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  #1  
Old Saturday, March 31, 2012
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Default Human Rights Issue (Important Articles)

Pakistan National Human Rights Commission
March 31, 2012
By Iqbal Alimohamed

An important development occurred recently, which could represent a major turning point in Pakistan’s history. For a long time, Pakistan has been criticised by civil society organisations and international bodies such as the Amnesty International, for its woeful human rights record and, importantly, for its failure to establish a national human rights commission in line with a 1993 UN Resolution which urged member states to demonstrate their commitment to human rights through the setting up of national commissions.

Recently, the impending passage of a bill established the Pakistan National Human Rights Commission (PNHRC), which has been given unprecedented powers to deal with complaints of human rights violations. Once passed, the bill will become an Act of parliament and demonstrate its fullest commitment to the cause of human rights.

Perhaps, the most important provision of the bill is the call to stop the phenomenon of enforced disappearances. I recently attended a conference of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances, bringing together groups and individuals from around the world — surviving victims, friends and family members of those who had disappeared — with many human rights organisations. For me, as an invited guest observer, the conference was an eye-opener. Sovereign states, directly or through hired agents, commit horrendous acts of abductions, torture and wanton killing, with impunity and without any accountability. It became evident that in over half of the countries of the world, disappearances, torture and inhumane treatment are standard practices. Yet, all these countries are members of the UN and are signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which Article Five states that: “No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Enforced or involuntary disappearances constitute the most abominable form of human rights violations. Worse, the victims’ relatives also suffer deep anguish, not knowing if their loved ones are alive and fear for their own safety with no legal support. In resorting to enforced disappearances, states attempt to hide their practices of torture and extra-judicial killings.

The UN has faced this problem since the mid-1970s following enforced disappearances carried out by repressive regimes in Central and South America, the Balkans, Asia and Africa. On December 20, 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. It came into force on December 23, 2010. To date, however, only 90 of the 193 UN member states have signed it and only 30 have ratified it. Conspicuously absent from the list of signatories are Canada, Russia, China and the US.

A UN committee now exists to promote wider ratification of the Convention by governments and to monitor effective implementation of its provisions. Many governments have not yet codified these provisions into their domestic legislation. This process is necessary for perpetrators to be held accountable for their actions and justice rendered through reparations to victims and their families. In the case of the US, its setting up of undeclared detention centres in other countries and secretly disappearing those it regards as enemy combatants, under the so-called ‘renditions’ policy, is misguided. The Amnesty International and the Centre for Constitutional Rights have documented 50 such disappearances to date.

As Pakistan strives to put its own national human rights commission effectively in place, it is hoped that it will demonstrate that the underpinnings of true democracy lie in the values, ideals and respect it cherishes for fundamental human rights. It is in this context that the PNHRC must re-examine the administration’s policies and practices to assess if these meet the test of the world’s scrutiny and, as a first step, strive to sign — and eventually ratify — the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. This would be an exemplary act for other governments to follow.

The Express Tribune
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  #2  
Old Wednesday, April 17, 2013
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Default Human rights and the future

Human rights and the future
By Rafia Zakaria

THE Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s annual report was released last week. Unsurprisingly, it is a compendium of the country’s failures over the past year.

From freedom of thought and religion to freedom of movement, nearly every area seems to have suffered — and suffered tremendously. In 2012, 583 Pakistanis were killed in 213 sectarian terrorist attacks; 913 girls were killed in ‘honour’ killings; 14 journalists died while doing their jobs; over 200 factory workers perished in a factory fire.

These are the stories of the dead; of those that lived, of 58 million labourers, a paltry 2.1 million were registered for social security benefits and the majority remained unemployed. Only a bare 42 per cent were educated, even when ‘being educated’ is reduced to its barest minimum.

There were problems with the air Pakistanis breathed, but the 10 centres set up for air monitoring in Lahore, Quetta and Karachi were shut down without explanation.
The water in Keenjhar Lake was deemed unfit for human consumption, but it is likely to be drunk anyway, as millions around the country want for any sort of water at all.

It is a devastating account of a dismal year, where a sitting prime minister was sacked, hundreds died in bombings and many others perished as the random targets of street criminals, vengeful neighbours, neglectful doctors and the vagaries of living in a society where rights are a luxury that most cannot afford.

In the section devoted to rights-related legislative endeavours, the report relates the story of two commissions that were aimed at changing this very status quo: the inaccessibility of rights for those most in need.

In May 2012, the law sponsoring the creation of the National Commission on Human Rights came into force. However, as weeks and months and the whole year and then the tenure of the elected government elapsed, the commission could not be implemented.

Members were never named, work never begun and so no comprehensive governmental body exists in this country of approximately 180 million to monitor human rights violations.

The National Commission on the Status of Women did become autonomous last year, thanks to an act of parliament. However, none of the four bills that it introduced in parliament were able to make their way through the legislative process.

These included the Hindu Marriage Bill of 2011, the Christian Marriages Amendment Bill, 2011, and the Christian Divorce Amendment Bill of 2011. These bills hoped to provide better rights-protection for women from the minorities.

And so the report continues, detailing in stoic terms the painstaking story of carefully recorded inadequacies and a detailed denouement of promises unfulfilled.

To the cursory reader, the pile of papers is high and the plot repetitive; there are perhaps only minor gradations of worse, and worse still, between the report produced in 2011 and the one in 2010.

Too much of the recent past has been a tale of millions languishing in Pakistan. It is tempting to discard and shrug with resignation. What indeed is the relevance of rights in moments such as these in a Pakistan so steeped in violence, so stalked by inflation and so untouched by law?

It is a difficult question to answer, but there are some answers. The power of disorder and chaos lies in its ability to overwhelm.

In reading, watching, listening and seeing acts of violence, individual Pakistanis see only bits and pieces of a polarised picture: they know things are bad, or terrible, they know that they want change; beyond this, however, they cannot conceive of the totality of the problem, opine beyond their own existence in a Pakistani city or suburb or village as to how the rest of the country fares and exactly how and where the cracks in the institutions are.

The picture is completed when the symptoms of the problem — the child begging in the streets, a raging mob outside a Christian locality — are seen in the context of a failing system. The report may be sad reading, but it lays out the causes of the problems, the sources of the failures and, humbly, the possibilities of a solution.

It is unlikely that those who are hoping to lead the country after the next few months will read it or pause at its recommendations. Other than those that impact Pakistan’s relations with this or that ally, few election candidates have engaged in the sort of substantive discussion about human rights and the rule of law that such a picture should provoke.

Beyond platitudes about unpaid taxes and fervent promises to end the violence, few have gone into the specifics that stare back from the pages of the report.

Not one has as yet provided a plan that would address the fact that 5.1 million children are out of school and over half of them are girls. No one has yet mentioned how the little girls under 16, who make up 74 per cent of the brides in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, will be prevented from dying in childbirth, being sold in marriage or being killed in domestic violence.

Hardly any election candidate has as yet mentioned the figure of 2.8 per cent, which is the percentage of GDP that Pakistan spends on educating its children, both girls and boys.

In these specifics, numbers and figures, unimplemented commissions and ignored laws, lie the questions for which Pakistani voters must demand answers, specific responses to exact numbers so that the path to the future can become, if not clear, a little less murky.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
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Old Friday, April 19, 2013
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Value of human dignity

By Muhammad Ali Musofer


HUMAN dignity has been one of the central themes in Islamic teachings. Islam has given a distinct position to humanity by viewing humans as the noblest of creatures and man as the vicegerent of God on earth.

According to the Holy Quran, human beings have been inspired by the divine spirit, therefore their status is unique among the creatures (38:72). In another verse human dignity is affirmed very explicitly: “We have honoured the sons of Adam … and conferred on them special favours above a great part of Our Creation” (17:70).

There are numerous examples in the Quran which highlight the high status of human beings and stress on upholding it. From the teachings of Islam it is revealed that the divine spark is present in every human; however, it needs an enabling society to ignite it.

Islam has identified different aspects of human life which are considered crucial for maintaining human dignity. To uplift humanity, multidimensional efforts are required in order to develop the multiple facets of human life such as the physical/economic, intellectual, social/ethical and spiritual aspects.

In the Quran and the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), helping the less privileged and the weak is constantly underlined. According to the eminent Muslim scholar Dr Fazlur Rahman, the Holy Prophet’s fundamental effort was to reduce the social and economic injustices prevalent in society in order to uphold human dignity.

The sense of deprivation affects human self-worth and drags it to the lowest level. It is evident that poverty limits human potential in many ways. For example, sometimes it compels a person to indulge in crime.

Islam has given high value to human life and health. It has put significant emphasis on caring for the sick and disabled and articulated it as a duty. Good health is termed a divine gift.

The sanctity of human life is highlighted by equating the saving of one life with the saving of all of humanity (5:32). Similarly, according to a hadith “God has sent down a treatment for every ailment”. Hence good health is very crucial for holistic human development.

The intellectual dimension of human beings is constantly highlighted in Islamic teachings. The Holy Quran has reinforced the concept of human beings using their intellect and reflecting on the mysterious creations of God. Education and seeking knowledge are viewed as important to develop the intellectual capacity of human beings.

Therefore, in Islam seeking knowledge is viewed as abundantly good and it is obligatory for every Muslim to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.

In the Islamic tradition, knowledge has been viewed as light, ignorance as darkness. When the human being is not developed through education then ignorance prevails. Consequently, the individual as well as society suffers.

Spiritual uplift is viewed as a very important area for human development. Human beings are a combination of the body and the soul. Hence we are linked to the Creator while we have an association with fellow beings and other creatures.

According to Islamic teachings for spiritual development, one has to strengthen both relationships. To strengthen the bonds with the Creator one needs worship, and to strengthen the relationship with fellow human beings one needs to fulfil his or her social responsibilities.

The ethical/social dimension is viewed as a very important aspect of human development. It is directly linked to other dimensions of life such as physical, intellectual and spiritual development. Hence, Islam stresses on fulfilling the social/ethical responsibilities for balanced, holistic development of the human being.

To realise the multiple dimensions of human beings, it requires a society that provides opportunity for people to nurture and actualise their gifted potential and use it for the benefit of society.

Developing an enabling society for the people is closely related to good governance and leadership. According to Islamic thought, governance and leadership mean not just to rule but to create an environment where the human potential can be actualised and used for the benefit of society. Therefore, the Holy Prophet envisioned and strived for a society that could help nurture human potential.

Today, many Muslim countries like Pakistan, unfortunately, face huge challenges in human development in terms of poverty, ignorance, corruption etc. For example, in Pakistan a large percentage of people are living below the poverty line. Proper healthcare facilities are not available for a large number of people. Due to different forms of violence, human lives are lost. This situation affects the lives of nearly all the people in the county.

Similarly, the literacy rate of Pakistan is said to be not more than 56 per cent; this means that nearly half of the population is illiterate. According to one report, more than 25 million children are not attending school and as for the students who go to public schools, most of them are not provided the opportunity to develop their potential.

Furthermore, corruption is another big problem in society. Also, spirituality is sometimes viewed only as performing some religious rituals and the moral/ethical aspect is not reflected in society.

In such a situation, the dignity of the human being, as envisioned by Islam, seems like a major challenge. Hence, serious reflection is required particularly on governance and leadership practices in order to develop a society that can help the people actualise their gifted potential in order to uphold the dignity of human life.

The writer is an educator.

muhammad.ali075@yahoo.com

http://dawn.com/opinion/
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Old Friday, April 19, 2013
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Human rights — A gloomy report

Nasim Ahmed


The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its Annual Report for the year 2012 depicts a gloomy picture of the human rights situation in Pakistan.
The report says that the year 2012 was one of severe challenges for Pakistan, but the government did not prove 'equal to the task'. It was a year of ferocious terrorist attacks, endless sectarian killings and non-stop massacre of innocent people in Karachi. It was also a year of fierce turmoil in Balochistan.

According to the report, there were 1,577 terrorist attacks in 2012, claiming the lives of 2,050 people and causing injuries to another 3,822. The report further says more than 100 Shia Hazaras were killed in Balochistan alone, while at least 2,284 people died in ethnic, sectarian and politically-linked violence in Karachi during 2012.

The law and order situation in the country remained grim during the year under review. The report says that 350 police encounters were reported from across the country in which 403 suspects were killed, while 48 drone attacks were mounted in FATA in 2012, as compared to 74 in 2011. Around 583 people were killed and 853 injured in 2013 incidents of sectarian-related terrorist attacks and sectarian clashes in the country. In Karachi, at least six churches were attacked, two of them within a period of 10 days in the month of October.

The report says that HRCP received information about 87 missing persons of whom 72 were either traced or released. In a familiar pattern, 72 dead bodies of individuals who had gone missing in previous months were recovered from Balochistan. In the words of the report, "These statistics are just the tip of the iceberg as a large number of cases were not reported. There have been persistent reports of people being picked up from almost all parts of the country. We hope that matters will change with the change of government."

The report makes a special mention of the hundreds of attackers who, in the month of March, blew up the gates of the Central Prison in Bannu and succeeded in releasing 384 prisoners. Talking about jail conditions, the HRCP report says that there were a total of 75,444 detainees in prison in the country against the authorised capacity of 44,578. In addition, there were 1,289 juvenile prisoners in jails across the country, and an overwhelming majority of them were under trial. According to the report, 59 detainees died in custody, while another 81 were injured and 10 incidents of alleged torture of detainees were reported.

For the journalistic profession, 2012 proved to be a especially difficult year. During 2012, 14 journalists were killed, while performing their duties. Citing the example of Malala, the report remarks: "This year was also bad for human rights defenders. Many of them were killed and many received threats from different sources."

On the education front, things remained bleak as usual. The report quotes the figure given by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization according to which at least 5.1 million Pakistani children were out of school of whom 63 per cent were girls. At least 121 schools were targeted by militants opposed to education, especially girls' education. Killing in the name of honour remained a big blot on the country's human rights record. As many as 913 women were killed in the name of honour in 2012. Over 74 per cent of the girls married off in Charsadda and Mardan districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were under 16.

The year saw no improvement in the access to health facilities for the common mass of people. During the year under review, Pakistan was ranked sixth among 22 high-risk tuberculosis afflicted countries. As for malaria, over 1.6 million cases were reported. Also, one out of every nine women faced the risk of breast cancer which results in 40,000 deaths every year in the country.

The citizens' right to freedom of movement, a basic human right guaranteed in the constitution, was frequently violated. During Muharram, the Punjab government barred 929 clerics from entering Punjab and 439 clerics were banned from making speeches. After attacks on Shia pilgrims travelling through Balochistan in 2011, it was made mandatory for the pilgrims to obtain a no-objection certificate from the authorities before starting off on their journey to Iran via Balochistan. Regarding freedom of association, restrictions on forming trade unions remained in force in 2012. Trade union leaders also faced serious risks to their lives. At least 356 political activists were killed in 2012 in Karachi alone on account of their party affiliation.

The HRCP report says that the issue of blasphemy law reform was also left untouched. Rimsha, a Christian girl, charged with burning the Holy Quran was acquitted but Ryan stayed in jail, and Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's envoy to the US, faced being booked for blasphemy. As for the housing shortage, it remained acute and the number of people in the main cities who slept in the streets increased substantially. According to the HRCP report, the floods destroyed 275,720 dwellings in Sindh and parts of Balochistan, while the rehabilitation of the people rendered homeless by natural disaster or conflict since 2005 remained an incomplete process.

The report also notes some positive developments on the human rights front. It terms the 20th Constitutional Amendment relating to electoral matters one of the most significant enactments in 2012. Similarly, the law for the establishment of a National Commission of Human Rights came into force, while the National Commission on the Status of Women became autonomous. The report mentions the approval of Fair Trial Bill of 2012 as a step forward in improving the human rights situation in Pakistan.

Among other positive developments, the report refers to the registration of 84 million voters in the country, with females constituting 43 per cent of the total in 2012. Another encouraging development was that Pakistan got a prominent slot in the international rating regarding the number of women parliamentarians: it stood at number 52 in the world ranking of countries according to the percentage of women in parliament.

Not only is Pakistan's human rights record depressing, its ranking in the UN Human Development Index is also one of the lowest in the world. An oppressive state structure coupled with a brazenly unjust socio-economic system prevents the mass of the people from enjoying their basic rights.
Worst of all, there are no prospects of the situation changing for the better in the near future.

http://www.weeklycuttingedge.com/
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