SHELTER CITY LECTURE

Defending Women's rights in Pakistan.

Wednesday 4 June, 19:30

Tapijn Z, Tapijnkazerne 21

Shelter City Fellow Imrana Imdad will give a talk about her struggle to defend Women's rights in Pakistan. Imrana Imdad is a psychologist, a mental health advocate, a human rights defender and a founder of the Imdad Wellbeing Society working in Balochistan; Pakistan’s most remote, conflict-affected, and climate crisis hit province. With a population of 15 million, Balochistan is the country’s poorest province, hard-hit bymilitancy, natural disasters, and extreme poverty. Imrana’s mission is to provide mental health counseling and to create safe spaces for survivors of terrorism, climate-induced disasters, and gender-based violence (GBV).

This lecture is organized by Dialogue Centre Omnium (Studium Generale) and the Shelter City Project.

The Shelter City Project is a country-wide initiative by Justice and Peace Netherlands, in cooperation with Dutch cities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which aims to protect human rights defenders. Human rights defenders stand up for their own rights and those of others. This is a difficult struggle. Often, they run great risk: they are silenced, arrested, tortured, and sometimes simply disappear. When human rights defenders are threatened severely because of their work, they are eligible for a three-month stay in one of the Dutch Shelter Cities. Besides providing rest and respite, their stay in the Netherlands allows them to continue their work in a safe environment. In addition, they enlarge their professional network of civil society organizations and political connections in The Hague, Brussels, and elsewhere. Furthermore, the human rights defenders participate in training courses to develop relevant skills. Moreover, through public events and workshops, they contribute to raising awareness about human rights among the citizens of the Shelter Cities.