Daily Times

Lahore: Amongst initiatives taken for protection of Pakistani citizen’s rights since ratification of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Pakistani delegation highlighted enactment of pro-women and anti-child labour laws at its first-ever review by United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) on July 11-12.

However, the delegation remained unable to ‘satisfactorily’ respond to questions pertaining to executions, military courts, enforced disappearances, abuse of blasphemy laws and curbs on freedom of expression, according to rights activists some of whom attended the review proceedings.

Activists and lawyers criticised the failure of the delegation to come up with any assurances or timeframe in which the country would see tangible improvements in preventing violations stemming from these issues.

Speaking to Daily Times, Amnesty International Pakistan cmapaigner Nadia Rahman said it was encouraging to hear about initiatives taken on protection of women’s rights and against child labour. “But sadly the Pakistani delegation evaded questions and gave unsatisfactory responses on other issues relating to civil and political rights,” she said.

These included the issue of enforced disappearances. Rahman noted that a delegation member went as far as to suggest “some people choose to go missing on purpose”.

She also found disturbing the delegation’s unwillingness to accept that the country’s use of death penalty, military courts, and blasphemy laws as well as criminalisation of homosexuality was contrary to Pakistan’s obligations under international law.

“The UN Human Rights Committee has asked a lot of difficult questions from Pakistan on issues that Amnesty and other organisations have offered specific recommendations on – through reports, briefings, and letters to the government. We hope that these recommendations will be implemented as fully as possible before Pakistan’s universal periodic review in November,” she said.

Commenting on Pakistani delegation’s inability to respond to questions on violations of rights, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Pakistan representative Saroop Ijaz said that the sheer magnitude of violations in the past few years would have left the delegation with little in terms of substance to respond to the reviewing committee’s questions.

Ijaz also took exception to the narrative toed by the delegation that Pakistan was facing an exceptional situation. He said most countries in our region could say so with reference to their domestic affairs. “The government cannot shy away from its responsibility towards fundamental rights of all its citizens,” he said. Ijaz said this should be done first and foremost because it was the right thing to do and since Pakistan was a signatory to the UN convention. Nonetheless, he noted, the government had a utilitarian reason to implement all articles of the treaty as well. It could not expect to be heard at various international forums if it could not even fulfill bare minimum requirements of democratic polities. With the conclusion of the two-day review, the UNHRC 18-member committee would now be compiling its concluding remarks’ report. These remarks hold significant importance for the country’s economy. In particular, the GSP+ status of the country allowing preferential trade regime will hinge on review findings.

Reema Omer of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) notes that the next assessment report was due in Jan 2018. “The report will look at how far Pakistan has met conditions of GSP+ including implementation of treaties such as the ICCPR. The European Union will then use this report to decide whether or not to extend Pakistan’s GSP+ status,” she says.

Omer adds that the concluding remarks and recommendations of the reviewing committee would be highly authoritative. “Compliance by state parties is a strong indication of their commitment to international obligations and respect for human rights,” she said.

Published in Daily Times, July 14^th , 2017.