Italy’s ambassador to Pakistan Stefano Pontecorvo Monday said violence against women must end.
In a statement, he said: “Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a plague in too many societies worldwide. We must all, men in particular, confront our responsibilities and each in our own domain, rid our societies of violence against women.”
The ambassador is known to be very vocal about women’s right. In an assault incident that happened in Karachi a few months back, a Pakistani-Italian woman was physically abused by her husband who even forced her to drink urine; twitterati urged the ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo to help the victim, to which he replied,
As concerns this horrible episode thank you to everyone who has chipped in with info. All details are now known and proceeding quickly through our Consulate in Karachi to verify with police in Karachi to end this horrific treatment. Authorities extremely responsive. https://t.co/CmetUAl6z8
— Stefano Pontecorvo (@pontecorvoste) August 13, 2019
Notably, Pakistan ranks as the sixth most dangerous country in the world for women, with cases of sexual crimes and domestic violence recording a rapid rise.
According to the reports, Pakistan is to set up more than 1,000 courts dedicated to tackling violence against women, the country’s top judge has announced, seeking to tackle a problem activists say the criminal justice system has long neglected.
Earlier this year, Chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa said the special courts would allow victims to speak out without fear of retaliation in the conservative Muslim country, where domestic violence is often seen as taboo.
A pilot court of this kind was opened in 2017 in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.
Romana Bashir, who heads the Peace and Development Foundation, a non-governmental organization working on women’s rights, said it was “a wonderful safeguarding measure”.
“Certainly women will be encouraged and feel strengthened to speak up against gender based violence. Consequently, women will be able to get justice,” she said.
The impact of violence against women and girls is seen as a social epidemic having consequences beyond the injuries, physical and psychological, on just the victim/survivor. The government of Pakistan fully recognizes the long term impact of the problem on the immediate family, community and society as a whole. It is also fully recognized that the impact of violence against the girl child is against national laws and international commitments and the implications of violence, both physical and otherwise, will have long term negative impacts that she will carry throughout her life cycle.
It is also recognized that violence against women is a public health risk of grave proportions. Article 1 of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women defines violence against women. This definition has also been adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It states: “any act of gender based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
The Constitution of Pakistan, Article 25 (2), clearly states that no person should be discriminated against on the basis of his/her sex alone. The Government of Pakistan recognizes that violence against women is a form of sex discrimination and that this is against the basic fundamentals of the Constitution.
In addition to sex discrimination, other forms of vulnerabilities can increase a woman’s risk of violence and make access to support systems difficult. These include women and girls from minority groups, internally displaced women, destitute and women in detention, women with disabilities and older women. 6 The Government is committed to ending all forms of sex discrimination against women and girls, with particular emphasis on eradicating those forms and mechanisms where sex discrimination leads to violence against women and girls.
The overall purpose of this policy is to address incidents of all forms of violence against women and girls, including women and girls from all socio-economic backgrounds and religious denominations, married, single, divorced and/or widowed, through awareness around what constitutes violence and to eliminate it in all its forms and manifestations, under its constitutional and international obligations.
