Project summary  

Pakistan’s human rights landscape reflects both achievements and persistent challenges. While the country has made progress in aligning laws with international standards, vulnerable groups including women, children, transgender persons, persons with disabilities, and minorities continue to face systemic discrimination and limited access to justice. Human rights defenders often work under threat, while institutional weaknesses, regional instability, and extremist influences further constrain progress. The 18th Amendment devolved authority to provinces but also created gaps in institutional capacity, coordination, and service delivery.

In response, the Decentralization, Human Rights and Local Governance (DHL) project aims to strengthen rights-based development, community stabilization, gender equality, and social inclusion across Pakistan. It provides technical assistance and capacity development support to relevant federal ministries, provincial line departments, National and subnational Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), statutory bodies, civil society organizations, and the private sector. The project also seeks to create an enabling environment for faster, fairer access to rights and people-centered justice and security by strengthening institutions, enhancing data-driven human rights monitoring, and improving state-society linkages between rights holders and duty bearers.

Objectives  

• Improve the effectiveness of institutions and systems that promoe, protect, and fulfill human rights.
• Strengthen private sector engagement in the protection of human rights and promotion of gender equality.
• Promote peacebuilding through conflict transformation approaches.  

Outcomes  

• Pakistan’s human rights ecosystem is strengthened through technical assistance to the Government of Pakistan for policy development, implementation, and digitized human rights reporting mechanisms; enhanced monitoring and protection capacities of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in line with the Paris Principles; and advancing human rights education in partnership with leading academic institutions.
• The private sector is actively engaged in promoting and protecting human rights in business activities, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.
• Community resilience and community-based peacebuilding initiatives are strengthened, including responses to climate insecurity, with a focus on empowering women leaders to promote gender-responsive approaches to stabilization.