HRCP demands NCHR revival

LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has demanded the government revive National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR). The NCHR has been dysfunctional since its chairperson’s term expired exactly one year ago.

Neither the chairperson nor other members of the commission have been given extensions, and no replacements have been instituted, it stated. As a statutory body, the NCHR is mandated to play a key role in ensuring that Pakistan upholds the human rights commitments it has made to its citizens as enshrined in the Constitution. The NCHR is also responsible for monitoring the government’s compliance with the international obligations to which Pakistan is a state party.

The Commission stated that it believed that such long delays in reviving institutions such as the NCHR and the National Commission on the Status of Women, also defunct for several months, reflected the government’s misplaced priorities when it comes to setting up independent institutional human rights mechanisms.

The Commission demanded that the NCHR be revived immediately. The National Commission on the Rights of the Child—notified this February—must also be activated as a matter of urgency. Moreover, the National Commission for Minorities, which was established recently through an executive order, should be dissolved and steps taken promptly to enact the formation of an independent National Council for Minorities’ Rights envisioned by the 2014 Supreme Court (Jilani) judgment.