Provincial Task Force Discusses Human Rights Action Plan

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Nov, 2016 ) : Provincial Task Force on Human Rights, Sindh, in its maiden meeting on Thursday discussed mechanism for an action plan to improve human rights situation in the province.

The task force has been established by the Sindh Government under the national plan to help improve human rights situation and implement human rights laws more effectively, said a statement issued here.

The meeting, held at the Sindh Assembly Building, was chaired by Special Assistant to Chief Minister Sindh for Human Rights and Chairperson of the task force, Rehana Laghari. The meeting was attended by members of the task force, including women members of the provincial assembly Seemi Farhat and Ghazala Siyal as well as representatives of Law, Home, Social Welfare, Minorities, Information and Archives, Health, Women Development, and Human Rights departments.

The meeting discussed various laws, conventions and treaties related to child, forced and bounded labour, women, disabled, minorities and other rights. The meeting decided to come up in the next meeting with new ideas and suggestions to make such laws more effective in the province.

Chairperson Rehana Laghari informed that "National Action Plan on Human Rights" consists of six thematic areas with 16 expected outcomes and 60 actions on promotion and protection of human rights in Pakistan.

She further said the thematic areas include policy and legal reforms, implementing key Human rights priorities, cross cutting interventions for protection and promotion of human rights, international/UN treaty implementation, institutional interventions and implementation and monitoring mechanism.

The task force chairperson said that strategies for provincial human rights policy was a continuation of the national policy framework for human rights which shall streamline, facilitate and ensure implementation of action plan at the national level.

Rehana Laghari said that the Provincial Task Force has been mandated to bring legislative reforms in protection and promotion of women rights and elimination of all kinds of gender based violence, rights of minorities, child, disabled, civil and political rights, right to life, liberty and security and also jail.

Such reforms would be approved by legislative assembly, it was pointed out. She stressed the need to increase publicity campaigns of human rights laws and get displayed the posters, panaflexes, stickers, banners and other printed material at police stations, courts, hospital, books stalls, bus stops, railway stations, and other public places in order to make every citizen aware about human rights related laws.

She directed members to come up with recommendations in the next meeting of the task force to improve laws and make them more effective. Meanwhile, the Director of Directorate of Human Rights and Convener of Provincial Task Force, Qamar Raza Baloch, briefed the meeting about the points of the action plan on human rights to be implemented at the national level. APP/rak/mkm/rn