The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday organised a training workshop on Pakistan’s international legal obligations with respect to human rights. Supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, the workshop’s aim was to introduce participants to the nature and scope of Pakistan’s obligations under the core human rights instruments it has ratified, as well as key human rights mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review. Kamran Arif, Vice Chair of HRCP’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter, explained the changing concept of sovereignty in international law in terms of the state’s ‘duty to protect’ and its accountability to the international community through UN treaty bodies and mechanisms. Pointing out that the United Nations could be said to have ‘invented’ human rights, he described how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights came to be developed, followed by the process of setting standards to ensure that these rights could be made enforceable. Discussing the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), Arif pointed out that the right to freedom from torture was an absolute right with no circumstances that ever justified the practice of torture or of cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment.