Pakistan

Campaign for increasing community responsiveness against gender based discrimination and violence - a project by Baidarie Sialkot, Pakistan

The project was designed to address the issue of gender based violence against women that has become an endemic in Pakistani society and is taking a very heavy toll on the confidence, self-esteem and physical, mental and psychological health and even life of the targeted girls and women. It aimed at elimination /mitigation of the effects of the below listed factors that become instrumental in pacing up the discriminatory and violent behavior and conduct against women.

Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)

Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) was founded in August 1992 on the recommendation of the Pakistan National Conservation Strategy (NCS), also called Pakistan’s Agenda 21. SDPI's research program is multi-disciplinary and problem-oriented. It is an iterative and flexible program that evolves and changes with policy needs, research capacity and interest. There has been negligible research to determine how many women own land and how many control land.

Khawar Mumtaz

Ms.Khawar Mumtaz is a renowned Pakistani develoment activist and writer on Gender and Reproductive Health issues. She is associated with Shirkat Ghah, Women Resource Centre, Lahore,Pakistan.

War Against Rape (WAR)

WAR is a group of committed women and men dedicated to building a sensitised society free from gender-based oppression, discrimination, exploitation and violence. WAR aims to raise awareness about the issues of sexual violence and rape; help the survivors legally, psychologically and medically; punish the perpetrators and improve the laws relating to rape and other forms of sexual abuse and violence.

Women's Action Forum (WAF)

A women's rights organization and has a presence in several cities in Pakistan. It is a non-partisan, non-hierarchical and non-funded organization. It is supportive of all aspects of women's rights and related issues, irrespective of political affiliations, belief system, or ethnicity. Women's Action Forum came into being in Karachi in September 1981. The following year, the Lahore and then the Islamabad Chapters were formed. Some years later, the Peshawar chapter came into being. And in May 2008, a Chapter of WAF started in Hyderabad, in the Province of Sindh.

Shirkat Gah Women’s Resource Centre

Shirkat Gah is a women’s rights organisation based in Lahore, Pakistan, and acts as the regional office (RCO-Asia) of the international network Women Living Under Muslim Laws. It has provided support to women who have been subjected to forced marriages and has organised and campaigned around cases of 'honour killings' of women. It has also documented customary practices, including 'honour crimes', which result in violence against women throughout Pakistan. Shirkat Gah also has legal advice centres, researchers on health/reproductive rights, as well as VAW and equality under the law.

Aurat Foundation

Aurat Foundation has its Head Office in Islamabad, and four regional offices in the provincial capitals (Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta). AF is a civil society organisation working for women’s empowerment and citizens’ rights with the collaboration of citizens’ groups and organisations to provide information, build capacity and undertake advocacy for women’s issues and for good governance in Pakistan.

Applied Social Research Resource Centre (ASR)/ Institute of Women's Studies Lahore (IWSL) – resource centre Lahore

ASR/ IWSL is involved in a variety of academic and activist pursuits including community work, assisting theater and arts groups, producing films, and conducting academic courses. It established IWSL, and held the first women's studies conference in Pakistan. It also established the first feminist press in Pakistan. IWSL is committed to promoting connections between theory and practice in its work and understands that rigorous academic training can inform the ways social justice is sought. Knowledge is seen to have an important role in the transformation of both individuals and societies.

AGHS Legal Aid Cell

A human rights and legal aid organization operating in Pakistan since 1980. It was the first legal aid organization established in the country. The major focus of the organization has been the rights of women, children and minorities in Pakistan. It has been an objective of the organization to use legal aid and related initiatives for the promotion, protection and implementation of human rights.

Women’s inheritance rights to land in South Asia: A study of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

The study reviews the formal and customary laws and practices governing the rights of women to inherit land in six South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). The study includes an analysis of existing laws and customs and their impact on inheritance and land rights in all six countries. It also provides recommendations for how to design interventions that can attempt to improve women’s inheritance rights.