SPO organized a consultation of civil society on merger of Ministry of Human rights into ministry of Law and Justice in Islamabad. During the meeting, known civil society expressed serious concerns regarding this decision and termed it as denial from accepting human rights of Pakistani citizens.
Naseer Memon CE SPO and Zafar Zeeshan Chief of Programmes welcomed the participants.
Names of the participants listed and subject covered are listed below;
Naseer Memon, CE SPO while moderating the consultation said, we at SPO feel that a reaction to this decision needs to be expressed and civil society should take a joint position for reversal of this merger.
Haroon Hussain, Project Manager SPO briefed about the issue and the work done by SPO so far, he heighted the setbacks Pakistan will face in this situation. He highlighted the initiatives taken by previous ministry like Human rights policy draft, work for law against torture, Juvenile age limit, Human rights defenders mechanism etc.
Speakers identified the negative impact on the social, cultural and economic aspects of society in case of merger.
There was complete consensus that while there are some examples of continued functioning of certain ministries and establishment of new ministries, the status of Ministry of Human Rights should be restored. It was emphasized that our concern regarding this merger should be expressed assertively through different actions like press conferences, public seminars and dialogues, writing letters to prime minister and through using media.
