PHOTO: REUTERS
The draft of the report which is available on official website of the Ministry of Human Rights reveals that terrorism, religious extremism, poverty, gender norms and lack of resources as key challenges to further strengthen Pakistan's credentials in the field of human rights.
As it says, “We are still facing challenges of terrorism, poverty, religious extremism, gender norms and lack of resources. However, we hope that with the help of international community, we will be able to tackle these issues in incremental process. Our strength is our political will to resolve the issues and to develop our improved human rights profile.”
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The Ministry of Human Rights is all set to submit the draft of the third UPR report first to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 31 this year for a review then will submit it to the UN Human Rights Council on November 13.
The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. It basically provides an opportunity for Pakistan to declare what actions we have taken to improve the human rights situations in our country.
While commenting on the UPR report an official privy to drafting the report told The Express Tribune: “Though Pakistan is making all-out efforts to improve the human rights situation in the country, facing major challenges like scarcity of funds, human resource, absence of data among several other issues.
“The dire scarcity of human and financial resources is one of the major challenges Pakistan is facing in its efforts for improving human rights situation,” said the official.
On the other hand the international community has asked us to share the latest data on human rights violation cases reported across Pakistan, “but we are unable to provide them with the required information because of the absence of the consolidated data”.
He said whenever the federal human rights ministry approaches provincial governments to collect/attain data on issues like domestic violence, child sexual abuse, torture cases, among others; it is hardly being provided with the required and latest data.
The official further expressed grave concern over the low conviction rate which is estimated to be between 3 to 5% in Pakistan.
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“The low rate also speaks volume about the justice system in the country and tells how people in Pakistan are suffering in getting justice,” said the official.
While talking about spreading extremism and sectarian violence he said that in 2015-16 there has been a decline in these cases.
“From 2015-16, over 4,000 cases were registered against people spreading extremism and promoting sectarian violence through hate speeches,” he said.
The official stressed that there was urgent need of reforming the police and jail in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Human Rights Director General Mohammad Hassan Mangi told The Express Tribune, “Though Pakistan has made improvement during the past few years in improving the human rights situation, still a lot is need to be done to overcome key challenges.”
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