Awareness Raising Session Held on International Human Rights System and Mechanism

Islamabad, Oct 31, 2023: In order to enhance awareness of international human rights systems and mechanism, AwazCDS-Pakistan and Pakistan Development Alliance jointly organized an event titled “Exploring the Global Framework for Human Rights and Its Operational Mechanisms” in Islamabad.

This event gave participants a valuable opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of international human rights systems and mechanism with the context of human rights situation in Pakistan. Speakers and experts in the field guided participants through a series of discussions, enabling participants to gain a deeper understanding of this important topic whose importance has been increased manifolds in recent times.

Zia ur Rehman, Chief Executive Awaz CDS Pakistan welcomed the audience and shared the context of the introductory session on International Human Rights System & Mechanism. He shared that the purpose of such kind of initiative is 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 highlighted that according to the Pakistan Civic Space Monitor 2022 the civic spaces, freedom of expressions and opinion are critically obstructed and emphasized the CSOs to join hands together for civic rights and freedoms.

Christine Chung, South Asia Team Leader, OHCHR, thanked Awaz CDS for this opportunity of knowledge sharing and engagement. While overviewing human rights and international frameworks, she educated the audience on the terms, procedures and treaty bodies of UN agencies and how they carry out the systems for United Nations 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 & 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 also shared his knowledge on human rights systems and mechanisms for ensuring peace and justice. He 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.

This event served as a unique opportunity for all individuals working in connection with human rights issues and international frameworks.

M. Ali Kemal, Chief SDGs, MoPD&SI thanked OHCHR team for coming to Pakistan and highlighted the need of OHCHR to highlight the success stories and lessons learnt from around the world as well to better help countries like Pakistan to bring about reforms. He also raised his voice for UN to play bigger role than to just observe and report. He also thanked Awaz CDS for arranging such sessions as part of their efforts toward contributing towards progressive Pakistan.