WAR held an advocacy Seminar titled Rape & the Medico-legal Response to call for action for the adoption of best practices in medico-legal sector of Karachi in response to cases of sexual violence by identifying areas of improvement and bringing forward specific recommendations from the stakeholders.
The seminar had three principal objectives:
- Facilitate an understanding of evident problems in the medico-legal sector of Karachi with regard to providing comprehensive services, through examinations and appropriate documentation of sexual violence cases, and their implications on litigation and consequent convictions;
- Elicit viewpoints of development sector organizations and public sector, including judiciary and law enforcement, on medico-legal response to rape cases, and
- Suggest concrete measures for improving medico-legal response to cases of sexual violence
The panel of speakers from different civil society organizations and cross-party women legislators highlighted areas of improvements in the medico-legal sector and shared recommendations. This platform was also used to showcase policy recommendations developed by WAR in 2010, titled ‘Sexual Assault Documentation Protocols (SADPs), which is a second initiative by the organization since 2005 for improved documentation of case details. This event was covered by national print and electronic media.
