Sponsored By:
UN Women Pakistan
Pakistan is saying NO to violence against women and breaking the silence with its One Million Signature campaign!
UN Women Pakistan, in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Rights, the End Violence against Women Alliance in Pakistan and UN partners, launched the “One Million Signature Campaign” during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence. The campaign is raising awareness and actions nationally and internationally.
The campaign aims to collect 1 million signatures from people from all walks of life, including decision makers and influencers, such as government officials, parliamentarians, media personalities, academics, police and front line service providers. In addition to signing on to the campaign post cards, people are encouraged to pledge to take specific actions. Men and women are mobilizing in Pakistan, reading out to students, volunteering at local shelters, advocating for legislation, donating funds towards programmes that protect women and girls from violence, and more.
The campaign is increasing awareness and shaping public opinion in Pakistan regarding the negative impact of violence against women and girls, generating political commitments and support for some critical pending legislation, such as the Domestic Violence Bill and the Acid Crime and Prevention Bill. It will also generate momentum towards addressing women and girls in crisis.
Women and girls are among some of the most marginalized populations in Pakistan today. Violence against women is a human rights and health emergency in Pakistan— rape, honour-killing, trafficking of women, burning, acid attacks, denial of inheritance rights, giving of girls as compensation and other social and economic discriminations are common. The pending legislations on domestic violence and acid crime can pave the way towards ending impunity and preventing such violence. The recent humanitarian crisis in Pakistan brought more violence against women on its wake, and mechanisms for reporting violence have been lost. Legislation to address women and girls in crisis is urgently needed!
The campaign is collecting signatures, commitments and public resolutions from all provinces, and a charter of demands from 56 districts in Pakistan, which will be presented to the Prime Minister and President by February this year.
More than 400,000 signatures have been collected already, and more are coming in every day! With only few more weeks to go, help us spread the word and add your name in support of the 1 Million Campaign!
Add your Voice to Million Names Million Voices!
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Support the One Million Signature Campaign by signing the pledge on this page. We are still gathering signatures!
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Watch and share the campaign song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbwRet2j92Q
Sung by Pakistani singers Nouman Javaid and Khawar Jawad, the music video was launched during the 16 Days of Activism and aired on 17 channels reaching hundreds of thousands of people nationwide. The song "Socha Kabhi naa" calls out to men around the country to listen to the voices of women and to denounce gender-based violence in all forms.
| Action Type: | Awareness Raising |
Photo Gallery
_0.jpg "President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari signing the millionth signature_edit_595 (2)_0.jpg")
Video Gallery
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14 Aug 2012
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari became the one millionth signee in his country's One Million Signatures campaign to end violence against women during a ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadr on 27 July 2012. According to Valerie Khan, a Co-chair of the EVAWG Alliance, steps in Pakistan have motivated other countries to draft similar pro-women laws. Representatives from Rwanda, Cambodia, Nepal and India in particular, have consulted Alliance members on its three-step process for acid and burn-crime legislation. Read the full story here:http://saynotoviolence.org/around-world/news/one-million-sign-end-violence-against-women-pakistan
1 May 2012
The Million Voices campaign's signature drive ended on April 30. We have counted over 800,000 signatures so far, but signatures are still pouring in. The campaign has supported the passing of two pro-women laws to prevent and address violence against women and girls, and raised public awareness about these laws through mass media campaigns. The campaign organized many events and awareness activities engaging the public, government and UN agencies in Pakistan. Stay tuned for more updates from the campaign on this page. Check out the news article about the recently passed pro-women laws: http://saynotoviolence.org/around-world/news/pro-women-laws-take-hold-pakistan
17 Feb 2012
More than 700,000 signatures have already been counted for the Million Voices campaign and many positive developments are unfolding under the framework of this campaign! Two major laws were passed recently - one that will prosecute various forms of violence against women and girls, and another that will punish perpetrators of acid crime. A Charter of Demand from 57 districts of Pakistan has been developed with the help of UN Women, Oxfam GB and civil society organizations. More than 1500 women leaders and over 450,000 men and women change makers have been engaged to take action to bring behavior change in their communities about violence against women and girls, and to enable marginalized women to participate in decision making at home, in communities and in politics. A joint declaration was also developed by an alliance organizations to end violence against women on improving the criminal justice system. The Declaration will be submitted to the National Commission on the Status of Women, Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Human Rights, Law Enforcing Agencies, Police Departments, Supreme Court, High Court, District Courts (especially where organizations are working),Provincial Women's Departments.
Location
PakistanSponsor
Contact Information
UN Women Pakistan
Programme Analyst
katsuhiro.kaneko [at] unwomen.org
+92 51 2654 212
