Muhammad Asad
ISLAMABAB: Pakistan Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) had launched its annual performance report-2020 in collaboration with the European Union in a ceremony in Islamabad today. The European Union’s financial support made the report a reailty. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr. Shireen Mazari uncovered the report during an interactive session with Media today. She briefly highlighted the important initiatives undertaken by her ministry to safeguard and enhance the rights of disadvantage segments of the society including women, children, transgenders, persons with disabilities and having special needs.
Dr. Mazari underlined the progress made by the Ministry in terms of strengthening mechanism for grievance redressal including the Zainab alert on the Pakistan Citizen’s Portal for missing children and the establishment of the 1099 helpline application. She said that several legislations had been passed by the government to overcome loopholes/ lapses in our legal system such as the Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Act and the ICT Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She informed the media that the MoHR is working for legislation to Protect the Journalists as well as the criminalization of Enforced Disappearances.
While highlighting her ministry role in vindicating the impact of the COVID-19, she orated that the Ministry has actively worked on the projects under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) to alleviate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. She underscored that the amendment to include child domestic labour as a form of unsafe activity under schedule I of the Employment of Children Act 1991 is also an important milestone legislation in this regard.
Federal Minister said that video animations developed by the Ministry to raise awareness about these initiatives along with the launch of Human Rights Resource Portal are other important achievement of the Minister of Human Rights (MoHR) during previous year.
