ISLAMABAD    -  The Ministry of Human Rights is launching a 16-day activism campaign on women’s fundamental rights through a series of short informational videos covering important topics of women rights.

A statement issued said that topics will include sexual harassment, rape, the marriage contract, filing an FIR and women’s inheritance. The films have been developed in collaboration with the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (SOC) Films. The Films will be available in Urdu, Sindhi, Pushto, Punjabi and Balochi languages. The films will be broadcast widely across social media through live watch parties that will be conducted throughout the 16 days of activism from 25th November 2020 to 10th December 2020. The films will also be disseminated to numerous universities and colleges across Pakistan, as well as amongst the civil society to increase outreach. Several engaging radio shows are also being conducted with leading lawyers and human rights experts, to generate greater awareness around these issues and stimulate discussion and dialogue at the grassroots level. The Ministry of Human Rights is also launching the 1099 Helpline APP which has been developed in collaboration with UN Women, to streamline and strengthen grievance redressal mechanisms against human rights violations, particularly with regards to Gender Based Violence and Child Abuse. The 1099 Helpline APP is already available for download on the Google Playstore, and will be available on the apple store as well early next month. Since the helpline itself was launched in November 2018, it has received over 450,000 calls, 49% of which were related to Women’s rights. The APP will provide an alternate and effective mechanism to launch and track complaints related to human rights violations.

Federal Secretary for Human Rights, Rabiya Javeri Agha gave the welcoming remarks at the event. She said, “The Ministry of Human Rights has placed an emphasis on strengthening grievance redressal mechanism to end violence and exploitation of women and girls in Pakistan. The launch of our 1099 helpline app is another important step towards strengthening these mechanisms. The Ministry is committed to raise awareness among women and educate them on their fundamental rights. The short films developed on topics that impact women are aimed at fulfilling this mandate. ” Deputy Head of European Union Delegation, Thomas Seiler also attended the event. 

In his statement, he emphasised: “Promoting women’s rights and gender equality is essential for the European Union in its relations with third countries. We therefore value the cooperation with the Government of Pakistan and the efforts to promote these fundamental rights. The Huqooq-e-Pakistan project is a very good example of this cooperation. Our dialogue includes the fight against gender based violence, which is a serious matter, above all in times of COVID-19.Gender equality is also a critical economic component.