WUNRN
International Crisis Group - http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-asia/pakistan/265-women-violence-and-conflict-in-pakistan.aspx?utm_source=mremail&utm_medium=continue&utm_campaign=pakistan-report
Women,
Violence & Conflict in Pakistan
AFP
PHOTO/ARIF ALI
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
8 April
2015 - Eight years into its democratic transition, violence against women is
still endemic in Pakistan, amid a climate of impunity and state inaction.
Discriminatory legislation and a dysfunctional criminal justice system have put
women at grave risk. Targeted by violent extremists with an overt agenda of
gender repression, women’s security is especially threatened in the conflict
zones in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province and the Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA). On 8 March, International Women’s Day, Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif vowed that his government would take all necessary legislative and
administrative steps to protect and empower women. If this pledge was in
earnest, his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government should end
institutionalised violence and discrimination against women, including by
repealing unjust laws, countering extremist threats, particularly in KPK and
FATA, and involving women and their specially relevant perspectives in design
of state policies directly affecting their security, including strategies to
deal with violent extremist groups.
Women
in the past were the principal victims of state policies to appease violent
extremists. After democracy’s return, there has been some progress,
particularly through progressive legislation, much of it authored by committed
women’s rights activists in the federal and provincial legislatures,
facilitated by their increased numbers in parliament. Yet, the best of laws
will provide little protection so long as social attitudes toward women remain
biased, police officers are not held accountable for failing to investigate
gender-based crimes, the superior judiciary does not hold the subordinate
judiciary accountable for failing to give justice to women survivors of
violence, and discriminatory laws remain on the books.
Laws,
many remnants of General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamisation in the 1970s and 1980s,
continue to deny women their constitutional right to gender equality and fuel
religious intolerance and violence against them. Their access to justice and
security will remain elusive so long as legal and administrative barriers to
political and economic empowerment remain, particularly the Hudood Ordinances
(1979), FATA’s Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) (1901) and the Nizam-e-Adl
(2009) in KPK’s Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA).
The
government has a constitutional obligation and international commitments, including
under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), to combat gender inequality and remove such barriers to
women’s empowerment. Repealing discriminatory legislation and enforcing laws
that protect women, including by ensuring that they have access to a
gender-responsive police and courts, are essential to ending the impunity that
promotes violence against women.
The
extent to which rights violations go unpunished is particularly alarming in
FATA and KPK, where women are subjected to state-sanctioned discrimination,
militant violence, religious extremism and sexual violence. Militants target
women’s rights activists, political leaders and development workers without
consequences. The prevalence of informal justice mechanisms in many parts of
Pakistan, particularly in Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, are also highly discriminatory
toward women; and the government’s indiscriminate military operations, which
have displaced millions, have further aggravated the challenges they face in
the conflict zones.
In KPK
and FATA, and indeed countrywide, women’s enhanced meaningful presence in
decision-making, including political participation as voters and in public
office, will be central to sustainable reform. Pakistan should invest in their
empowerment and reflect their priorities in all government policies, including
counter-insurgency and peacebuilding efforts. All too often, women comprise a
majority of both the intended victims of the insurgency and the unintended
victims of the counter-insurgency response.
National
and provincial legislation to enhance protections for women is a step in the
right direction, but much more is needed to safeguard them against violence and
injustice and ultimately to consolidate Pakistan’s democratic transition.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To curb violence against women and promote gender equity
To
the executives and legislatures of Pakistan’s federal and provincial
governments:
1.
Respecting international commitments and constitutionally guaranteed fundamental
rights, the National Assembly should amend all laws that discriminate against
women in the Penal Code and Evidence Act and repeal the Hudood Ordinances in
their entirety; all provincial legislatures should pass and implement laws to
protect and empower women, including by criminalising and taking effective
measures to prevent domestic violence.
2.
The National Assembly should approve the Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws
Amendment) Act, the Anti-Honour Killings Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act and
the Torture, Custodial Death and Custodial Rape (Prevention and Punishment)
Act, passed by the Senate in March 2015.
3.
The national legislature should establish a quota of general (directly-elected)
National Assembly seats, in addition to the existing reserved (unelected)
seats, for women legislators, and the parliament’s rules of procedures should
be amended to ensure a certain number of parliamentary committees are headed by
women.
4.
The federal and provincial governments should prioritise the development of a
gender-responsive security apparatus, including by increasing the numbers of
policewomen, particularly in senior positions; building police capacity to
investigate crimes against women; and strengthening the National Police Bureau
(NPB) and its gender crimes cell’s liaison with provincial authorities.
5.
The provincial governments should build the capacity of the Provincial
Commissions on the Status of Women (PCSW) to monitor violations of women’s
rights and to ensure that government policies and legislation produce gender
equality and women’s empowerment.
To
the international community, particularly the UN and donor countries:
6.
Continue and enhance support for developing gender-responsive policing and
women’s rights bodies; also ensure that women’s needs, rights and priorities
are meaningfully addressed in all aid programing.
To
protect and empower women in conflict-affected areas
To
the federal government and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provincial government:
7.
Repeal the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) in FATA and the Nizam-e-Adl in
PATA and extend the jurisdiction of superior courts to FATA so that citizens
there can seek protection of the fundamental rights the constitution guarantees
them.
8.
Include women and protect their rights and interests in counter-insurgency and
peacebuilding strategies.
9.
Promote civilian-led and civilian-devised humanitarian assistance and take
measures to ensure that displaced women receive timely and adequate assistance,
including by facilitating national and international NGOs’ access to areas of
displacement and investigating allegations of discriminatory assistance.
10.
The federal and KPK governments should ensure that women can exercise their
rights of franchise and to stand for public office; and the Election Commission
of Pakistan (ECP) should investigate all cases of women having been barred from
voting or contesting elections.
To
the international community, particularly the UN and donor countries:
11.
Ensure that women’s needs are adequately assessed in relief and rehabilitation
assistance to conflict-affected and internally displaced persons.
12.
Encourage the federal government to repeal the FCR and Nizam-e-Adl and to
support women’s rights in the conflict zones and participation in the
development of counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism policies and peacebuilding
efforts.
Islamabad/Brussels, 8 April 2015