UN holds a dialogue session to mark International Women's Day 2007 on the the theme 'Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls'

Islamabad, 15 March 2007

ISLAMABAD, 15 March 2007 (UN Information Centre) - UN is strongly committed to gender equality. One of the priority objectives of UN agencies working in Pakistan is to address full and equal participation of women in political, economic and social life at all levels of the society, and the eradication of all forms of discrimination on the grounds of gender.

To raise awareness on this highly important issue of Human Rights and to commemorate International Women's Day 2007, an interactive dialogue session on the theme "Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls" was organized by the UN Communication Group - Pakistan under "One UN" umbrella, in collaboration with the Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad. UN Information Centre acted as focal point for the arrangements of the event on behalf of the UN Agencies in Pakistan.

Panelists in the session included: Dr. Khalif Bile, Acting United Nations Resident Coordinator & WHO Resident Representative, Barrister Shahida Jamil ( Former Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights), Ms Farhana Faruqi Stocker (Country Representative, OXFAM GB Pakistan), Mr. Salman Asif (Gender Advisor, UN Pakistan), Dr I. N. Hasan (Pro V.C and Director Women's Research & Resource Centre) Prof. Dr. Muhammad Khalid Masud (Chairman, Council of Islamic Ideology) and Mr Mehmood Saleem, Secretary, Ministry of Women Development.


Panelists shared their views on the root causes of violence and identified measures to combat it from the society. Emphasizing the importance of International Women's Day, Dr Bile said, "It is our collective responsibility to work for an enduring change in values and attitudes at all levels of the society." He called on all relevant stake holders to work in partnership -- Governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector.

He informed that Pakistan's UN Country Team is following up on the recommendations if the recently released report by the High -level Panel on System-wide Coherence 'Delivering as One' on gender equality and women's empowerment. The High-level Panel was co chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. One of the recommendations includes strengthening the coherence and impact of the UN institutional gender response.

Mr. Tallat Hussain, a renowned journalist and Director News & Current Affairs of Aaj TV moderated the dialogue session. Arround 450 people from all strata of society attended the event and took part in discussion through Q&A. session.

 

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