Government urged to fulfill Human Rights commitments
LAHORE: Participants in a meeting have urged the Pakistan government to admit to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations about bitter facts relating to state of human rights in the country and fulfill the international commitments it made while becoming member of the International Human Rights Council some years ago.
The council comprises 47 member countries. The meeting titled “UN-Universal Periodic Review on Pakistan” was organised by the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) here at a local hotel on Tuesday.
The participants quoting a recent meeting of the HR working group in Geneva on Oct 30, where Foreign Minister Ms Hina Rabbani Khar claimed about doing a lot in this regard, asked the government to wholeheartedly accept and implement recommendation of the IHRC.
“The government should speak truth rather than claiming to do a lot about the HR situation in Pakistan. And it should make serious efforts to implement the laws concerned so as to ensure provision of rights to everyone,” eminent rights activist and Human Right Commission of Pakistan Secretary-General IA Rehman said while speaking on the occasion.
He said a review was always carried out for the tasks/jobs accomplished and not for those works that were planned to be done in future.
“The government’s claim to have set up the national human rights institution in the country is wrong, as it has yet to be established. So at such international or national forums, we must avoid discussing or reviewing the things that we are yet to do in future,” he added.
He said though there were laws or policies on child rights in Pakistan, these were never implemented by the quarters concerned. Mr Rehman said it was not sufficient to make the laws alone, as it was mandatory to implement these to protect citizens’ rights.
Speaking on the occasion, NCJP Chief Peter Jacob criticised the government for not taking the Human Rights Ministry on board while sending the foreign ministry’s delegation to the Geneva meeting.
“The participation of the foreign ministry’s delegation in such an important international forum in Geneva is very strange, as the government completely ignored the HR ministry.” He said the government should realise and accomplish the international commitments it had already made to the effect.
He also sought achieving the entire UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health, education and civil rights. Child rights activist Sajjad Cheema appealed to the participants as well as the government to educate the people, including children, about their rights. “The situation relating to child rights is very strange in Pakistan.
According to UNCRC (United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Child) ratified by Pakistan, a child aged up to 16 years should go to school rather than involving him/herself in other works. In our country this matter has been left to children’s parents or guardians,” Cheema said.
Since the country had ratified the UNCRC, the government was duty bound to implement it in letter and spirit by ensuring enrolment of such age-group children to schools.
Earlier, the NCJP team presented a report/briefing before the participants about the recent visit of Ms Khar to Geneva and her ‘tall claims’ about improving rights situation in Pakistan there.
The report said the UPR was a unique process in the IHRC to review HR situation in all of its member states. In 2006 and 2008 when Pakistan was elected to the 47-member council, it had also pledged that it would fulfill its commitments under international human rights law.
On Oct 30 under UN’s UPR of Pakistan, the country report covering four years (2008-2012) was presented in Geneva before the Working Group of the council. Hina Rabbani Khar led the Pakistan delegation that presented the report to the UN.
The Pakistan delegation claimed that the government had achieved a lot during the four years, and human rights situation was very good in the country despite militancy, huge population, floods and nascent democracy.
The delegation gave the impression that Pakistan had done everything and did not pledge anything in response to the questions and recommendations by the member states. It said the media had consistently reported targeted attacks on the Shiites.
Every year, around 200 Shiites were killed and groups that claimed responsibility for these killings moved freely and even had offices in the major cities. “The Ahmadis are frequently attacked. Their places of worship are attacked and they are not allowed to carry out their religious ceremonies. They are a disenfranchised people,” the report said.
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