The Paris Principles of December 1993, emphasise on the establishment of national institutions vested with competence to promote and protect human rights. These principles outline that these institutions shall be given as broad mandate as possible.
Following these principles, Pakistan established its National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) through the Act of the Parliament in 2012. At the time of its promulgation, human rights organisations and activists had applauded its belated creation and had also criticised its mandate as being derelict and toothless. Section 15 and 16 of the NCHR Act attracted maximum criticism as these sections restrict the NCHR investigation powers in cases where the perpetrators of the human rights violations are members of the armed forces or intelligence agencies.
The aim and purpose behind the establishment of the overdue NCHR were the promotion and protection of human rights as provided in the constitution and various international instruments to which Pakistan is state party or shall become a state party. The virtual founding took around four years. The members of NCHR were appointed in 2014 and the supporting staff was recruited in 2015-16. Similarly, NCHR (Complaint) Rules were notified after three years in 2015. The human rights activists argue that NCHR should be independent in budgetary matters and for achieving its ‘restricted mandate’, it should not be overshadowed by the Ministry of Human Rights or other bodies.
Beside the NCHR, Pakistan has established various other human rights institutions with different mandates, at the federal and provincial level. Among these institutions, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the KP Promotion, Protection and Enforcement of Human Rights Act was enacted on January 20 2014, to create Directorate for Human Rights. The mandate of the HR Directorate is the promotion, protection and enforcement of human rights. According to this Act, HR Directorate shall conduct inquiry into, and investigation, of human rights violations in the province and shall provide adequate relief for the redressal of the grievances of the aggrieved persons.
A year after the promulgation of the act, KP Directorate of Human Rights (Procedure) Rules was notified on June 22 2015. Two years later, staff/officials were appointed while the HR Directorate got its official website on January 9, 2017, three years after the enactment. The HR Directorate’s Advisory Committee was notified by the government, in February 2017, with its functions yet to be decided.
“The HR Directorate’s powers to summon an official/perpetrator are vague and the respondents often ignore the notices. These vague powers are the major obstacles in investigating a complaint,” an official of the HR Directorate told on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan has accepted various recommendations from different member states during second cycle of the UPR. These recommendations are all about strengthening these human rights institutions
The HR Directorate has been facing problems related to finance, service structure and the vague and overlapping mandate and rules. It does not have its district offices and has been forced to confer its powers on the district government pleaders, to serve as the District Human Rights Offices.
Similarly, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KP-CSW) was established under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women Act 2016. A year after the promulgation, the KP-CSW secretary was appointed on February 14 2017, while its belated rules were notified in May 2017. KP-CSW still has no functional District Committees as envisaged by its law. Besides the secretary, no officer ranked official has been appointed by the provincial government.
With the above two provincial institutions, the government of KP has also passed the KP Senior Citizens Act 2014. After a delay of two years, finally, the council was established in 2016 while its rules were notified in 2017. The council’s only meeting took place in 2017. Due to the lack of budgetary allocation by the provincial government , the council failed to accomplish its mandate and till date hasn’t issued a single senior citizen card.
Recalling Pakistan’s international obligations and the promises we made at the UN Human Rights Council, Pakistan had accepted and supported various recommendations from different member states during second cycle of the UPR. The recommendations which Pakistan supported are all about strengthening of these human rights institutions.
Qatar was asking Pakistan to ‘strengthen efforts to conclude the formation of the Independent National Commission for Human Rights, and ensure that all human and financial resources are provided to ensure the performance of its tasks effectively and in an independent and transparent manner’.
The GSP plus factor might have also played a vital role in pushing Pakistan to ratify different international human rights treaties and establish different institutions. But from the performance of these institutions, although Pakistan has created several institutions on paper the real task is yet to be accomplished. If the federal and provincial governments are realistic in the promotion and protection of human rights and are serious in complying with international obligations, they should strengthen, empower and support its human rights institutions.
The writer is Peshawar based lawyer. He can be reached at [email protected] Twitter: s_irshadahmad
Published in Daily Times, June 29th, 2017.