Formulation of Provincial Human Rights Strategies Stakeholder Consultative Workshop – Lahore
SPO under the umbrella of a project, signed with Foreign & Commonwealth Office in June 2016 aiming at institutionalization of the concept of human rights into the provincial ministries by preparing provincial human rights strategies, lobbying meetings with cabinet members and parliamentarians and capacity building on national and international human rights obligations and implementation of respective provincial human rights strategies. The objective will be achieved through a series of training/meetings in all provinces for provincial HR ministries.
After successfully organizing consultative workshops for KPK province in D I Khan & Peshawar and for Punjab province in Multan, SPO & MoHR organised the same one day ‘Consultative Workshop’ in Lahore, to take into account the northern perspective of the province of Punjab. The workshop started with great enthusiasm of the government representatives present, both from the Federal Government as well as Punjab Government along with the civil society members of the province. Total numbers of attendees of the meeting were 47. The attendees included relevant line departments of the Punjab Government, Civil Society, Academia, Lawyers, HR Activists, Transgender & Vulnerable groups. After the introductory session of the program, consultant Ms. Khadija Ali gave her presentation on the circulated draft of the provincial Human Rights Strategy. Ms. Khadija Ali explained in depth the circulated policy and its features and recommendations and asked the participants to share their views in the context of their area. Ms. Khadija Ali then divided the participants into 4 groups. The our groups were as follows:
- Policy, Legal & Prison Reforms
- Implementing Key Human Rights Priorities: Women, Children, Minorities, PWD’s, Senior Citizen & Transgender
- Cross Cutting Interventions for Protection of Human Rights – HR Education, Sensitization, Awareness, Research, Advocacy & Communication
- Implementation & Monitoring Mechanism
The participants were then given two hours for brain storming on their respective topic of the group and to share their recommendations. Each group then presented their recommendations to the participants of the workshop. All recommendations were jotted down by the consultant for further incorporation to the draft Human Rights strategy for Punjab.