HRCP expresses solidarity with missing Kashmiris in IHK

LAHORE: On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on Friday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed solidarity with all victims of enforced disappearance the world over.

“Our thoughts are also with those Kashmiris who have been forcibly disappeared as part of the state crackdown in India-held Kashmir,” says a press release issued by the Commission. The HRCP called on the Pakistan government to carry through its long overdue promise to criminalise enforced disappearances under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The HRCP drew urgent attention to the need for Pakistan to sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. ‘Internal political instability or any other public emergency’ are no grounds for justifying enforced disappearances, it said.

Equally, the internment centres to which numerous forcibly disappeared persons have been traced, must be declared unconstitutional. As such, these centres are black holes and have no place in a democratic structure that entitles a detained person to know what they have been charged with, the right to a fair trial and the right to remain in contact with their families and with legal counsel, HRCP demanded.