Daily Times

One-Stop Centers (OSC) both in private and public spaces have been established in some countries of the world to provide integrated multi-disciplinary free-of-cost support/assistance under one roof to women, girls including children affected by violence and abuse. OSC facilitate for provision of immediate emergency and non-emergency access to a range of services including medical, legal, temporary shelter, police assistance, and psychological and counselling support to survivors of abuse. Where these centres are unable to provide such multidisciplinary services under one roof, they follow the referral approach by referring the survivor of abuse/violence to their identified partners providing specific support services with mutual coordination.

Most of the One Stop Centers in the world are either hospital-based as in Thailand and Zambia or police/justice-based as in Denmark and Mexico. Hospital-based OSCs are far more effective at delivering medical care and behavioural and mental health services. Police-based or justice centers are far more effective at addressing legal issues, but often not that effective at connecting victims/survivors to health care or mental health providers.

Multidisciplinary collaboration in abuse/violence cases is not exercised by law enforcement agencies in Pakistan.

In India, One Stop Centers have been established in every district of the country which provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence and in distress. The needy women including those affected by violence along with their children (girls of all ages and boys up to 12 years of age) can avail temporary shelter at the OSC for a maximum period of 5 days. For long-term shelter requirements, arrangements are made by OSC in coordination with Shakti Sadan. In case girls below the age of 18 years are referred to the Centre, they are also provided services in coordination with concerned authorities/institutions.

Multidisciplinary collaboration in the investigation of criminal cases against women and children has been recommended in multiple international directives, conventions and reports. Many countries and regions have developed strategies to promote cross-agency, multidisciplinary collaboration among the professionals engaged in the prevention, recognition, intervention, investigation and prosecution of abuse/violence cases so that trauma-informed, woman- and child-centred, culturally responsive, and rights-based care to victim/survivor could be ensured. The aim of the multidisciplinary collaborative response in abuse/violence cases is to provide speedy justice to victims/survivors of varying ages and developmental abilities, minimize their re-traumatization and assist them in the provision of legal, medical, shelter and psycho-social services.

Multidisciplinary collaboration in abuse/violence cases is not exercised by law enforcement agencies in Pakistan. They don’t involve other stakeholders/agencies to share their information/experiences in these cases and tend to keep the information to themselves, which seriously jeopardizes the process of provision of justice to victims in such cases. Although the multidisciplinary collaboration in terrorism cases has improved in recent years, further cooperation and coordination are desired in abuse/violence cases regarding medical evidence examination and its preservation, perpetrator detection intelligence sharing etc.

OSCs are very important platforms for the provision of multidisciplinary (legal, medical, shelter, financial and psycho-social) collaborative services to victims of abuse in one place, but unfortunately, such centres are missing places at city or district level across Pakistan for the general public. It is therefore recommended that such OSC should be established in every city where the representatives of law enforcement agencies, forensic medical experts, lawyers, and psycho-social councillors/psychologists are present along with other state-of-the-art resources and equipment so that the instant medical, legal, psycho-social and shelter services be provided to the victims for their rehabilitation and preservation of forensic evidence. At the same time, the representatives of the multidisciplinary agencies in OSC should be well-trained and capable of handling cases of abuse and violence skillfully.

The Standard Operating Procedures, rules and regulations to handle the cases of abuse by the representatives of multidisciplinary agencies in OSC should be well drafted and comprehended by the representatives. The SOPs/rules describe the roles and duties of the multidisciplinary agencies’ representatives in the OSC and key services offered by the OSC with mutual collaboration of its multidisciplinary members. The system to respond the cases of abuse/violence in the OSC should be like this, as soon as the case is reported to the OSC, the representatives of relevant agencies in the OSC would be intimated instantly about the case if the information relates to them and appropriate action be taken by them instantly.

As a good start to implement the project of OSC, it should be piloted in any city or town and be monitored in its performance delivery. Any deficiencies and loopholes in its working should be critically examined and eliminated. So, once the OSC is fully operational and its loopholes, and defects are fully removed, these should be replicated in other cities/towns and ultimately all over the country. Once the communities in cities and towns become aware of the functions of OSC, it will automatically create awareness in the general public about how to seek a multidisciplinary collaborative response in one place in abuse and violence cases. In this way, reporting and response rates in abuse/violence cases will also be increased and survivors will receive all the necessary support services in one place.

The writer is an Advocate (High Court) & Human Rights Activist. He can be reached at adv.wajahat.ali@gmail.com and tweets @Adv_WajahatAli