Marginalized groups, repressive laws, and the struggle for justice

Pakistan is faced with many human rights issues. Especially, the country’s marginalised groups, women, minorities, and children easily fall victim to systemic rights violations. In the latest UN Human Development Index Pakistan is ranked 164 out of 193 countries and is placed in the “low human development” category in terms of education, health and income levels.
While Pakistan has ratified the core UN human rights treaties, its commitment to upholding the rights within remains weak and patchy. An area of grave concern is violence against women. Despite constitutional and legal protections, 23 per cent of married women in Pakistan report physical abuse, while 26pc face emotional abuse. These alarming statistics point to systemic flaws in the implementation machinery. With only 18pc of reported rape cases reaching court, the path to justice is rocky and distortive. Given this, strengthening legal frameworks, providing better protection, and empowering women must be given top priority. Millions of Pakistan’s children are deprived of basic freedoms like education and forced into manual labour. Birth registration is often neglected due to which only 42pc of children under five are registered at birth.
In a recent report the UN Human Rights Committee — which carries out periodic assessments of various countries’ rights records — has expressed concern about escalating human rights infringements in Pakistan. The UN Human Rights Committee also called the Committee on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) has raised concerns at the social media surveillance, internet and social media apps blockage to maneuver general elections, religious intolerance, ban on student unions as well as curbs on the media and freedoms of expression and movement.
Questions have been raised by the UN committee on curbs on freedom of association, saying “according to information received the legislative framework at the federal and provincial levels imposes unnecessary barriers to exercise this right. During its deliberations, the UN Committe noted that the NGOs have their finances and plans inspected and all this is being used to interfere in the work of some NGOs. National as well as international NGOs are subjected to constant investigation and harassment by government officers.
In its report, the UN Committees has pointed out that the laws relating to juvenile justice are not operational and there is an “absence of rehabilitation centres and programmes that violate juvenile justice. Notice was also taken of the delay in the modification of the child marriages 1929 law and raising the minimum age for marriage in the light of an order passed by the Lahore High Court, ruling that the minimum age should be increased to 18 years.
The UN rights body also raised the matter of freedoms of movement and expression and the authorities’ use of the exit control list to restrict freedom of movement of people opposed to government policies. The committee has stressed that defamation laws should be carefully implemented so that they don’t stifle freedom of expression and that imprisonment was never an appropriate penalty for defamation. The committee further noted that the Punjab Defamation Bill 2024 passed without stakeholders consultations allows fines to be imposed without proof of actual damage which can lead to repression or intimidation. It has sought review of defamation provisions to align with international laws.
An important issue that came under review related to curbs on the media. It was pointed out that authorities used directives as tools for censorship of journalists and media outlets and suspension of licences of news channels. In this connection a reference was made to the frequent outages and blockage of social media apps or slower connectivity which leads to information control and violation of freedom of expression. On the other hand, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) grants authorities power to charge individuals, particularly young people using digital media. To quote, “It makes online defamation of authorities a crime, it allows authorities to block content and law enforcement to collect without a warrant and allows data sharing with foreign governments without legality.”
Every government that comes to power in Pakistan uses both legal and illegal methods and violates the human rights of citizens to stay in power. It also makes draconian laws to intimidate and crush the opposition. It suppresses dissent with a heavy hand. As a result, the human rights situation has gone from bad to worse over the years. A weak government or one which loses popular appeal resorts to dictatorial policies to retain its hold on power.
But authoritarian policies run counter to the larger interests of the state and society as a whole. Restrictions on freedom of expression and movement kill the creative impulse of a nation. When rights are violated, not only individuals suffer but institutions also become weak. All those nations which have made rapid progress over the last few decades guarantee full protection to the human rights of their citizens. But in most developing countries this rule of thumb is ignored.