The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (‘BHRC’) will host a virtual panel event on Wednesday 15 February 2023 bringing leading lawyers and civil society representatives to spotlight serious concerns about human rights violations and the rule of law in Pakistan. This panel event is the third in BHRC’s ‘Diminishing Democracy’ series following earlier events on rule of law in India held virtually in September 2021 and Sri Lanka held in October 2022.
In recent years, BHRC, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, and many other international human rights organisations have voiced increasingly serious concerns over human rights and rule of law violations in Pakistan, including the crackdown on freedom of expression and freedom of the press with the Pakistan Media Development Authority Ordinance, which grants the government unchecked powers to punish journalists, according to Amnesty International, with steep fines enforced by special ‘media tribunals’. Civil society activism and dissent is being curtailed under arbitrary and punitive harassment and detention of journalists, lawyers, and civil society representatives (strictly regulated through the Policy for Regulation of International Non-Governmental Organizations in Pakistan) for any criticism of government actions, officials, or policies. Television channels that have aired programmes critical of the government have been blocked in several instances, as has country access to social media platforms such as TikTok. NGO workers have reported endemic harassment, intimidation, and surveillance by security agencies, and draconian sedition and counterterrorism legislation are commonly used to stifle and punish dissent.
Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, freedom of religion continues to be undermined, and women, religious minorities, and LGBTQ+ communities continue to face violence, persecution, and discrimination, with authorities and agencies rarely if ever held accountable for torture and other grievous human rights abuses, including detention without charge, enforced disappearances (with at least 2,219 cases pending as of June 2022), and extrajudicial killings. Protestors have been dispersed with violence and excessive use of force, and according to Human Rights Watch, “violence against women and girls — including rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage — is endemic throughout Pakistan”, with human rights defenders estimating that around 1000 women are killed in ‘honour killings’ each year.
Despite the enshrinement of its international obligations on fundamental human rights in Chapter 1 of Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution, BHRC continues to observe serious violations of international human rights standards and endemic corruption in Pakistan. BHRC has previously called for Pakistan to respect its international legal duty to protect lawyers and to respect international human rights frameworks and rule of law principles. The UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers underline the Government’s duty to ensure that lawyers can perform their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment, or improper interference. BHRC reminds Pakistan of its obligations under international law not only to respect and protect the rights to freedom of assembly and expression but also to actively promote and facilitate their exercise; and calls for strengthened protections for human rights defenders in Pakistan, including lawyers, judges, journalists, and civil society practitioners.
In this session, which will be chaired by BHRC Executive Committee Member Zimran Samuel MBE, we will discuss:
- The importance of respecting the rule of law and the obligations of Pakistan under international law to respect fundamental rights (not only to respect and protect the rights to freedom of assembly, religion and expression but also to actively promote and facilitate their exercise);
- The urgent need for strengthened safeguards / protection for and an end to the persecution of Pakistani human rights defenders, including lawyers, judges, journalists, protestors, and civil society practitioners;
- International calls for an end to enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture in Pakistan (noting that Pakistan has yet to enact any legislation criminalising torture despite the obligation to do so under the UN Convention against Torture);
- The urgent need to strengthen protections and remedy for victims of sexual and gender-based violence; and
- The role that corruption plays in rights-abusing political and economic frameworks in Pakistan; international standards on anti-corruption and how these should be urgently implemented with appropriate and independent mechanisms of accountability designed to strengthen rights protections overall.
Panel Chair & Speakers
Zimran Samuel MBE, Member of the BHRC Executive Committee
Farooq Aftab, Human Rights Activist, Solicitor & Secretariat, Human Rights Committee, UK
Jalila Haider, Human Rights Attorney & Activist, Pakistan
Saif Ul Mulook, Human Rights Attorney & Activist, Pakistan
Registration
Registration for this panel event is now open: REGISTER HERE
https://www.reuters.com/article/pakistan-tiktok-ban-idUSL4N2H02HG
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/pakistan#72d33e
https://theowp.org/reports/investigating-pakistans-human-rights-violations-an-analysis/
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/pakistan#72d33e
