Representatives of civil society organisations have demanded the strict implementation of laws to end the growing gender-based violence against women in the province. Speaking at a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, Qamar Naseem, Programme Coordinator Blue Veins said that the violence against women is on the rise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has drastically affected the society. He called for effective measures to ensure implementation of many ambitious pro-women laws passed by the provincial legislature with great vigour.
According to UN Children's fund, Naseem said 21 percent of Pakistani girls are married by the age of 18, and 3 percent before 15. Child marriage tends to occur in the country's most marginalized and vulnerable communities, and has devastating consequences.
As per global report compiled by Human Rights Watch in this year, Naseem said that there have been 1000 cases of violence against women in Pakistan in the last year which included cases of rape, honor killing, acid attacks, domestic violence anf forced marriage.
He said KP government had established the district commission on status of women, but it was yet to be notified and be fully functional, due to which, he added there is no working mechanism to report GBV cases in KP.
Imran Takkar, child rights activist said that children married at a young age face extreme level of gender based violence, legislators and NHRIs need to reach grass root communities at district level to address this issue head on.
Radesh Singh Tony, minority rights activist stated that, "Pakistan has a record of the most forced marriage in the last year. 1000 cases have been reported of Hindu and Christian girls being forcefully married without their will according to Human Rights Watch Data 2018."
He further said, "Provincial government should have worked at a faster pace on notifying the DCSW's so that all GBV cases could be reported through proper mechanism, without the notification they hold no power to bring anyone to justice and develop a mechanism of accountability which has created drastic hurdles for our society, specially the women and children."
Advocate Sana Ahmad, Blue Veins research officer stated, "Domestic violence is at most high and the situation in KP is getting worse day by day as according to an article published by Express Tribune in February, in the past 2 months, 19 major killings of women have occurred which is a staggering number as these statistics have just been discovered.
Comments
Comments are closed.