Mehergarh Organizes Consultation To Review Implementation Of Anti-harassment Legislation

Mehergarh organizes consultation to review implementation of anti-harassment legislation

A consultation to review the implementation of the anti harassment legislation was organized by Mehergarh: A Center for Learning here on Friday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Dec, 2019 ):A consultation to review the implementation of the anti harassment legislation was organized by Mehergarh: A Center for Learning here on Friday.

Maliha Husain, executive director of Mehergarh said that a series of such review consultations would be held in all provinces leading up to a major event to consolidate the learning of implementation, said a press release.

"Mehergarh has been leading the implementation of the anti-harassment legislation since it was passed in 2010" she said.

The consultation was attended by representatives of the public sector, private sector, civil society, universities, employee unions, lawyer fraternity and journalists.

The agenda of the consultation was to collect evidence of implementation and views on the changes that people have witnessed over the last ten years.

In 2000, a movement of AASHA began in Pakistan to raise awareness on the issue of harassment and assist the government and private sector to create a society free of harassment.

As a result of this movement, anti- harassment legislation was passed in 2010, for which Pakistan has the credit to be the first country in South Asia to have a special law on the issue.

It was decided that 2020 will be marked as 10 years of implementation of anti-harassment legislation in Pakistan.

The consultation was presided by Dr.

Fouzia Saeed, founder of AASHA movement who shared how AASHA started the implementation process in the first two years after the law was passed by working closely with the federal and provincial governments, private sector and civil society.

Sardar Shah, Representative from National Institute of Banking & Finance (NIBAF) shared how The State Bank of Pakistan complied with this law and has been monitoring compliance in the whole banking sector of Pakistan.

He also said that they have officially included a module on this law in all of their trainings.

Sadaf Dar from RSPN reported that they had worked on implementation of the law in 149 districts of Pakistan and had seen a remarkable change in the mind set of people over the ten years.

Tamana Banuri, who has been working closely with police shared that 11 out of 15 policing departments had fully complied with the law, whereas, FIA & Motorway police had taken the compliance process to the regional level.

Dr Riffat Haque from academia stressed for the continuity of policies regardinganti-harassment implementation.

Despite the challenges, all participants agreed that the compliance of the law is spreading at a fast rate making women feel more confident and safe at workplaces. They stressed that the process might be difficult, but the progress was commendable.