Karachi: The province’s top judge said on Tuesday that the longstanding gender subordination and discrimination issues had to be addressed and viewed from a proper prospective.
Sindh High Court Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar was addressing the concluding session of a gender equity project organised for judicial officers.
The SHC chief justice said in an ideal situation, women and men would have equal access to education, health, administration, managerial positions and equal salaries, and equally contribute to and benefit from economic, social cultural and political development.
“The UN’s economic and social council has explained gender mainstreaming as a process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action including legislation, policies or programmes in any area and at all levels,” he added.
Baqar noted that it had been rightly observed by the International Labour Organisation in its report that for creating gender equality, both women and men had to be treated fairly according to their needs and they should receive treatment which was equal in terms of rights, benefit, obligations and opportunities.
“In the modern world, global efforts, by the way of legislation, judicial interpretation and determination, administrative measures and social and cultural adjustments, are being made to remove disparity in the power relation between men and women which has created male dominance over women,” he observed.
He said gender sensitisation was all about changing behaviour and instilling empathy in our views about the other gender and it created respect for the individual irrespective of their genders.
He expressed hope that the training project on gender equality would enhance the ability of the judges to recognise gender issues and create an understanding of the socio-cultural factors responsible for the discrimination based on gender and enable them to interpret and apply the relevant laws in an effective and beneficial manner.
He appreciated the efforts by the Sindh Judicial Academy, the USAid and the Aurat Foundation for successfully launching the project on gender equality and gender sensitivity. He hoped that the step would go a long way in creating sensitivity towards gender equality and in the enforcement of legislative measures and judicial determination for achieving gender equity.
