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| Table of content |
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| Topic: Violence Against Women |
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Published September 2009. Editor and design Ms Stefanie Andruchowitz, Editorial Advisor Ms Asifa Khanum. The CCHD Newsletter is published four times a year. Authors are alone responsible for the opinions expressed. No part of this newsletter may be published without the written permission of the editor and author. This publication is free of charge and can also be downloaded from the Internet at www.cchd.org.pk. If you would like copies mailed to you please contact CCHD co.
Newsletter 42, Tipu Block, New Garden Town, Lahore or email info@cchd.org.pk. |
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| Introducing Ourselves... |
The Citizens’ Commission for Human Development (CCHD), is an independent nongovernmental organization, founded in 1986 with the mission to work with the civil society for social development. Its primary focus is on advocacy, research and educational initiatives to
promote democratic governance, human rights, peace, and community development in Pakistan.
CCHD’s aims are to bring about an attitude and behavioural change within society.
The thematic foci lies within three main fields: |
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DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE |
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Local Governance, Good Governance, Political Education, Legislative Strengthening and
Women and Politics |
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HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEACE |
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Women’s and Children Rights, Reduction of Violence Against Women and Legal Aid to
Women |
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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT |
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Non Formal Basic Education (Primary Level) and Health |
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We have been active in those sectors for the past 23 years with the involvement of the local bodies
elected representatives and officials, parliamentarians, journalists, radio, TV, research institutions,
think tanks, women groups, bar associations at the provincial and district levels, govt. departments,
media associations and press clubs, platforms like Rotary, Lions Club, NGO's networks,
professional organizations, teachers associations, labor and trade unions, as well as the private
sector. Locally we are mainly active in Punjab.
We want to accent, that gender empowerment is included in all respects, since in Pakistan the
female population is, although decisively affected, debarred from most social and political
decisions. The gained experience not only endows us with the necessary know how to guarantee
high quality of our work, but also engages us to expand and adjust within our projects. Therefore,
CCHD is constantly trying to improve its work, by continuously reflecting if its strategies are
contemporary analogous and conducive. In this intention CCHD decided to issue a quarterly
Newsletter, to inform and update interested persons about innovations, goals and projects of the
organization. Relevant topics will be brought up for discussion, since addressing sensitive themes
are considered as essential part of CCHD's strategy. For further information about CCHD and its
activities, please visit our homepage www.cchd.org.pk. |
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Review CCHD Report:
Status of Violence Against Women in Punjab 2008 |
This first CCHD Newsletter is dedicated to the issue of Violence Against Women. This choice not
only displays one of CCHD's major working areas, but is also relevant as this September, the third
Report on the Status of Violence Against Women in Punjab is scheduled for release. The critical
deficit of useful data on the human rights situation of women in Pakistan gives reason to take
urgent action.
Hence CCHD collected all reported incidents of violent acts specifically against women and girls
from eight major Pakistani newspapers within the time frame of January 2008 to December 2008.
Since the media accumulates its information from diverse sources, such as hospitals and police,
and provides background information to a certain extend, the received data set quotes an useful
overview of reality. In total 2325 women and girls suffered within seven categorized crimes;
Murder, Rape and attempted Rape, Kidnapping, Suicide and attempted Suicide, Burning, Domestic
Violence as well as Physical Torture and Harassment. Many women were victimized manifoldly, by
a combination of the above categories. |
Compared to the data from the former report in
2007, 2 percent less women have been reportedly
victimized in the year 2008. As shown in the
figure, Killing is again the most common crime
with 29 percent of the total victims, followed by
22 percent Kidnappings, 14 percent each Rapes
and Suicides, 12 percent Physical Torture and
Harassment, 5 percent Domestic Violence and 3
percent Burnings. The number of accused is
throughout beyond the number of victims, which
derives from the fact that in many cases groups of
people were involved in the criminal acts. |
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The domestic sphere appears to be the dominant crime area and suspects are in most cases family
members. Keeping in mind, that the estimated number of victims is far higher than denoted, and
the number of registered cases by the police is even lower, the seriousness of this issue becomes
obvious. The received facts give reason to renew and boost all efforts to reduce any circumstances
which support or hide Violence against Women. The complete CCHD report will be soon free to
download on our homepage www.cchd.org.pk. |
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| Access to Justice for Women in Punjab |
In August CCHD started a new project in the District of Vehari under its programme Access to
Justice for Women in Punjab. The main goal is to provide women legal education, aid, advice and
support. Furthermore, the aim is to raise awareness and sensitize the population, politicians and
police with regard to Violence Against Women. During the duration of this project of two years, we
have planned a number of activities to achieve our goals. Amongst them are the publishing of
information folders, booklets and other printed mediums; workshops and networking meetings with
decision makers, police and others; developing a baseline pertaining to crime against women;
developing a TV campaign, establishing a district Legal Watch Network, and many others. |
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800 women will receive legal aid, 800 distressed
women and men will be provided legal advice,
100 police students will be trained, legal
education in the 20 Union Councils regarding
the domestic bill and other relevant legislation
will be provided, to name only a few numbers.
With this set of activities, we attain active
monitoring of violence against women and
children. Knowing, that we have taken on an
extensive task, we engaged a well prepared,
highly motivated and committed team of
experienced Lawyers and regional Social
Workers.
A core element is cooperation with different
stakeholders. By addressing and including
Union Councils, students, other NGOs, lawyers,
crime journalists and other relevant actors, we
want to achieve a sustainable change for the
better. Specifically, rural areas receive special
attention. Since most cases are highly sensitive,
the victims custody is a matter of course. |
| Therefore all cases are treated confidential.
CCHD does not publicize them at the expense
of the victim, but the victims themselves are free
to access the media. |
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Violence Against Women in Pakistan
By Stefanie Andruchowitz |
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With the month of September 2009, CCHD
publishes its third Report on The Status of
Violence Against Women in Punjab. At this
occasion CCHD devotes the column of its first
newsletter to the same topic. It is meant to be
an introduction to the set of problems
summarized within the phrase Violence
Against Women (VAW), the situation in
Pakistan and a reminder of the urgency of the
circumstances and the need for attention and
preventative action.
Definition of Violence Against Women
The definition of VAW is essential for laying
down the guidelines for measuring and policy
making in prevention, elucidation and
sanction. The United Nations General
Assembly presented their Human Rights
oriented definition of VAW in the Declaration
on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
in 1993 and placed male violence on the
international political agenda. Accordingly
VAW subsumes “any act of genderbased
violence that results in, or is likely to result in,
physical, sexual or psychological harm or
suffering to women, including threats of such
acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of
liberty, whether occurring in public or in
private life.” |
A lot of effort has been made by individuals,
national and international organizations as
well as governments since then for directing
broad attention to the problems. The phrase
Violence Against Women became a modern
medium, but due to the diversity and sensitivity of its contents, it is still an
underdealt and concealed problem. The
misbelief, that brutal acts on women are part
of culture or are private affairs solely because
they are domestic in nature, result in a great
lack of prevention and convictions for criminal
acts and therefore solidify sad realities for
multitudinous women.
Pakistan's Theory vs. Reality
The social and legal status of Women in
Pakistan has had to accept many throwbacks.
Certainly, due to its unique historical, cultural
and political composition, Pakistan faces
specific social and political challenges, but
they can not justify the numerous violations
against Human Rights specifically in relation
to Pakistani women. The few data given
reveals an overview of the reality of criminal
acts against women.
Women in Pakistan live in a world structured
around strict religious, family and tribal
customs that essentially force them to live in
submission and overall fear. In a nation where |
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Islamic law dictates traditional family values
and is enmeshed in the legal system,
Pakistan’s government, law and society
discriminate against women and condone
genderbased
violence. (Bettencourt 2000)
Unfortunately, nearly a decade after it was
written, Bettencourt's description remains
relevant till today. Honour killing, child
marriage, rape, kidnapping, spousal abuse,
acid attacks, burnings and many other crimes
against Human Rights are still common in
Pakistan, especially within the household. As
long as the domestic sphere, is considered
private and women are seen as private
property and are kept silent by disparaging
their status, nothing will be changed within the
society and all laws will fail.
In the Constitution of Pakistan the Equality of
Citizens is legally positioned. In concrete, All
citizens are equal before law and are entitled
to equal protection of law. There shall be no
discrimination on the basis of sex alone.
Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State
from making any special provision for the
protection of women and children.
(Constitution of Pakistan Article 25)
Regardless of this fact, a particularly drastic
degradation of women in Pakistan followed
the introduction of the Hudood Ordinance in
1979 by the then President of Pakistan Ziaul
Haq. By implementing an inhumane and
discriminatory legal system, women were
surged into perplexity and shiftlessness and
were exposed to unsanctioned physically and
mentally violations.
In 1996 the Pakistani government ratified the
United Nations Convention on the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
but no actions followed. It took Pakistan's
National Assembly almost 13 years, until
August 2009 to pass a bill on protection
against domestic violence covering all types of
repressive and abusive behaviour against
vulnerable people in domestic relationships. If
the Senate passes the bill, Pakistan will become |
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one of the few countries worldwide, with
a specific legal language pertaining to
domestic violence. This does not solve the
problem of low numbers of reported and
registered cases, but it would be a clear step
into the necessary direction.
Outlook and Vision
Even if the law changes towards women's
rights and protection, there is a long path to
follow. Since social realities and specific
discriminating mindsets always limp behind
official improvements, the implementation
within the population, judiciary and executive
is the next challenge. The Civil Society must
do its share. NonGovernmental
Organizations
can work in awareness raising, education and
support. The United Nations SecretaryGeneral
Ban Kimoon
adequately phrased it:
We must unite. Violence against women cannot
be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in
any circumstance, by any political leader or
by any government. The time to change is now.
Only by standing together and speaking out
can we make a difference.
To guarantee women to live a free life without
fear, violence and oppression, must be the final
goal of all efforts.
References
Bettencourt, Alice (2000) Violence against women in
Pakistan. Litigation Report. Under:
http://www.du.edu/intl/humanrights/violencepkstn.pdf
(3rd of August 2009)
CCHD (2009) Status of Violence Against Women in
Punjab. January 2008 – December 2008.
Constitution of Pakistan, Part II: Fundamental Rights
and Principles of Policy, Article 25
http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/part2.ch1
.html (28th of August 2009)
United Nations (1993) General Assembly's Declaration
on the Elimination of Violence against Women (A/RES/
48/104) |
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| Information |
A Website
Updated regularly, the website contains
publications, recent news and forthcoming
events, as well as details on
organizations working.
An Newsletter
Published four times per year, the
Newsletter is a thematic publication and
summarizes news, events, campaigns and
publications.
The topic of the next issue of the
Newsletter will be NonFormal
Education. To contribute ideas or
thematic texts to the next CCHD
Newsletter, please contact us through the
stated contact details. Please note, that
papers must not include more than 700
words in total, pictures are welcome.
CCHD reserves the right to abbreviate
and redact submissions.
Citizens' Commission for Human
Development 2009
Contact us
Ms. Farrah Parvaiz Saleh
Executive Director
Address: 42, Tipu Block, New Garden
Town, Lahore, Pakistan
Phone No.+92 42 5889666
Fax No. +92 425889444
Mob No. +92 3008461964
Email
info@cchd.org.pk
Homepage www.cchd.org.pk |
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