Search Results for: pakistan blasphemy

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Pakistan authorities on Thursday to quash the conviction of Junaid Hafeez, who was sentenced to death in 2019 under the country’s blasphemy provisions after being arrested in March 2013. The rights group described his prolonged detention and years in solitary confinement as “emblematic of the unjust and abusive nature” of [...]

Amnesty International called on Pakistan’s authorities on Tuesday to end the systemic discrimination and human rights violations against sanitation workers in the country, following the release of a new report. The organization emphasized how these abuses violate Pakistan’s obligations under international law and urged authorities to amend existing laws to align with international norms. The [...]

UN human rights experts on Thursday pressured the Pakistani government to implement more proactive measures to prevent “extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and assaults on cemeteries and places of worship” of religious minorities. “We are shocked at reports of increasing violence against vulnerable communities on grounds of their religion or belief,” experts stated. They claimed mass [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Sunday warned that Pakistan’s “blasphemy laws” are being applied in a discriminatory manner toward non-Muslim minorities, resulting in entire communities being forced from their homes. In its 29-page report, HRW claimed that individuals and communities affiliated with religious minorities are denied equality before the law. The organization alerted that communities in [...]

In this piece Chris Blackburn, Communications Director of the European Bangladesh Forum and co-founder of Global Friends of Afghanistan, highlights the severe human rights abuses in Pakistan, including the misuse of blasphemy laws and the repression of political movements and activists, and calls for international actions such as Pakistan’s suspension from the Commonwealth to pressure [...]

Last Thursday, October 17, the 142nd session of the UN Human Rights Committee was held in Geneva, to review the human rights record of Pakistan. A handful of students at the Geneva Academy, including myself, had the opportunity to attend the event at the invitation of our professor of human rights law, Hélène Tigroudja, one [...]

The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) is set to review Pakistan’s human rights record this Thursday and Friday under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). According to Amnesty International (AI), the review “comes at a crucial time for the country, as human rights violations and abuses remain rampant.” The review is part of Pakistan’s commitments [...]

The writer of this JURIST dispatch from Pakistan has asked that their name be withheld due to circumstances within the country.  On Thursday last week, a blasphemy suspect was shot dead while in police custody in Quetta, a southwestern city in Pakistan, after a policeman opened fire on him inside the police station where he [...]

Pakistan’s police on Monday announced the arrest of the deputy leader of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party, Zaheerul Hassan Shah, for placing a bounty against Chief Justice of the Pakistan Qazi Faez Esa, according to local media. Hassan Shah placed the 10-million rupee bounty against Esa because of the Chief Justice’s alleged support of the minority [...]

Pakistani authorities initiated a rigorous investigation to identify and arrest members of a mob that killed a tourist accused of blasphemy in the Swat district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local media on Friday. Regional Police Chief Mohammad Ali Gandapur confirmed that a case has been registered against the organizers of the mob [...]