Consultative meeting with Government of Sindh officials on “International commitments and state obligations for citizens’ rights” held in Karachi
The consultation meeting on the issue of “International commitments and state obligations for citizens’ rights” was organized by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) at Regent Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, 24th November 2015.Fourteen government departments representing the government of Sindh in social sector services met in a consultative meeting to provide their respective inputs, recommendations in context of legislative deficit for devising policies, laws and mechanisms to let the peoples of Pakistan and Sindh entertain their recognized fundamental human rights in letter and spirit.
The objective of consultation meeting included to strengthen coordination and interaction between government departments and civil society to share understandings on various issues of social sector services ranging from education, health, culture, livelihood, social security, women empowerment, disaster risk reduction and management, housing, minimum wages, access to justice, human rights and environment etc.
The overall context of this meeting was to respond the situation of lack of structural and functional mechanisms for introduction and implementation of fundamental human rights as after 18th amendment, people of the concerned provinces in Pakistan were looking to their provincial governments to indispensably and unavoidably devise the policies and laws that are now no more the subjects of federation and international obligations like “The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)” to incorporate into the policies for implementation of fundamental rights as endorsed by constitution of Pakistan and universal declaration of human rights (UDHR); stated Raheema Panhwar, Program Specialist SPO Karachi.
Government of Pakistan ratified the “ICESCR” in 2008; however, there has been very limited or no progress to incorporate these rights in the constitution by relevant legislation as well as there has been very limited budgetary allocations to achieve these rights. Without these two essential steps, no country can progress towards the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. Raheema Panhwar of SPO also told participants of meeting,“We need to enhance our efforts for policy advocacy for pro people’s legislation and also engage with provincial governments to legislate appropriate polies, laws regarding ICESCR.”
Mr. Wahid Sangrasi of SPO shared the recommendations collected by SPO through different meetings and seminars, which are related to the themes. The recommendations include minimum wages, gender gap in employment, exploitation of women cotton pickers and other rural workforce, who do not get wages according to declared minimum wages.He said, trade unions should be educated and their capacity should be strengthened so they may take initiative for bargaining to ensure rights of workers. He further stated that there might be contribution at individual level but not collectively. He urged upon government officials to share their contribution to remove gaps and may obtain further recommendations to remove gaps.
The meeting followed the group work of Sindh government officials to identify gaps and suggestions to improve working of government departments to impart economic, social and cultural rights to their citizens. The group participants represented provincial government departments included Social Welfare Department, Labour and Human Resource Department, Planning and Development Department, Social Welfare, Education and Literacy, Provincial Ombudsman, Women development Department, Reforms Support Unit, Cultural and Tourism Department, Local Government Department, Health Department, Minority Affairs, Law, Justice and Human Rights Departments, SZABIST’ Tech and BYDSP.
Government is lacking interdepartmental coordination mechanisms to holistically devise and implement universal human rights by effective referral mechanisms of services.Health right is not a fundamental human right in constitution of Pakistan like right to education, free legal aid mechanisms for chronic and vulnerable population is not visible;social welfare department is lacking adequate budgetary allocation, lack of database of vulnerable segments of society and social security plan in accordance with that database; disaster affected and vulnerable population is lacking crop, livestock, shelter and health insurance policies; police does not refer the juvenile cases to child protection units for legal support, were major issues highlighted by the Government Officials in group work on social rights.
In labour sector, women are mostly engaged in informal labour sector and domestic work of women is not well defined and recognized as exchangeable; unemployment is at peak level due to the lack of skills and opportunities; women participation in government and private sector is low and lack of social safety nets are adding fuel to foil to the sufferings of the vulnerable and poorer segments of society. These issues were also raised by the group work on economic rights of the people.
The officials representing different departments, economists, academia and educationists urged upon the concerned state authorities to ensure protection of heritage buildings and places to promote culture and tourism. They pointed out that there is ignorant approach regarding culture, heritage buildings and the important national sites are being encroached upon. They said there are several valuable heritage sites, which yet to be declared as protected heritage and preserve the same to attract tourists of the world. They named different scenic wetlands, lakes, mountains and other places which should be preserved. These issues were highlighted by the group work on cultural rights.
A policy draft on rights with regard to the minorities in context of judgement of Supreme Court on forced conversion, forced marriages and Hindu/Christian marriage act has been prepared by ministry of minority affairs and submitted to law department government of Sindh for further process. This was expressed by Secretary Mr. Aftab Memon Ministry of Minority Affairs Government of Sindh.
The event was organized by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO), which is working on various thematic areas including economic, social, culture rights, gender equality, environment, minority affairs, policy issues and political education.