Formulation of Provincial Human Rights Strategy; Stakeholder Consultative Workshop Peshawar – KPK
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 trainings/meetings in all provinces for provincial HR ministries.
After successfully organising a one-day consultative workshop for KPK province in D I Khan to gather the perspective of South of the province, SPO & MoHR organised the same one day ‘Consultative Workshop’ in Peshawar. The workshop ensued with great enthusiasm of the government representatives present both from the Federal Government as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government along with the civil society members of the province. Total numbers of attendees of the meeting were 42. The attendees included relevant line departments of the KPK Government, who were relevant to the formulation of KPK’s Human Rights Policy Strategy document. Some of the prominent participants of the meeting included Mr. Qamar Ali, Deputy Secretary – Home Department (KPK); Mr. Hashim Raza, Advocate; Mr. Muhammad Arshad, DG Ministry of Human Rights, and others. After key note addresses, 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 four 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 noted down by the consultant for further incorporation to the draft Human Rights strategy for KPK.