LAHORE: Increase in militancy and intolerance has threatened human rights in Pakistan, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said on Thursday. The HRCP, on the occasion of the World Human Rights Day on December 10, said that it was a time to reflect on the challenges and opportunities for realisation of human rights in the country. This year growing militancy, extremism and intolerance posed the main threat to people’s rights.
Many of the old challenges to human rights in Pakistan have remained, as new ones, such as clandestine detentions and enforced disappearances, seem to have taken a firm root. For the second year in a row, the number of internally displaced persons in Pakistan was higher than refugees. Extra-judicial killings and torture in jails and police stations continue while unmanned drones also continue to be used for extra-judicial killings in FATA with no accountability and complete absence of official statistics on the number of innocent civilians killed in the attacks.
Amongst the positive things this year, Pakistan ratified a number of important international human rights treaties becoming a party to all key human rights instruments and the 18th Constitutional Amendment was a good start in making much needed changes to the constitution.
But efforts to implement the amendment and create specific machinery for implementing international human rights treaties leave much to be desired. Towards the year’s end, the death sentence to Aasia Bibi on blasphemy charges and a cleric’s announcement for reward for her murder underlined the threats to citizens on account of bad laws and selective application of law, which in this case meant lack of action under the law despite incitement to murder.
In 2010, journalists continued to pay the price for freedom of expression with their lives in all parts of Pakistan. The country’s prisons are at bursting point as alternatives to imprisonment continue to be overlooked. Little headway has been made on the government’s promises on abolishing the death penalty, although the informal moratorium on executions meant that no death penalty convict was executed this year.
But awarding death sentences pushed the number of death row prisoners above 8,000. The worsening economic conditions have taken their toll on people’s ability to access basic needs and the country’s largely illiterate labour force has been the hardest hit amid growing unemployment.
December 10 also marks the second anniversary of the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
HRCP reiterates its call for Pakistan to ratify the optional protocol, which would not only ensure access to justice for victims of economic, social and cultural violations at the international level, but would also strengthen national systems to do the same.
Much needs to be done to realise the commitment to maintain and improve all human rights.
The array of challenges would no doubt be difficult to overcome soon but meaningful and sincere efforts are bound to start making a difference straightaway. The theme for the Human Rights Day 2010 is ‘human rights defenders who act to end discrimination’. There is an urgent need to recognise and prevent the great personal risks that rights defenders are exposed to because they speak out against abuse and violations. The day should serve as a reminder to the federal government of the primary responsibility it has to enable and protect the rights defenders’ role in the country.
