With the assistance of the Federal Foreign Office, Pakistan’s first training school for policewomen has opened in Lahore. The project, which the Federal Foreign Office has been sponsoring since June 2009, is aimed at improving the effectiveness of the Pakistan national police force in combatting violence 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 which would be necessary to investigate such crimes. In a number of police stations in Pakistan, this project is therefore setting up the first ever specifically designated places for female victims of violence to turn to. The intention is to make it easier for women affected by violent crimes to seek police help. Alongside improvements to prosecution practice, the plan is also to enable crimes of violence against women to be systematically recorded.

The project provides police officers with training in, for example, human rights, women’s rights and combatting crimes of violence against women. With a total of 1.8 million euro in Federal Foreign Office funding, it is being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH and intended to reach completion by April 2012.