Training Report

One Day Training Workshop
ON
Legal Rights of women
And their access to Police Station

Dated: 26-02-2010, At: Govt. Girls High School Nawabpur, Time: 09:00am









(GRAP)















Supported By: Gender Support Unit (Dist. Women Development Department)
Organized By: DASE Development Organization (DDO Pakistan)




Goal of the Training:
To give opportunity to women to learn their rights and acquire the necessary skills to take action, they might begin to “do something” individually and/or collectively, such as speak out against an infringement of a right.

Objectives:
 To create awareness of global norms and national laws on women’s human rights.
 Ascertain coordination between women groups and Police
 Sensitize to Police regarding women issues
 Introduction of GRAP
 Capacity Building about women rights
 To enable women to view themselves as active individuals in the process of social change, at both local and national levels


On the 26th of February 2010, DASE Development Organization organizes a One Day Training Workshop on legal Rights of Women and their Access to Police Station at Govt. Girls High School Nawabpur with the support of Gender Support Unit (Dist Women Development Department) for the analyzing practice of women rights and police behavior towards women issues. The group of LHV, Teachers, TBA, Councilors, house wife, Local Organizations and social activist are in attendance at the forum.
In spit of this we are special thanks to Saleem Bukhari (social welfare Department), Mr. Allah Dita (Buniyad Literacy), Khushnood (Govt. Girls High School), Rasheed Aslam (Basic Health Unit), Arshed Gujar (Local Police Station, Thana Alpa) for the facilitating this one training session.

Dr. Aslam Joiya was the Chair Person of the training session and Mr. Rana Shabir start the Training Session with the name of Allah. Miss. Sameena Irshad presents some verses from Holy Quran and Miss. Shazia Present its urdu translation after this Miss. Amna Batool demonstrate some line of praise for Muhammed (PBUH).
First at all Dr. Aslam Joiya (PM DDO) presents a brief introduction of DASE and also the importance of Women Rights he said, women were certainly unaware of the rights granted to them by the laws and that they were helpless against the naturalized violence and discrimination they experienced. The other significant fact is that there were almost no independent women’s grassroots organizing for addressing women issues. Later than Mr. Farhan Aslam (Gender Specialist of GRAP) throw lights on detail introduction of GRAP. The Gender and Governance Reform Agenda (as it is expressed in GRAP) is about creating space for women within the existing systems, while trying to change these systems for the better. Gender Reforms Action Plan is Govt. Plan for establishing gender sensitize society. The goal of GRAP is to bring about such changes in the structure and process of the government that it promotes equity among men and women, and to enable it to deliver on the rights and entitlements of women. Gender mainstreaming will be the strategy to realize this goal Gender mainstreaming would mean that Women can participate as decision makers in the public sphere and their concerns can be addressed effectively and Plan Mission is “Empowerment of the marginalized female population by creating awareness in general public and providing space thus reducing the existing gender gaps for enabling them to play their due role in the overall socio-economic development of society after the this session as per schedule tea break arranged for refreshment of participant.

After the Tea Break the next session of the training facilitated by Saleem Bukhari ( DDO Social Welfare) he share the International Movement of Women Rights and Pak Govt. agreements with international commandments, situation of women violence and how they access to police station and about the behavior of Police Officers. He told after independence, elite Muslim women in Pakistan continued to advocate women's political empowerment through legal reforms. They mobilized support that led to passage of the Muslim Personal Law of Sharia in 1948, which recognized a woman's right to inherit all forms of property. They were also behind the futile attempt to have the government include a Charter of Women's Rights in the 1956 constitution. The 1961 Muslim Family Laws Ordinance covering marriage and divorce, the most important sociologic reform that they supported, is still widely regarded as empowering to women.

Two issues--promotion of women's political representation and accommodation between Muslim family law and democratic civil rights--came to dominate discourse about women and sociologic reform. The second issue gained considerable attention during the regime of Zia ul-Haq (1977-88). Urban women formed groups to protect their rights against apparent discrimination under Zia's Islamization program. It was in the highly visible realm of law that women were able to articulate their objections to the Islamization program initiated by the government in 1979. Protests against the 1979 Enforcement of Hudood Ordinances focused on the failure of hudood (see Glossary) ordinances to distinguish between adultery (zina) and rape (zina-bil-jabr). A man could be convicted of zina only if he were actually observed committing the offense by other men, but a woman could be convicted simply because she became pregnant.
Governments who have signed and ratified these International treaties are expected to respect, ensure, and fulfill women rights as declared in the International treaties. Once adopted, a treaty is “opened for signature” and each government takes the steps required under its domestic legislative and legal system to ratify the treaty, thus becoming legally bound by its terms. Because of this accordingly treaties Govt. of Pakistan is bond to implement these agreements in the country.
The Women's Action Forum was formed in 1981 to respond to the implementation of the penal code and to strengthen women's position in society generally. The women in the forum, most of whom came from elite families, perceived that many of the laws proposed by the Zia government were discriminatory and would compromise their civil status. In Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad the group agreed on collective leadership and formulated policy statements and engaged in political action to safeguard women's legal position.
The women's movement has shifted from reacting to government legislation to focusing on three primary goals: securing women's political representation in the National Assembly; working to raise women's consciousness, particularly about family planning; and countering suppression of women's rights by defining and articulating positions on events as they occur in order to raise public awareness.
He put in the picture that without doubt, for women to actually practice their legal rights and live according to their own free will, first of all they needed to create the space for being an “individual” which is not granted them in the society and internalize the concept of “rights.” Certain conditions were imperative for “rights” to become prevalent on the social level.
These traits have created an institution that is inherently gender-biased, ironically making the police force one of the most effective tools of discrimination against women, the most vulnerable group of the society that needs the most protection.

Both the treatment meted out to women reporting gender crimes at police stations and the under-reporting of such crimes are well known facts. While the police are known for their reluctance to facilitate all citizens, in the case of women personal biases and culturally ingrained stereotypes of women instigate custodial crime. Essentially, women are abused at the hands of police in two ways; obstruction of justice at the time of reporting, and custodial abuse. Obstruction of justice takes many forms. Victims of gender crimes are discouraged from reporting crimes perpetrated against them. One way of doing so is through invasion of the victims’ privacy, and showing complete disregard for their security. Victims of domestic abuse are often unable to convince the police of the criminal nature of domestic violence. Police tend to shrug off complaints against domestic violence as a family’s internal matter. In the same vein, marital rape is not considered to be a crime. Police have also failed to investigate another common form of domestic abuse - bride-burning - which is dismissed as accidental despite the frequency of incidents. Our police will continue to function to the determent of women in the absence of reforms that address the inherent gender-bias of the police force, initiate effective gender mainstreaming in law enforcement, or educate law enforcers about the rights of women. It is the patriarchal mindset of the society that believes in the subjugation of women and regards them as inherently inferior to men which is the problem only substantive policies geared towards bringing about a larger social change in attitudes towards women can ensure on active role of the police in the protection of women.

Later than this long session Saleem Bukhari start group work with all participants. Participant divided into two groups one group discussed about the threat of legal proceeding about Gender issues and second group confer about the solution of threats. After the group discussions each group presented the conclusion of discussion.
Conclusion:

This Training created awareness and understanding and increased the level of knowledge on women’s human rights. The level of education of the participants varied inversely with the extent of knowledge they acquired. The least educated women were also the ones who learned the most about their rights. Most participants placed the most importance in learning about their civil rights. The participants gained greater self-confidence and raised awareness on discrimination against women and they developed a positive attitude towards solidarity with other women. They have, however, experienced some difficulty in convincing their family and community towards greater acceptance of their rights. There was inevitable internal and external conflict as they redefined and renegotiated their gender identities.