devolution, and encouraged the government to ensure implementation at both national and provincial levels. Key areas identified by the committee for immediate attention in Pakistan include impact of internal conflict on women and girls; threats to the safety of human rights defenders; violence against women that is increased by delay in laws on domestic violence and trafficking and a shortage of support for women suffering violence.
The Committee questioned the delay in the restoration of the local government system and asked Pakistan to ensure its restoration with 33 percent reserved seats for women and representation of women from religious minorities. Pakistan was also required to take immediate steps to ensure the effective implementation of laws to address violence against women, ensure disaggregated data collection on all forms of violence and eliminate all parallel legal systems and informal dispute resolution mechanisms which discriminated against women and promote the right to education of women.
