Ministry of Women Development (MoWD) would hold a workshop on December 12 to have interactive consultation on the implementation of 'Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).'
CEDAW Project Coordinator Syed Zafar Mahmood told this agency that senior officials of different ministries, including law and justice, finance, planning, interior, labour and manpower would attend the event. The workshop would be conducted in collaboration with United Nations International Fund for Women Empowerment (Unifem) and GTZ.
Syed Zafar told that the workshop aims to evolve a detailed work plan for effective implementation of strategies to eliminate discrimination against women. It would be a comprehensive beginning to chalk out an effective action plan, he added. The participant would be given better understanding of the legal status of the Convention, a briefing would also be arranged which is to be conducted by the Research Society on International Law, an intellectual and updated international organisation.
He added a meeting would be held with the civil society representative in order to take them into confidence and evolve a joint strategy. "It would be a gathering of 60 representatives from senior levels," he added. Zafar said that in the last few years, the ministry had been able to train focal points in key government departments.
The workshop is the part of activities conducted by the MoWD to achieve targets set by the United Nations Expert Committee on CEDAW in May. The country acceded to the Convention in February 1996 that was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 18, 1979. By acting to it, Pakistan became a state party to the convention and had to submit periodic reports every four years about steps taken to eliminate discrimination against women. Pakistan drafted its first report on prevailing condition of women in the country, submitted to UN in March 2005.
A five-member group comprising high-ranking officials of the Ministry and female lawyers was able to respond satisfactorily to questions raised by the experts. Later, the committee set some targets for the government and asked for monitoring steps taken in this regard in the next report, to be submitted in 2009.