Daily Times

LAHORE: Civil society organisations on Saturday announced the launch of Pakistan Human Rights Defenders Network (PHRDN), in response to the ever-increasing threats faced by individual human rights’ defenders and civil society organisations.

Representatives of different civil society organisations, including Tanveer Jahan of Democratic Commission of Human Development (DCHD), Irfan Mufti of South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP PK) and Bushra Khaliq of Women In Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) held a press conference at the Lahore Press Club.

The PHRDN would consist of more than 250 organisations, as it would be working for the protection of human rights’ defenders (HRDs) through advocacy.

While addressing the conference, Tanveer Jahan explained the reason behind setting up the network, saying that PHRDN has come out as a result of a research done by Democratic Commission for Human Development (DCHD) on HRDs, detailing the high risk faced by human rights’ activists in the country.

“It was noted that HRDs are often up against grave risks including abuses, threats, death threats, smearing campaigns, arbitrary arrests, detentions, forced disappearances, torture and even assassinations,” she said, adding that in the recent years, many HRDs witnessed a shrinking space as far as work safety is concerned. Rashid Rehman, Zarteef Afridi, Sabeen Mahmud, Jarar Malik, Parveen Rehman and Zafar Lund are some of the activists who have lost their lives in the line of duty, Tanveer further told the media persons.

She stressed that over-regulation by the state is not creating a conducive environment for HRDs, thus marginalizing regions of Balochistan, FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and south Punjab. “The declining human rights trends create a subculture of inefficiency and result in an environment of political instability,” she added.

Talking about the work of network, Irfan Mufti said that the network would form close liaison with existing official and unofficial protection mechanisms to ensure that those at risk are helped in time. The network also plans to engage in advocacy with the government and its various organs, particularly the parliament, for improved protection of human rights defenders in the country, he added.

Mufti said that a dedicated helpline number would be available for HRDs to record their complaints, adding that PHRDN has developed a specialised software to generate alerts and help network organisation members to immediately asses the risk and provide assistance.

The civil society members demanded the government to work in accordance with constitutional rights, international human rights’ obligations and provide more space for HRD work, and withdraw actions against civil society organisations by reopening their closed offices. They stressed that more room needs to be provided to human rights’ defenders for building a softer image of the country and creating an enabling environment for human rights’ defenders to counter the increasing international isolation.

The officials of HRDN included Tanveer Jahan as national coordinator, while steering committee consists of Peter Jacobs (Punjab), Zulfiqar Shah (Sindh), Ali Palh (Sindh), Ghulam Jan Mengal (Balochistan), Bushra Khaliq (Punjab), Munazza Hashmi (south Punjab) and Qamar Nasim (KP).