ISLAMABAD: In order to enhance awareness of international human rights systems and mechanism, an event titled “Exploring the global framework for human rights and its operational mechanisms” was arranged in Islamabad.
At the event, jointly organized by AwazCDS-Pakistan and Pakistan Development Alliance, experts guided participants through a series of discussions, enabling participants to gain a deeper understanding of the important topic.
Ziaur Rehman, Chief Executive Awaz CDS Pakistan, said the purpose of the initiative was to bring the civil society back to the human rights-based approaches and agendas while imparting their services to the people of Pakistan and across the globe. He said according to the Pakistan Civic Space Monitor 2022, freedom of expressions and opinion are critically obstructed, and emphasized the CSOs to join hands together for civil rights and freedoms.
Christine Chung, South Asia Team Leader, OHCHR, while reviewing human rights and international frameworks, spoke on terms, procedures and treaty bodies of UN agencies and how they carry out the systems for member countries to ensure the protection of human rights. She highlighted the reporting role of Pakistan and the challenges.
She specifically talked about treaty bodies and committees that work with international human right treaties to ensure implementation. She said “these committees are working with Pakistan to help Pakistan comply with treating obligations. They monitor Pakistan’s compliance with treaty obligations through various ways e,g examining reports from Pakistan government, and report from other stakeholders for real on ground picture”.
As example she particularly highlighted most relevant issues of Pakistan such as racial discrimination, religious discrimination, freedom of belief etc.
The focus of the session was on educating on systems as well as removing misconceptions associated with UN, UN organizations, human rights councils and mechanism and treaties to be better to promote compliance with international human rights treaties.
She highlighted the role of civil society in closer-to-reality reporting of issues. She stressed on the importance of correct reporting so the issue is brought to notice for solution and the civil society has very important role in this regard.
David Murphy, OHCHR Bangkok Office, said, “We strive to educate civil society and other stakeholders on human rights mechanisms, especially during emergency situations such as floods, earthquake, war situations etc, so human rights violations can be minimized and eliminated during those tough times.”
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