13 December 2011 (Islamabad):  ‘Pakistani legislators have taken a bold step to speak out against violence against women in the name of culture or traditions by passing two new laws to combat gender based violence”, said Sameena Nazir, Executive Director of Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA), a women’s rights organization.

“We congratulate the courageous women and men in the Senate and National Assembly of Pakistan who passed consensus resolutions in both houses of the parliament to criminalize Acid throwing on women in the first law and the denial of women’s rights in the name of culture or traditions such as Vani, Swara, marriage with Quran or dispossessing women from inheritance”, she added. These two laws were approved by consensus by the Senate of Pakistan on Monday December 12 in Islamabad.

PODA also appreciated the efforts of the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and the Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) and all the women’s rights groups all over Pakistan for their persistent efforts of many years to push for pro-women legislation that declares violence against women a crime and gives fine and punishments to those who attack and injure women and girls. According to recent reports, nearly 90 percent of Pakistani women have faced some kinds of violence inside their families by their close relatives because there was no punishment against attacks on women. “ every day we read about acid thrown on women and girls or women killed for refusing a forced marriage or for refusing to give up her legal property rights”, but the police would not even arrest family members who commit these crimes because there was no punishment against such laws before” said Ms. Nazir and added that thanks to the pro-women policies of the present government and the commitment of women legislators from all the political parties now we have laws against such crimes. PODA also congratulates the independent media of Pakistan for creating awareness about the problem of violence against women and girls in Pakistan by highlight the stories of women victims and survivors.

For more information or any questions please contact: info@poda.org.pk or call (051) 260 9743

Johnson Sirleaf, Gbowee, Karman win Nobel Peace

In this January 24, 2011 file photo, Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman gestures upon her release from a Yemeni jail in Sanaa. — Photo by AP

OSLO: Africa’s first democratically elected female president, a Liberian peace activist and a woman who stood up to Yemen’s authoritarian regime won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to secure women’s rights, which the prize committee described as fundamental to advancing world peace.

The 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award was split three ways between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, peace activist Leyma Gbowee from the same African country and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen — the first Arab woman to win the prize.

By citing Karman, the committee also appeared to be acknowledging the effects of the Arab Spring, which has challenged authoritarian regimes across the region.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee honoured the three women “for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.

“We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,” the prize committee said.

Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said he hoped the prize would bring more attention to rape and other violence against women as well as women’s role in promoting democracy in Africa and the Arab and Muslim world.

Karman is a 32-year-old mother of three who heads the human rights group Women Journalists without Chains. She has been a leading figure in organising protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh that kicked off in late January as part of a wave of anti-authoritarian revolts that have convulsed the Arab world.

“I am very, very happy about this prize,” Karman told The Associated Press. “I give the prize to the youth of revolution in Yemen and the Yemeni people.”

Citing the Arab Spring alone could have been problematic for the committee. The unrest toppled authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. But Libya descended into civil war that led to Nato military intervention. Egypt and Tunisia are still in turmoil. Hardliners are holding onto power in Yemen and Syria and a Saudi-led force crushed the uprising in Bahrain, leaving an uncertain record for the Arab protest movement.

Jagland said it was difficult to find a leader of the Arab Spring revolts, especially among the many bloggers who played a role in energizing the protests, and noted that Kamran’s work started before the Arab uprisings.

“Many years before the revolutions started she stood up against one of the most authoritarian and autocratic regimes in the world,” he told reporters.

Liberia was ravaged by civil wars for years until 2003. The drawn-out conflict that began in 1989 left about 200,000 people dead and displaced half the country’s population of three million. The country — created to settle freed American slaves in 1847 — is still struggling to maintain a fragile peace with the help of UN peacekeepers.

Sirleaf, 72, has a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University and has held top regional jobs at the World Bank, the United Nations and within the Liberian government.

In elections in 1997, she ran second to warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, who many claimed was voted into power by a fearful electorate. Though she lost by a landslide, she rose to national prominence and earned the nickname, “Iron Lady.” She went on to become Africa’s first democratically elected female leader in 2005.

Sirleaf was seen as a reformer and peacemaker in Liberia when she took office. She is running for re-election this month and opponents in the presidential campaign have accused her of buying votes and using government funds to campaign. Her camp denies the charges. The election is Tuesday.

In a 2005 interview with The Associated Press, Sirleaf said she hoped young girls would see her as a role model and be inspired.

“I certainly hope more and more of them will be better off, women in Liberia, women in Africa, I hope even women in the world.”

“If you’re competing with men as a professional, you have to be better than they are…and make sure you get their respect as an equal,” Johnson-Sirleaf said. “It’s been hard. Even when you gain their acceptance, it’s in a male-dominated away. They say, ‘Oh, now she’s one of the boys.”

Buttons from her presidential campaign say it all: “Ellen — She’s Our Man.”

The committee cited Johnson Sirleaf’s efforts to secure peace in her country, promote economic and social development and strengthen the position of women.

Jagland said the committee didn’t consider the upcoming election in Liberia when it made its decision.

“We cannot look to that domestic consideration,” he said. “We have to look at Alfred Nobel’s will, which says that the prize should go to the person that has done the most for peace in the world.”

Gbowee, who organised a group of Christian and Muslim women to challenge Liberia’s warlords, was honoured for mobilising women “across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections”.

Gbowee has long campaigned for the rights of women and against rape. In 2003, she led hundreds of female protesters through Monrovia to demand swift disarmament of fighters who preyed on women throughout Liberia during 14 years of near-constant civil war.

In 2009, she won a Profile in Courage Award, an honour named for a 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book written by John F. Kennedy, for her work in emboldening women in Liberia.

Gbowee works in Ghana’s capital as the director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa. The group’s website says she also won a 2007 Blue Ribbon Award from Harvard University and was the central character of an award-winning documentary called “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.”

The group’s website says she is a mother of five.

“I know Leymah to be a warrior daring to enter where others would not dare,” said Gbowee’s assistant, Bertha Amanor. “So fair and straight, and a very nice person.”

Yemen is an extremely conservative society but a feature of the uprising there has been a prominent role for women who turned out for protests in large numbers.

Karman is from Taiz, a city in southern Yemen that is a hotbed of resistance against Saleh’s regime, and now lives in the capital, Sanaa. She is a journalist and member of Islah, an Islamic party. Her father is a former legal affairs minister under Saleh.

Long an advocate for human rights and freedom of expression in Yemen, she has been campaigning for Saleh’s ouster since 2006 and mounted an initiative to organise Yemeni youth groups and opposition into a national council.

On January 23, Karman was arrested at her home. After widespread protests against her detention — it is rare for Yemen women to be taken to jail — she was released early the next day.

Karman has been dubbed “Iron Woman, “The Mother of Revolution” and “The Spirit of the Yemeni Revolution” by fellow protesters.

During a February rally in Sanaa, she told the AP: “We will retain the dignity of the people and their rights by bringing down the regime.”

The peace prize was in line with Norway’s development aid strategy, which is often focused on women’s rights. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called the award “important and worthy”.

In his 1895 will, award creator Alfred Nobel gave only vague guidelines for the peace prize, saying it should honour “work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

The peace prize is the only Nobel handed out in Oslo, Norway. The other five awards — in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics — are presented in Stockholm.

Last year’s peace prize went to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaob

http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/07/yemeni-says-nobel-prize-win-for-her-nations-revolution.html

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12 AUGUST - WORLD  YOUTH  DAY

“ Pakistan has the largest number of children out of school in the world after Afghanistan.

Only 23 per cent of our children under the age of 16 attend secondary school and almost one-third of Pakistanis have received less than two years of education.

 54% of Pakistan is literate (a generous estimate) and even so, being literate means the ability to sign your name”.

Reclaiming Jinnah’s Pakistan

By Shehrbano Taseer

I watched my father Salmaan Taseer break into a smile as Aasia Noreen placed her ink-stained thumb on a mercy petition marked for President Zardari. Pakistan’s founder, secularist Mohammed Ali Jinnah stared down silently from his portrait on the wall.

Six weeks later, as my father was lowered into an early grave - as frothing, bearded religious fanatics took to the streets celebrating his brutal murder and Pakistan’s unforgiving blasphemy laws – I wondered what else had been buried with him.

There are those who say my father’s death was the final nail in the coffin for Jinnah’s Pakistan. But as long as we live by Jinnah’s words, the Pakistan he envisioned will live on.

Pakistan is one of the most populous countries in the world. With 60 percent of Pakistan’s 187 million strong population below the age of 24, the youth of Pakistan form a potentially powerful force for change.

We must be nation builders. It is our greatest responsibility and burden. When Jinnah addressed students in Dhaka in 1948, he emphasized education as a priority for young people and said “let me give you this word of warning: you will be making the greatest mistake if you allow yourself to be exploited by one political party or another. ” Jinnah envisioned a modern nation at peace with itself and the world. We must understand that vision instead of siding with obscurantist’s and hyper-national isolationists.

We need to be a nation of modern economists, entrepreneurs, scientists, writers, social workers, doctors, journalists, teachers and film-makers’ not a nation of angry complainers and Muslim bigots. Jinnah remarked, "No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you. We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up as prisoners.” Ultimately, the success of our nation will not depend on what we didn’t do, what we denied ourselves, what we resisted, and who we excluded. It will depend on what we embraced, what we created, and who we included.

Addressing the Punjabi Muslim Students Federation at Lahore on October 31, 1947, Jinnah said “Pakistan is proud of her youth, particularly the students who have always been in the forefront in the hour of trial and need. You are the nation’s leaders of tomorrow… You should realize the magnitude of your responsibility and be ready to bear it.” The future of every country is it’s next generation. For a progressive, pluralistic and economically sound Pakistan to succeed, there is an urgent need to harness the potential of the youth. This requires the state to invest in education, vocational training and skills development, technology, entrepreneurship opportunities, and job creation for both young men and women.

With a crippled economy and a hemorrhaging war on terror, our education system is in shambles. Our budget reveals that only 1.5% is dedicated to education. The failure to educate the country's children costs the equivalent of one flood a year, according to a report produced by the Pakistan Education Task Force.

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, states, “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to 16 years in such a manner as may be determined by law.” Although this year was declared Education Year in Pakistan, over 25 in million children are being denied their constitutional right to an education. Pakistan has the largest number of children out of school in the world after Afghanistan. Only 23 per cent of our children under the age of 16 attend secondary school and almost one-third of Pakistanis have received less than two years of education. 54% of Pakistan is literate (a generous estimate) and even so, being literate means the ability to sign your name.

Pakistan’s young are dynamic and thirsty to learn and be involved. But the inadequacy of quality education – critical thinking in particular – renders our country incapable of dealing with the challenges of the 21st century. It means an overwhelming majority of our population is ignorant, angry, and extreme. Tens of thousands of children are growing up to be merchants of hatred -- with a very narrow world-view and bitterly antagonistic against concepts of tolerance, individual freedoms and democracy. I lost my father, my friend and my hero because of this mindset. I do not wish for any other family to have to suffer through what mine has had to. No other nation should lose its brave heart.

The road ahead is difficult and the results will not be immediate. But as patriotic citizens with a heavy stake in our nation’s stability, we must not abdicate our responsibilities. It is in our hands what direction our nation takes. Let’s reclaim Jinnah’s Pakistan.

Courtesy: Jinnah Institute  Pakistan (comm@jinnah-institute.org)

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PREDICTIONS about this year’s monsoon season are ominous. The forecast of 10 per cent higher than normal rainfall in the country’s upper catchment areas should set alarm bells ringing.

With the ghosts of last year’s floods not yet laid to rest, the incomplete rehabilitation of flood-protection infrastructure is a major cause for concern. Sindh, which was the worst affected by the floods, has yet to complete almost 40 per cent of the repair-work at a time when a premature monsoon has already set in. Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have completed more than 80 per cent of the repair work but the predicament of Azad Jammu Kashmir causes consternation since hardly any repair work has been executed. The institutional and administrative web responsible for managing floods was exposed last year as being in shambles. From rescue to relief, every effort was poor enough to merit worry this year.

After the report presented by the judicial commission formed by the Supreme Court, another report by a similar committee formed by the Punjab High Court has laid bare the inefficiency of the flood-management systems in the country. The key findings of both reports are the same. Administrative failure on part of the provincial irrigation departments, rampant corruption, criminal negligence and encroachments in the flood plains have been identified as the reasons that Sindh and Punjab saw such a disaster. A careful review of the judicial commissions’ reports reveals that the country does not have an integrated flood-management system. Scattered and disjointed measures may bring temporary relief but they are far from sufficient to thwart any future disaster.

Disaster management includes three key components: risk-reduction, preparedness and response. In Pakistan the first point hardly receives any serious attention, the second component is inadequate and the third is in shambles. The most challenging yet rewarding phase of risk-reduction should be made a priority. While structures are of utmost importance, risk-reduction should not be restricted to the level of mere engineering. The stereotyped conceptualisation of risk-reduction in Pakistan does not conceive of anything beyond flood-protection infrastructure. Additionally, more often than not, it glosses over the social, institutional and biological measures that can be taken. These are the areas where public policy has to be improved. The strengthening of disaster-management institutions and their integration with other relevant bodies is of paramount importance. The Punjab judicial commission has underlined the importance of developing an integrated flood-management plan.

While the judicial commissions’ reports substantially capture the gaps in administrative governance, they have almost skirted the nexus of political governance. It is a well-recognised fact that after the police, the irrigation department is a highly politicised area. Since power politics in Pakistan is dominated by a Byzantine alliance of landed aristocracies and urban oligarchies, water is the ‘open sesame’ mantra for political powers. The posting of grade-17 and 18 officials in the department is directly governed by the irrigation minister and the chief minister respectively. The plum posting is allegedly traded at rates of up to Rs2m. If the custodians of the Tori dyke were of junior grades, their being posted there is not merely administrative brushwork; in fact, it is deeply entangled with political decision-making.

Another example is wilful negligence in terms of the state of the Tori dyke. The Supreme Court’s commission has made the startling revelation that on Feb 4, 2010 — i.e. six months before the breach occurred — it was noted in a meeting of the Indus River Commission that unless the dyke was strengthened well before the year’s flood season, the likelihood of colossal losses could not be ruled out. Why was no follow-up work done to allocate the resources required to shore the structure up before the rains started? Can the political leadership be exonerated for its failure in this regard?

Similarly, the network of illegally erected dykes in the floodplains is not a corollary of merely administrative neglect; it is a business that is patronised by local politicians. The same can be said of the occupation of forest land in floodplains. A string of local feudals, administration officials and politicians has let this happen. The judicial commission rightly recommended that strict action be taken against irrigation department officials but it has largely ignored the delinquencies of the feudal and political leaderships. If nothing else the provincial governments should have been asked to disclose a list of people who have occupied vast swathes of land in the katcha areas. The reasons behind the posting of junior and inexperienced officials in the irrigation department could have been made public. This would have exposed the nepotism which resulted in inflicting excruciating damage on the poor.

Another omission is the faulty engineering infrastructure. The interesting dimension of last year’s flood was the abnormally long travel duration of peak flows between barrages. The flow that normally takes 24 hours from the Guddu to Sukkur barrage took 33 hours. Similarly, the time-lag between Sukkur and Kotri was an astounding 408 hours as against the normal time-lag of 72 hours. This was partially because of sustained inflows from upstream. However, the role played by newly-built structures such as bridges needs to be delved into more deeply. Structures have been erected on the River Indus without an environmental impact assessment being undertaken and there is a possibility that these may have aggravated the floods.

All these questions need to be answered so that immediate steps can be taken to mitigate the effects of any flooding this year.

The country cannot afford to do nothing, waiting for disaster to strike.

The writer is the chief executive of Strengthening Participatory Organisation.

nmemon@spopk.org

http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/14/managing-disaster.html

Celebrating World Music Day

Gulf News Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A man checks a guitar at his music instruments shop in Karachi yesterday. World Music Day is observed on June 21 every year.

May 20, 2011
ALRC-CWS-17-02-2011

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Seventeenth session, Agenda Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with SR on Extra-judicial killings

A written statement submitted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organisation with general consultative status

The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to highlight its continuing concerns about the widespread violation of women’s rights and cases of serious violence against women, including sexual violence, in Pakistan.

The ALRC recalls that Pakistan acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 12 Mar 1996. Furthermore, during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on May 8, 2008, the government accepted several recommendations concerning women’s rights and violence against women. Despite this, as will be seen below, violence and discrimination against women remains a critical issue in the country and the authorities are not taking credible or effective action to address the many grave cases of abuse that continue to take place with impunity.

Key accepted UPR recommendations made to the government of Pakistan include the following:

• Adopt measures to ensure that victims have access to protection and redress, that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished, and that gender sensitivity training be provided to relevant officials.

• Ensure punishment for perpetrators of all violence against women and also thoroughly investigate and punish members and leaders of illegal jirgas for their calls to violence against women.

• Continue with appropriate measures to eradicate discrimination and violence against women including domestic violence and to strengthen existing measures to thoroughly investigate crimes related to violence against women.

• Continue with appropriate measures to eradicate discrimination and violence against women.

• Take measures to provide redress for crimes of honour killings, acid attacks and forced marriages.

As can be seen from the above, the issue of ensuring access to justice, effective investigation of allegations and prosecution of perpetrators are at the core of these recommendations. However, the ALRC has been deeply disappointed by developments concerning women's rights activist and gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Mai attempt to secure justice and challenge the impunity of the men who raped her some nine years ago. On April 21, 2011, the Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld the verdict of the Multan bench of Lahore High Court, which had been suspended as the result of a suo motu notice by the Chief Justice in 2005. The high court had reversed a trial court’s judgment on the unjustifiable basis of “insufficient evidence and faulty police investigations” and meant that all but one of the six men allegedly responsible for Mukhtaran Mai’s gang-rape on June 22, 2002, were to be released. Only Abdul Khaliq remains in prison to serve a life sentence.

In August 2002, six of the men had been sentenced to death by the trial court - four for raping Mukhtaran Mai and two for being part of the Panchayat that ordered her to be raped as punishment for adultery that her brother had alleged committed. The Panchayat and other tribal and feudal modes of parallel justice systems exist and operate in Pakistan, in violation of the country’s constitution. Yet, this case shows how the country’s constitutional legal system is assisting in protecting the outcomes of the parallel, unconstitutional traditional justice system. The Multan bench later acquitted five of the six on appeal and converted the death sentence of Abdul Khaliq to life imprisonment. It is preposterous that only one person can be sentenced under charges of gang-rape, with the other alleged perpetrators being released.

In upholding the legally flawed Multan bench verdict, the Supreme Court has seriously disappointed all those who support justice and women’s rights. This sends the chilling message to all victims of rape in Pakistan, as Mukhtaran Mai has shown exceptional bravery in fighting for justice and accountability, yet despite her efforts and the attention the case has received in Pakistan and internationally, still impunity for the majority of the accused has been upheld. Given the social stigma, threats and dangers encountered by those who dare to pursue justice concerning rape, this ruling by the Supreme Court will only serve to dissuade victims of rape from seeking justice.

While Minister Rehman Malik stated on April 22 that he had been directed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to provide security for Mukhtaran Mai, for which the Punjab Police would be responsible, serious concerns remain for her physical integrity, notably as those thought to be responsible for her gang-rape will now be free and likely emboldened by the impunity they enjoy.

In another such case, the ALRC’s sister-organisation, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) documented the case of a 16 year old girl who was kidnapped for ransom, along with her brother, on October 14, 2010, by a group of criminals involved in land-grabbing, who are reportedly connected to the police. The girl was gang raped repeatedly during a period lasting almost one month. The girl’s father tried to register a complaint concerning the gang rape to the section A police station, Khairpur Mirs, but the police refused to record the gang rape in their report. He then filed an application in the Session court of Khairpur Mirs who ordered the police to file FIR concerning her abduction and rape.

Following untiring efforts by the girl’s father, the police eventually arrested two persons. However, they were released within two hours after bribing members of the police. The Interior Minister pledged before the Sindh provincial assembly that he would take up the case but no action from the ministry has been taken to date. The family of the victims are facing threats from the alleged perpetrators as well as members of the police to get them to drop the case – this includes threatening to subject the family’s other two children with rape.

In another case, which shows the dangers and difficulties encountered by rape victims’ attempts to seek justice, a female government health worker was allegedly raped by a notorious gangster, with the help of two police informants, on December 9, 2010. An FIR was only lodged by the police five days after the rape, in order to allow time to pass, destroying the physical evidence of rape. The police, instead of filing a rape case, filed a case of attempted rape in order to shield the perpetrators. While the alleged rapist has been arrested for attempted rape, the police informants who allegedly restrained and beat the victim continue to enjoy protection by the police. High ranking police officers have reportedly been coercing the victim into settling the case out of court. It is understood that the alleged perpetrator of this rape had been harassing the victim since 2009 and that she had reported this to the police, but they had told her to come back if and when the crime of rape had been committed, as they could not do anything until then.

The Asian Legal Resource Centre calls on the members of the Human Rights Council and the UPR Working Group to request an update from the government of Pakistan concerning its implementation of the many recommendations that it accepted as part of its review in 2008. It is important that the government provide an update on any progress made prior to its next review, in order to ensure that the second round of the review is conducted in the most informed way possible.

The ALRC calls on the government of Pakistan to go beyond lip-service to the international community and ensure swift and decisive action to implement the recommendations included in the UPR outcome concerning discrimination and violence against women. Furthermore, the government must take action to punish all persons who participate in anti-constitutional parallel justice system who aid, abet or commit violations of women’s rights, in particular acts of sexual violence such as gang-rape. The government must also take the lead in providing effective protection to victims of such abuse, in order to encourage them to come forwards and break the system of silence, suffering and injustice that currently accompanies such crimes. The government is urged to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences as well as the CEDAW Committee and ensure that it also implements all recommendations made by these mechanisms.

http://www.alrc.net/doc/mainfile.php/hrc17/675/