Violence Against Women in Punjab: CEDAW Compliance and Persistent Gaps

Abstract

This article analyzes one crisis, the violence against women (VAW) in Punjab, Pakistan, in the context of the CEDAW compliance. Although legislative progress has achieved significant gains in 2016 (such as the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act 2016), the Anti-Rape Act 2020, and the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2018, the VAW crisis still has no structural solution because of three compounding failures: the continued refusal to meet the CEDAW commitment through decades of not withdrawing the reservations on the main articles; a disastrous lack of connection between law and practice indicated by the pathetically low rates of conviction; The article argues that bridging the justice gap requires systemic change rather than gradual modification that will involve legal intervention and complete institutional investment as well as change in the cultural paradigms that perpetuate gender-based violence in Punjab.