Live screening of Geneva human rights conference organised

The Justice Project Pakistan organised a live video screening of Pakistan’s first-ever country review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), City Campus, Tuesday evening. Journalist Kamal Siddiqui, from the Centre of Excellence in Journalism of the IBA, welcomed the guests. Anis Haroon, member, National Commission on Human Rights from Sindh, gave an overview of the human rights situation in the country and said that on account of fluctuating political conditions in the country, oscillating between martial law and democracy, we had not been able to frame requisite laws and meet our obligations internationally.

She said that the system of criminal justice needed to be revisited. She said that while we had lifted the moratorium on death penalty in the aftermath of the Army Public School tragedy in December 2014, very few terrorists had been hanged as most of those who were executed were death row prisoners.

Haroon cited the case of a 17-year old who was convicted of murder and was to be hanged. However, the judge, who was also the National Commission on Human Rights’ chairman, pointed out that the boy was a juvenile when he committed the offence and that juveniles could not get the death sentence. 

He pointed out that the boy had not been given the benefit of the juvenile act law and that it could be operative with retrospective effect. As such, she said the boy had not been executed thus far.

Haroon said we had to put the due mechanism in place whereby the state gives due structure for consideration of human rights. She regretted that there was no debate on issues. “For instance”, she said, “Why was the moratorium on death sentence lifted?” Such issues, she said, must be debated. “We have to see whether or not the lifting of the moratorium on death penalty decreased violent crime.” Kamal Siddiqui emphasised the importance of reliable data. Later, a video of the conference of the ongoing UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, was relayed to the IBA live and it being Pakistan-specific, delegates at the moot asked very searching questions about the human rights situation in Pakistan.

The Pakistani delegate told the moot that the government of Pakistan had ratified civil liberties and had taken measures to see to it that all citizens enjoyed fundamental freedoms. He also talked about the National Commission on the Rights of Women and the Religious Minorities. 

He also informed the conference on the constitution of human rights cells in the courts and spoke of the five percent job quota for minorities in government services. 

He defended the lifting of the moratorium on capital punishment after the ghastly Army Public School tragedy in Peshawar. Pakistan, he said, was committed to preserving religious freedom and, in this regard, mentioned the total ban on hate speech.

There were questions about enforced disappearances and what the government had done to nip them. The delegate pointed out that despite the fact that a committee had been constituted in April 2010 to investigate these disappearances, nothing practical had been done and instead the next-of-kin of the disappeared persons were facing death threats, reprisals, and harassment.

Some delegates also wanted to know the government’s response to extra-judicial killings. The case of the young journalist, Zeenat Shahzadi, a journalist who was probing the case of the missing persons and had herself gone missing in the process, was also brought up.

Rabia Javery, secretary for the Ministry of Human Rights, told the moot that the government was making utmost efforts to address the issues the delegates had raised and was trying to raise awareness among the public. At this juncture, the video was switched off and all the guests left.