WOMEN EMPOWERMENT & GENDER EQUALITY
Women’s Empowerment Is The Core Mandate Of Awam Pakistan. For Awam, Empowering Women Is Crucial For Gender Equality As Empowerment Increases Their Self-worth, Decision-making Power, Access To Resources, Control Over Their Lives, And Ability To Influence Social Behaviors. Women And Girls Make Up Half Of The World’s Population, Which Means They Have Tremendous Potential To Contribute To Society. However, Gender Inequality Remains A Pervasive Issue That Hinders Social Progress. Trends And Tendencies To Accept Violence, Workplace Harassment, Discriminatory Laws And Customary Practices, And Discrimination At The Workplace Remain The Barriers Hindering Women’s Empowerment That Further Appreciates Gender Disparities And Inequalities.
In Pakistan’s socio-political context, the country has ratified several international agreements, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It is also under obligation to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Regarding it, successive governments have introduced numerous laws and policies and established human rights institutions to protect and promote human rights and women’s rights.
The primary focus of AWAM’s interventions is to identify and address the underlying societal factors that contribute to harmful practices such as early marriage, domestic violence, sexual harassment, gender equality, and discrimination. By targeting these root causes and working towards their elimination, AWAM is helping to create a safer and more equitable society for all.
The AWAM concentrates on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. For this, the AWAM is engaged with grassroots communities, authorities, and political decision-makers to influence the local trends and urge the authorities and political decision-makers to play their role in improving the status.
With respect to it, the organization is educating local communities about women’s rights, gender equality, customary practices that discriminate against women, and the impacts of rising trends and the tendency of underage marriages. The organization also provides information on laws that protect women’s rights and human rights.
The organization focuses on capacitating young women and encouraging them to play their leadership role in empowering women and women human rights defenders who are engaged in protecting the rights of women with disabilities, women belonging to religious minorities, and working women of informal sectors – particularly home-based and domestic workers.
The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (UNCEDAW), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 and 16 guided the AWAM’s strategic dimensions that encourage the organization to launch a number of campaigns such as capacitating women’s human rights defenders, countering early age marriages of girls, religious conversion of minority girls, encouraging girls’ education, sexual and reproductive health rights, and civil and political liberties of women.
