UN Women, Swedish embassy actions to end violence against women
Zubair Qureshi
The government of Gilgit Baltistan (GB) is taking steps to mainstream women and girls in socio economic and political life so they can do not remain silent when they face any type of violence.
Khalid Khurshid Khan, Chief minister of Gilgit Baltistan said this while addressing as Chief Guest an Award Ceremony titled, “2021 in Retrospective Celebrating Actions to End Violence Against Women.” The event was jointly organized by UN Women and the Embassy of Sweden on Tuesday at the residence of the Swedish ambassador. The award-giving ceremony was in connection with 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence Campaign.
The aim of the ceremony was to acknowledge the actions taken on pledges made during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign of 2021.
KKK while commending the Swedish embassy and the UN women said the event would help end discrimination against women and since his province was in the formative phase (he is the third chief minister) his government was keen to learn and implement laws to end harassment against women.
Chairman Senate’s Standing Committee on HR Sen Walid Iqbal briefed the participants about the bill passed earlier in January this year against harassment of women at workplace.
Last year, the UN Women Pakistan encouraged stakeholders to make commitments on ending violence against women, and several pledges were received to bridge funding gaps, show political will for calling for an end to violence and ensure essential services for survivors of violence. While speaking on the occasion, the UN Women Country Representative Sharmeela Rassool narrated the story of a teenage girl who was sexually abused and murdered by her employee and said, “Too many victims of femicide still go uncounted. There is a need of concrete action to strengthen data collection on femicides. That will assist in informing policies and programmes aimed to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls.”
Henrik Persson, Ambassador of Sweden, welcomed the guests “We will never be able to prevent violence against women and girls without engaging men. We need to engage more men who are willing to publicly speak and act to oppose violence against women and girls; and create a ripple effect. Let’s push forward together”
Every year in Pakistan, civil society and women’s rights organizations, the UN system, government partners, development partners, universities, private sector, and individuals show solidarity, commitments, and actions during the 16 Days to call for preventing and ending violence against women. Through the joint efforts of all stakeholders, aspires to bring about a safer, more just and violence-free world for all women and girls.
As a part of the event, a panel discussion was also conducted with corporate sector representatives from Ericsson, Atlas Copco, Jazz and Foodpanda on the theme of creating harassment-free workplaces for all.
The global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign started on November 25th until December 10th, 2022, under the theme, “Unite! activism to end violence against women & girls!”
A number of officials and representatives from the South Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan were among the recipients of the award including Capt (R) Saqib Zafar, Nausheen Malik, Nida Azhar, Abu Bakr Nauman, Kamran Adil, Shehla Qureshi, Azmat Baloch, Syed Sikandar Shah, Sabra Islam and Kalpana Devi.
