National Commission on the Status of Women 2010-2012 ANNUAL REPORT
National Commission on the Status of Women 2015-2016 ANNUAL REPORT
UN Women supports United Nations Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: increasing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women's economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the United Nations system’s work in advancing gender equality.
Our work is challenging at any given time especially to institutionalize, track progress, monitor and implement pro women laws and policies to ensure the protection and promotion of women's rights. But 2014 was important for us from a key perspective there was encouraging movement in women-friendly legislation across the country. In Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan, women's rights gained a stronger foothold with the legislation on early marriages and domestic violence. Similarly the anti-rape bill tabled in the Senate was a milestone towards ensuring that women do not face additional hardship in the processes of law. The Vision 2025, was launched the same year and indicates the government's commitment towards women's empowerment and development.
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The Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) acknowledges the efforts of all stakeholders who assisted in the development of the 5th Punjab Gender Parity Report. We want to thank all Federal and Provincial Departments/Institutions (Punjab) and District offices of the government. They have continued to respond to our data requests since 2015, providing us with information that has helped shape this report. We are very grateful to UNFPA for their diligence and technical support, which allowed us to prepare and publish the Punjab Gender Parity Report 2021. We would also like to thank the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) for their generous support, without which the report's completion would not have been possible. We are also thankful to Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) for their support in compiling this report.
National Commission on the Status of Women Annual Report 2018-2019
Introduction. The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) is a federal statutory body set up in 2000. It is the outcome of Pakistan's Constitutional commitments as well as its international treaty commitments to empower women and safeguard their rights. In this regard, it has been granted a wide mandate which encompasses multiple ways and means to pursue its stipulated goals. Very concisely, it is envisioned lo be an objective observer and documenter of the status of women in the country, and an advocate, a facilitator, a watch dog, and a promoter of their rights. To date six Commissions have completed their terms and after an interregnum of almost two years the current Commission very recently started functioning under its newly appointed Chairperson. Given this disruption as well as constantly escalating challenges for women in a dynamic, evolving and often turbulent milieu, NCSW recognizes the need to reassess its optimal role in empowering women and protecting their rights. Therefore, it set out to reexamine its mandate, take stock of its past performance, reassess current challenges as well as expectations from stakeholders and public at large, particularly women from all quarters of society, take cognizance of its capacity and highlight the constraints, and determine as well as realign, as required, its priorities with a strategy to effectively meet clearly laid down goals. This Strategic Plan has been developed by NCSW with the active support of the Senior Strategic Process Expert of the Huqooq-e-Pakistan Promotion of Human Rights in Pakistan Project (the 'Consultant'). It is envisioned to be an evolving document, intended to respond to changing circumstances whilst adhering to the core assumptions, assessments, and prescriptions that it puts forward.
Women's representation in national and provincial assemblies through reserved seats has demonstrated the efficacy of numbers in taking women's agenda forward. While the quota for women is 17%, 16 women got directly elected on general seats to the NA in the 2008 elections and only 6 were returned in 2013.The latter figure deflects from the fact of women's unprecedented participation in the electoral contest – 147 women contested general seats in 105 national constituencies and 301 in 203 provincial constituencies. Equally significant was that nationally 87 women stood as independent candidates and in provinces 190 were independents. While more tickets were given by political parties to women, these constituted only 3% of the total. Women's voter turnout was also higher than ever before however in pockets across the country women were restrained from voting and political parties were reluctant to give them party tickets.
2017 was a busy year for NCSW. The Commission resumed its functions after a gap of almost one year a sits activities had come to a halt due to the delay in the appointment of NCSW Chairperson and members. Activities had to be picked up from where they had stopped; alliances had to be revived with women's caucuses in Assemblies, civil society organisations and academia, lawyers, provincial commissions on the status of women, line ministries and donors.
This policy brief provides evidence on existing multidimensional gender inequalities, identifies specific vulnerabilities of women and girls to COVID-19 transmission and impact, and provides broad policy recommendations to mitigate immediate risks for women and girls and prevent exacerbation of the existing gender gaps.
The founding father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was an indefatigable campaigner for women’s rights who advocated for full participation of women in public life and in nationbuilding. In keeping with his vision, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has pledged to ensure the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women as guaranteed in the Constitution of the country. Pakistan was amongst the first group of countries in the United Nations to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 and since then has become signatory to seven international human rights treaties out of nine. The Vision 2025 of Pakistan reaffirms the commitment of the Government to promote an enabling environment for women so that they may realize their full potential and be active contributors to the development of the country.
Year 2007 saw the worst violence against women generally, and specially against the women leaders of repute. Instances of rape and killings rose to an alarming level. A provincial minister from Punjab, Ms. Zille Huma was the victim of insane target killing, and a federal minister Nilofer Bakhtiar was dropped from the cabinet as ordained by a certain section of the society. The Jamia Hafsa issue and the incidents that followed harassed and victimized the women in Pakistan. By the end of the year these disturbing circumstances culminated in the broad day light murder of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the twice elected former Prime Minister of Pakistan, as she was leaving after addressing an election campaign meeting in Rawalpindi. Such was the climate of insecurity and fear that NCSW could not materialize its plans and programmes.
This report expands into seven parts. First part focuses on the profiles of the present members of the Commission. Second part highlights the activities under the UNDP funded project ‘Institutional Strengthening of NCSW’. Third part of the report is about the full Commission’s meetings held in 2006, discussions held and the decisions made. Minutes of Commission’s Executive Committee are put together in the fourth part of the report. Chairperson of the Commission kept a busy schedule throughout the year in various activities to further the cause of the women of Pakistan and the mandate of the Commission. Fifth portion of the report provides a glimpse of important engagements of the Chairperson.