Women and Girls’ Rights in Pakistan: From Promises to Protection

Pakistan does not lack laws protecting women and children. It lacks, far too often, the effective implementation of those laws.

The Constitution guarantees equality, dignity and protection of life and liberty. Pakistan is also a State party to two important international human rights conventions: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to which it acceded in 1996, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which it ratified in 1990.

Yet women and girls across Pakistan continue to face domestic violence, sexual violence, harassment, forced and child marriage, honour-based violence, exploitation and discrimination. The gap between legal rights and lived reality remains enormous.

The recent case of Hina Javed in Rawalpindi is a painful reminder of that reality. Hina Javed, a 45-year-old digital media executive, was found dead in her apartment in August 2026. Initial reports stated that she had been found with her hands tied and a wire around her neck, while her husband and a domestic worker were arrested in connection with the investigation. The allegations must ultimately be determined through due process and evidence.

But her death raises a larger question: when a woman is unsafe in her own home, where is the State?

For decades, violence within families has too often been dismissed as a “private matter.” Women are encouraged to remain silent for the sake of the family, while survivors are sometimes questioned about their behaviour rather than perpetrators being held accountable.

Human rights do not stop at the front door of a home.

CEDAW is often described as the international bill of rights for women. Its importance lies in recognising that discrimination against women does not occur only through discriminatory government policies. It can also exist through customs, social practices, stereotypes and structures within families and communities.

This is particularly relevant to Pakistan.

A woman’s right to dignity does not disappear when she gets married. Her right to life does not become a family matter. Her right to equality does not depend upon whether her family approves of her choices.

CEDAW requires States to take effective measures to eliminate discrimination and address gender-based violence. This includes ensuring access to justice, effective investigations, protection and support for survivors.

The obligation is therefore not merely to punish a woman’s killer after she dies. It is to build institutions capable of protecting her before she becomes a victim.

When the victim is a girl, the State’s responsibility becomes even greater.

A girl is protected against gender discrimination under the principles of CEDAW, but she is also a child and therefore enjoys the additional protections of the CRC.

The CRC recognises children as independent rights-holders. They are not the property of their parents, families or communities.

It requires States to respect the principles of non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development, and the right of children to be heard.

These principles must fundamentally change the way Pakistan responds to violence against girls.

A girl who is sexually abused is not merely the victim of a crime. She is a child whose rights to protection, dignity and development have been violated.

A girl forced into marriage is not simply the subject of a family decision. Her best interests, safety, development and evolving capacity matter.

A girl denied education because she is female is not simply missing school. Her future is being taken away from her.

And a child living in a violent household is not witnessing a “family dispute.” She is a child exposed to violence from which the State has an obligation to protect her.

Children are particularly vulnerable because they depend upon adults for their safety, shelter and financial security. The person responsible for protecting a child may sometimes be the very person causing the harm.

Girls face an additional vulnerability because childhood inequality is often compounded by gender discrimination.

This is why CEDAW and CRC must be understood together.

A sixteen-year-old girl who is sexually assaulted is simultaneously a child protected under the CRC and a female person protected against gender-based discrimination under CEDAW.

Her rights cannot be divided into separate categories.

The first question in such cases should not be, “What will protect the family’s reputation?”

It should be:

“What will protect the child?”

No family’s honour is more valuable than a girl’s safety.

Pakistan’s problem is implementation

Pakistan’s Constitution provides important safeguards. Article 9 protects life and liberty; Article 25 guarantees equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex; Article 14 protects dignity; and Article 35 requires the State to protect marriage, the family, the mother and the child.

Together with domestic legislation, CEDAW and CRC provide a substantial legal framework.

But legislation on paper does not automatically produce justice.

A woman may have the right to report violence, but what happens if her complaint is ignored?

A child may have a right to protection, but what happens if she is returned to the environment in which she was abused?

A survivor may reach court, but what happens if the case takes years and she is repeatedly forced to relive her trauma?

The existence of a law is not the same as access to justice.

What must change?

Pakistan needs structural reform rather than temporary outrage after every tragedy.

First, police officers, prosecutors, judges, doctors, teachers and social workers must receive specialised training in gender-based and child violence.

Second, cases involving children must be handled through trauma-informed and child-sensitive procedures, so that children are not repeatedly forced to recount traumatic experiences.

Third, survivors need accessible shelters, legal aid, psychological support and effective protection mechanisms.

Fourth, Pakistan needs coordinated child-protection systems linking police, medical services, forensic experts, social workers and courts.

Fifth, schools must provide age-appropriate education on dignity, personal safety, bodily autonomy, boundaries and how to seek help.

Sixth, the State must collect reliable data on domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, child marriage, investigations, prosecutions and convictions. What is not properly measured cannot effectively be addressed.

Finally, society must confront victim-blaming. A woman’s clothing does not cause rape. A child’s behaviour does not cause abuse. A woman leaving an abusive relationship does not justify violence.

From promises to protection

Pakistan has already made the promise.

It made it through its Constitution. It made it when it ratified the CRC. It made it when it acceded to CEDAW.

The challenge now is to turn those promises into lived rights.

The true measure of a country is not how many laws it has enacted or conventions it has ratified. It is whether a woman can walk into a police station and be heard; whether a girl can disclose abuse and be protected; whether a survivor can enter a courtroom without being humiliated; and whether the State intervenes before violence becomes another tragedy.

Women’s rights are human rights.

Children’s rights are human rights.

And the rights of girls stand at the intersection of both.