24 April 2025, Islamabad -Victims of terrorism often experience long-lasting trauma and barriers to receiving justice, care, and compensation. To build a more responsive and standardised system of victim support at the provincial level, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), hosted a three-day workshop in Islamabad. The workshop focused on the implementation of Pakistan’s victim assistance and protection guidelines for officials from Sindh. The event brought together 24 participants, including 8 women, from the Home, Social Welfare, Health, Prosecution, and Counter Terrorism Departments of Sindh.
This workshop is part of a national training series aimed at operationalising Pakistan’s victim assistance policies at the provincial level.
The first day of the workshop opened with welcome remarks from UNODC and NACTA representatives, followed by a situational overview of terrorism’s impact in Pakistan, delivered by Dr. Khuram Iqbal, Professor at the National Defence University and a national expert on counterterrorism and victim data. He also facilitated sessions on identifying victims and building a reliable data entry system. Ms. Saania Rubab, Senior Programme Associate at UNODC, introduced the role of Victim Support Officers in multi-agency coordination. Legal expert Barrister Muhammad Abubakar, a senior private legal practitioner, elaborated on the legislative framework, while Dr. Ahtisham Ali, a journalist, led a session on media ethics and safeguarding victim privacy.
The second day focused on institutional responses and ethical service delivery. Dr. Khuram Iqbal guided participants through discussions on countering violent extremism through victim empowerment. Dr. Uzma Ali, a practitioner psychologist from the Institute of Clinical Psychology, delivered a session on the ethical principles for providing psychosocial support to victims. Further sessions explored inter-agency referrals, access to justice, long-term community-based support systems, and strategies for ensuring victim participation in trials.
On the final day, participants engaged in a comprehensive, scenario-based group exercise simulating emergency, mid-term, and long-term responses. The exercise covered victim identification, needs assessments, information sharing, protection mechanisms, and compensation. The workshop concluded with group presentations and a certificate distribution ceremony acknowledging the commitment of Sindh’s officials to improving victim support delivery.
The workshop served as a key milestone in implementing a provincialised approach to Pakistan’s national victim support framework. Organised under the EU-funded Countering and Preventing Terrorism in Pakistan (CPTP) project and implemented by UNODC in collaboration with NACTA, this initiative is building the foundation for an effective and victim-centred provincial response system across Pakistan.
