Germany supports gender responsive policing in Pakistan

Pakistan’s first training school for female police officers was recently inaugurated in Lahore. The school’s set up was supported by the Gender Responsive Policing (GRP) Project, which aims to improve the effectiveness of the Pakistan national police force in combating violence against women.

The Gender Responsive Policing Project is a bilateral initiative of the governments of Pakistan and Germany, funded by the German foreign office and implemented through the National Police Bureau of Pakistan (NPB) and German International Cooperation (GIZ). The overall objective of the project is to enable the NPB to develop and implement policies to combat violence against women by strengthening the Gender Crime Center (GCC) and taking into consideration the principles of the rule of law and gender equality.

Working with a nationwide focus, the project provides police officers with training in areas such as human rights, women’s rights and dealing with crimes of violence against women. The German contribution is in the form of technical assistance and advice on developing concepts and processes in line with the project’s objectives and its components.

Specificially, the GRP project in Pakistan consists of four components—developing a National Gender Strategy; improving collection and processing of data on crimes against women; capacity building for gender responsive policing; and supporting the implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to deal with crimes against women.

Women in Pakistan often do not dare report crimes of violence. When they do, it does not automatically follow that the police and judicial authorities will take the steps necessary to investigate such crimes.

GRP is therefore setting up the first ever specifically designated places for female victims of violence to turn to in a number of police stations in Pakistan. The intention is to make it easier for women affected by violent crimes to seek police help.

Since its implementation in 2009, the GRP project has created a niche by engaging the police in gender auditing and has paved the way for a Gender Strategy for Pakistan. Space has been created for deputation of women police in the Ladies Complaint Units (LCUs) of mainstream police stations. The presence of women at the police stations has increased the reporting and police handling of crimes against women.

The recently-inaugurated training school in Pakistan’s Punjab province has opened up specialised skill courses for women to be deputed as investigative officers. There has been interest amongst training institutes of other provinces as well to establish similar training campuses and specialised courses for women.