Tag: HRCP

Lahore, November 22, 2021 (PPI-OT):

To Dr Arif Alvi

The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

To Mr Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad

The Minister of Interior of the Government of Pakistan

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) calls on the state to immediately address the situation of Afghan refugees in the country, which, in the absence of any comprehensive policy framework or legislation, has been side-lined.

Contrary to the Prime Minister’s public announcements, ordinary citizens from Afghanistan have been left to fend for themselves amid new and arbitrary restrictions on cross-border movement. This dire lack of protocol and policy is unjust and serves only to aggravate the tension between the two countries rather than restoring balance in such a precarious situation. HRCP thus recommends that the state take the following practical steps towards tackling what could potentially become a full-blown humanitarian crisis:

Develop a transparent, human rights-centric policy

Historically, Parliament has never held a discussion on the situation of Afghan refugees, relegating this issue to the military domain instead where policies have been made in secrecy. In similar fashion, public debate on this issue has been ousted and ‘secret briefings’ held, which HRCP deems unacceptable. The Cabinet’s 2017 decision to adopt a national policy on the management of Afghan refugees and nationals in Pakistan along specific parameters must be revived immediately, and the Parliamentary Committee of the Whole, in consultation with civil society organisations, must develop a substantial policy to address the matter in a way that upholds human rights and humanitarian law. This policy must also be announced in Parliament to allow for much-needed discussion and debate before it is implemented.

Hear from Afghan representatives and refugees

There is a worrying lack of clarity at the grassroots level about how to respond to this crisis, especially among border patrol and the police. Multiple reports from the border indicate that authorities have been extorting refugees for money, giving preferential treatment, refusing entry, and even subjecting them to violence. Refugee camps also suffer from poor hygienic conditions and refugees continue to experience harassment and xenophobia from local administrations and communities.

While the interests and perspective of host communities should be considered, such hostile treatment exacerbates the stress and trauma of refugees, particularly children. Allowances must be made, such as easing cumbersome documentation requirements, providing more dignified living situations, and making every effort to provide a safer, more inclusive environment. This will only be possible if the state listens proactively to the concerns of Afghan representatives and refugees rather than dismissing them.

Honour agreements, protocols and Pakistan’s own precedent

Pakistan must accede to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and pass national and domestic legislation in light of these obligations. Furthermore, Pakistan must honour its own precedent of accepting Afghan refugees and adhere to the tripartite agreement between UNHCR, Afghanistan and Pakistan whereby repatriation has to be voluntary.

Take action to speed up resettlement of refugees

Afghan citizens were recently allowed to obtain permission letters or cards from the Ministry of Interior in Islamabad while in Afghanistan, which is impractical. HRCP urges the government to hasten the paperwork needed to secure safe transit and visas for asylum seekers. The government should also take UNHCR on board so that an easy and effective registration policy can be initiated without delay. Moreover, civil society should be encouraged to assist refugees to whatever extent possible instead of being harassed by state authorities when such efforts are made. Finally, the government must take immediate steps to ensure that refugees have unhindered access to an overall rehabilitation plan that includes healthcare, employment and education for their children.

As part of the international community, Pakistan’s civil society is rightly concerned for the people of Afghanistan and considers that any human rights issue supersedes notions of sovereignty. We therefore condemn such barriers or refusals at the border to refugees and especially women, children, the sick and elderly – who require our support and empathy in their hour of need.

Hina Jilani, Chairperson

For more information, contact:
Chairperson,
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
Aiwan-i-Jamhoor, 107-Tipu Block,
New Garden Town, Lahore-54600
Tel: +92-42-35864994
Fax: +92-42-35883582
Email: hrcp@hrcp-web.org
Website: www.hrcp-web.org

Quetta, November 20, 2021 (PPI-OT):Following a petition filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 43 bonded labourers were released in Ornach in the district of Khuzdar, where they had been working for a local landlord as agricultural labour. The labourers are from Hyderabad’s Hindu community, where a relative had approached HRCP’s Hyderabad office to lodge a complaint concerning their situation. The complaint was then forwarded to HRCP’s Quetta office.

Subsequently, HRCP filed a petition with the Balochistan High Court, where a division bench comprising Justice Hashim Khan Kakar and Justice Nazeer Ahmed Langve ordered the deputy commissioner of Khuzdar to recover the labourers and produce them before the court. Following this, the high court directed that they be returned to Hyderabad.

For more information, contact:
Chairperson,
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
Aiwan-i-Jamhoor, 107-Tipu Block,
New Garden Town, Lahore-54600
Tel: +92-42-35864994
Fax: +92-42-35883582
Email: hrcp@hrcp-web.org
Website: www.hrcp-web.org

Quetta, November 19, 2021 (PPI-OT):A Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) fact-finding mission is gravely concerned to find that coalminers remain vulnerable to severe human rights violations. According to the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation, at least 176 miners were killed and 180 injured in mining accidents in 2021. Miners in Balochistan face the additional risk of targeted attacks by non-state actors.

Based on the sample of mines the team visited, onsite healthcare is the exception rather than the norm. Given that coal mining is classified internationally as a hazardous occupation, mine owners and contractors must ensure that every mining site has a functioning ambulance service and onsite emergency health worker, and that regular internal safety inspections are carried out. With respect to external safety inspections, the fact that only 27 mine inspectors are available to oversee health and safety in over 6,000 mines in the province is also cause for concern.

The mission’s broad findings reveal that the majority of coalminers are not registered with the EOBI or other social security programmes. This implies that they are not eligible for employment benefits or pensions, leaving them highly vulnerable once they are no longer able to work. There are also concerns that the compensation for death and injury is lower in Balochistan (PKR 300,000) than in other provinces (PKR 500,000) – this must be rectified promptly.

Many labour union representatives also say they are deeply unhappy with the contractor system of operating coal mines because contractors have less stake in ensuring the safety and security of their workers and resort to cost-cutting measures. It is also a matter of concern that, in many cases, contractors themselves function as the heads of labour unions, which represents a potential conflict of interest.

HRCP also recommends that the government upgrade the status of the coal mining sector to an industry and hold mine owners as well as contractors accountable for running their sites in line with the provisions of the Mines Act 1923 and subsequent amendments.

The government must also ratify and implement ILO Convention 176 on safety and health in mines as soon as possible. We also urge the state to invest in health, education and infrastructure in and around coal mining areas specifically and across the province in general. The mission’s detailed report will be released as soon as possible.

For more information, contact:
Chairperson,
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
Aiwan-i-Jamhoor, 107-Tipu Block,
New Garden Town, Lahore-54600
Tel: +92-42-35864994
Fax: +92-42-35883582
Email: hrcp@hrcp-web.org
Website: www.hrcp-web.org

Lahore, November 13, 2021 (PPI-OT):The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that the deteriorating state of human rights in the country has reached a tipping point. In a situation where people are caught between spiralling food inflation and the insidious rise of religious extremism, continued attempts by the establishment and the ruling government to marginalise Parliament represent an existential threat to the country’s democracy. Constant attempts at political engineering and the exploitation of ethnic divisions could set back Pakistan’s fragile democracy by decades. HRCP also strongly opposes any amendments that curb the power of local governments.

The political opposition has a duty to its constituents to present solutions to the inflation crisis. HRCP also urges the government to seriously reconsider the neoliberal development models it has adopted. These measures are neither pro-poor nor rights-based. If the state cannot provide its citizens with livelihoods and shelter, it has no right to take away what little they have.

That the government chose to negotiate with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was unconscionable. This capitulation to a far-right militant group that is responsible for an estimated 80,000 Pakistani deaths is a grim portent for progressive, secular voices. HRCP is also gravely concerned by the government’s failure to impose the writ of the state even after at least seven police officers were killed during the recent violence perpetrated by supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The government’s negotiations with the TLP will embolden other proscribed organisations that have no compunction in seizing the little civic space left to ordinary people.

In light of the surge in violence against women, children and transgender persons, HRCP demands immediate measures to strengthen children’s protection bureaus, women’s shelters and gender-based violence courts, and better equip women police officers. HRCP also continues to monitor the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and strongly urges the government to develop and implement a coherent policy towards refugees that guarantees their right to security and freedom of movement.

HRCP welcomes the Supreme Court’s decision to penalise the miscreants who attacked a Hindu temple in Karak district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This sets an important precedent and should make it clear that the state will not tolerate any attacks on religious minorities’ places of worship. Regrettably, this action alone is not enough to protect freedom of religion or belief. We reiterate the need to implement the 2014 Tassadaq Jillani Supreme Court judgment, establish an independent statutory national commission on minorities, enact legislation against forced conversions, and revisit the recommendations of the Senate’s 2018 report on the blasphemy laws.

While HRCP supports the urgent need to legislate against the practice of enforced disappearances, it is concerned that the draft legislation does not make adequate provision for deterrence or prosecution, or for holding state agencies accountable for employing this practice as a tool of intimidation.

We welcome the passage of the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act, but the procedural rules that have yet to be issued must not infringe on the right to freedom of expression and opinion, nor should the process of issuing these rules be needlessly delayed. It is deeply ironic, however, that this law is at odds with the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 and proposed – draconian – Pakistan Media Development Authority Ordinance.

In the current environment, it is therefore deeply fitting that HRCP has chosen to give the Nisar Osmani Award for Courage Journalism in 2021 to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), which has been an indispensable force in resisting the rising coercive regime of censorship.

For more information, contact:
Chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
Aiwan-i-Jamhoor, 107-Tipu Block,
New Garden Town, Lahore-54600
Tel: +92-42-35864994
Fax: +92-42-35883582
Email: hrcp@hrcp-web.org
Website: www.hrcp-web.org

Lahore, November 10, 2021 (PPI-OT):At a policy consultation held earlier today, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) presented the key findings of a study examining the obstacles to citizenship for seasonal workers based in and around Lahore, many of whom hail from the nomadic or Pakhiwas community.

The study found that a significant proportion of the Pakhiwas community were unaware of the benefits of computerised national identity cards (CNICs), including the fact that citizenship documents could make them eligible for public healthcare and social safety nets such as the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). Among other recommendations, HRCP underscored the importance of community-level advocacy to encourage the Pakhiwas community to apply for CNICs and setting up an emergency unit to include nomadic communities in the national census and reporting this data to the human rights ministry to bring them within the citizenship process.

Yawar Abbas Bukhari, the provincial minister for social welfare, assured participants at the consultation that camps had been set up to facilitate registration for vulnerable groups such as the Pakhiwas community and pledged to advocate greater access to social safety nets and citizenship documents for such communities. Provincial assembly member Ayesha Iqbal said that stakeholders such as the Women’s Protection Authority and Women Development Department should be involved in citizenship advocacy drives to increase the number of female beneficiaries of BISP. Zafar Kamal, director-general of the BISP in Punjab, said that it was, however, important to follow the present strategy of linking citizen registration to access to social security.

Mahinder Pall Singh, parliamentary secretary for human rights, recommended that NADRA introduce a means of registering Pakhiwas families that did not require two guarantors – a prerequisite that many families were unable to meet. Dr Shahid Magsi, director of the Epidemics Prevention and Control Programme, said that the provincial health department had never denied access to vaccination to citizens who lacked identity cards. Covid-19 vaccination was a federal matter, he added, and thus warranted a CNIC.

For more information, contact:
Chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
Aiwan-i-Jamhoor, 107-Tipu Block,
New Garden Town, Lahore-54600
Tel: +92-42-35864994
Fax: +92-42-35883582
Email: hrcp@hrcp-web.org
Website: www.hrcp-web.org

Lahore, October 23, 2021 (PPI-OT):The Human Rights Commission (HRCP) mourns the loss of Muhammad Zaman Khan, a senior member of the organisation’s present governing council, who has passed away in Faisalabad. Mr Khan was a founding member of HRCP and was elected to its first council. Subsequently, he worked at HRCP for almost two decades, heading its Complaints Cell and helping survivors of human rights violations access legal and protective services.

A staunch human rights defender since his days as a student leader, Mr Khan was also a trade unionist, political worker and intellectual. His commitment to labour rights led to a long association with the Mazdoor Kissan Party, during which he chronicled the labour movement and many of its leaders with characteristic flair. His political activism led to fines as well as imprisonment during Pakistan’s martial law regime, although this did not deter him from his commitment to the ideal of a progressive, secular Pakistan free of class prejudice.

As a founding member of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy and South Asians for Human Rights, Mr Khan argued consistently for better relations between India and Pakistan. He was also a prolific writer and journalist, having served as bureau chief at both The Muslim and Frontier Post, and written on subjects as varied as the abolition of the death penalty to Punjabi folklore and literature. Zaman Khan will be missed by his colleagues and friends at HRCP and in progressive circles across South Asia.

For more information, contact:
Chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
Aiwan-i-Jamhoor, 107-Tipu Block,
New Garden Town, Lahore-54600
Tel: +92-42-35864994
Fax: +92-42-35883582
Email: hrcp@hrcp-web.org
Website: www.hrcp-web.org