Abstracts
Women’s/Gender Issues
Panel: Displacement, Livelihoods and Rights: Gendered Experiences
Session I
 Linkages Between Gender Discrimination and Women’s Trafficking: A National and Regional Study
Zia Ahmed Awan*
A glance at the socio political scenario of South Asia reveals that gender-based violence is deep-rooted in its societies irrespective of nationality, culture, religion, language and ethnicity. Women are not given their due share and respect, and are treated as a cattle. The paper will cover the areas of gender-based violence with respect to trafficking issues at the regional and domestic front.
Trafficking of women is a serious issue. It is a multidimensional problem, which intensifies the issues like HIV/AIDS. Trafficking in women has increased voluminously due to the negligence of government. It is estimated that more than a million women and children are trafficked every year and forced into prostitution and forced marriages. Many of the female survivors end up in jails unaware about their legal rights. Moreover, refugees also end up in jails due to the non-availability of laws protecting their rights in the destination country.
This paper will take into account the regional and domestic scenario of the issue; gender-based socio-customary practices; political turmoil and civil unrest across the South Asia; and linkages between gender-based violence, trafficking, HIV/AIDS, migration and refugees. A five-year data on gender-based violence in Pakistan (source: MADADGAAR Research and Documentation Center) will be shared through this paper. Mechanism for protection of women at the regional and national levels, lacunas in the existing national laws (discriminatory and conventions on refugees), and the figures related to women in custody will be discussed.
* Zia Ahmad Awan is a lawyer raising voice against discriminatory laws and human rights abuses in addition to facilitating access of the poor and disadvantaged groups to the legal system in Pakistan.
Sunflower, the Smiling Face of Lucre: Impact of Transnational Corporations on Peasant Women
Azra Talat Saeed
Peasant women in Pakistan are one of the most marginalized and downtrodden sections of the Pakistani society. In Badin, Sindh, peasant women are the backbone of agricultural production. Policy implementation, however, is totally oblivious to their enormous contributions to the country's economy. With the onslaught of globalization, and the resultant trade liberalization policies in the agricultural sector, especially with respect to the WTO-related policies, many concrete structural changes have been enacted in agricultural policies. The policies have allowed the presence of agro-chemical transnational corporations to be very visible in agricultural production. This paper will provide a detailed overview of the impact of liberalization in the seed sector on the livelihood, daily living conditions, and the emerging migration patterns of Sindhi peasant women.
* Dr Azra Talat Saeed has done B. Pharm from the University of Karachi, MS Pharmacy from the University of Utah, and Ph.d from the University of MN in Pharmacy. She has taught at the University of Karachi's Women Studies Center for seven years. She is currently Convener of Women and Environment Task Force, Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development. She is also director of Roots for Equity, an NGO working on Globalization, Sustainable Agriculture, Women Workers, Child Labor and Education.
Refugees or Displaced: The Future of Afghans in Pakistan
Saba Gul Khattak
This paper looks at the situation of the post 1979 Afghan refugees in Pakistan whose status has recently become a subject of debate. The 25-year-long violent conflict in Afghanistan has seen several changes of governments and political regimes as well as direct interventions by the former USSR and USA. Each change in regime and/or foreign intervention was followed by a new set of refugees to Pakistan and Iran. While many have settled in their host countries, a whole generation of Afghans was also born and grew up in the host countries. The status of these second generation refugees is completely anomalous.
This paper looks at the Afghan refugee situation in Pakistan in light of the impending expiry of Tripartite Agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR. According to this Agreement, the Pakistan government agreed to host the refugees for 3 years after the Bonn Agreement and the institution of the Karzai government. It was assumed that Afghanistan would return to normalcy and refugees would be able to return. The recent census of Afghan refugees indicates that clearly this has not been the case as over three million continue to reside in Pakistan.
What options are available to the Government of Pakistan, and what options will the Pakistan government make available to the refugees? Will Afghans be declared economically displaced and absorbed or, will they be pushed back into Afghanistan? Can their livelihood be assured in either country? This paper will analyze the political realist and humanitarian debate on refugees and argue for a solution based on respect for human rights as a long-term political solution.
* Dr. Saba Gul Khattak is Executive Director of Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).
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