Peshawar, March 12, 2019 (PPI-OT): Information Minister, Shaukat Yusufzai on Tuesday said that his government was committed to improve the status of women in province and advance gender equality agenda. He was addressing an event jointly organized by UN Women and Special Education, Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department (SESWWED) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in connection with International Women’s Day. The event aimed to advocate action for strengthening the government institutions with effective policies and action plans, capacity and accountability mechanism to protect, enable and promote social, economic and political rights of women with special focus on excluded groups.
Information Minister appreciated the efforts of UN Women and Social Welfare Department for organizing the event. He said, “It is important to celebrate the day, but what is more important is to continue supporting women in order to help them reach their full potential. Government has taken certain steps in this regard i.e. the women empowerment policy is under implementation, pending legislations will be approved and new laws will be introduced to ensure women rights are safeguarded.”
The Secretary SESWWED Muhammad Idrees Khan Marwat gave opening remarks. He said that the department is working towards women empowerment. “We are sensitizing all other government entities to make sure gender sensitive planning and budgeting is taking place at their level,” he remarked.
Zainab Qaiser Khan, Head of Sub Office UN Women Peshawar, talked about the work of UN Women to advance gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. She said that UN Women is committed to end violence against women and upgrading the shelter homes to provide shelter to women survivors of violence. “We are working very closely with the Social Welfare department for re-activation of CEDAW Committee in the province,” she shared.
Rukhshanda Naz, human rights activist, has been appointed as the first provincial Ombudsperson under the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010 for dealing with the harassment cases at workplaces in public and private sector institutions in the province. The Ombudsperson’s office is being set up at Secretariat of Special Education, Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department, Peshawar. The event was well attended by women rights activists, members of civil society, government officials, politicians, media, academia and people from all walks of life.
For more information, contact:
National Information Officer
United Nations Information Centre (UNIC)
Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-8355720
Cell: +92-300-8553790
Email: ishrat.rizvi@unic.org