United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2013 has rated Pakistan among the countries with the lowest maturity in respecting and protecting the rights of its people. The report, launched recently, places Pakistan at 146 out of 186 countries measured using the Human Development Index (HDI). Pakistan joined this global club of countries since the day of its creation - August 14, 1947.

The living conditions of the average Pakistani is still below the poverty line and he is neither aware of his rights neither his rights are safeguarded by the respective sides. The report "The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World" points out very low improvement in human development. Earlier, the HDI of Pakistan rose during 2000 to 2007 during General Pervez Musharraf’s regime with the annual average of 2.7 per cent.

United Nations International Human Rights Day is observed every December 10 across the world. The celebration commemorates the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Declaration with its broad range of political, civil, social, cultural and economic rights, however, is not a binding document, but it has inspired more than 60 instruments which together constitute an international standard of human rights. The UN General Assembly announced Human Rights Day in 1950, to bring to the attention ‘of the peoples of the world’ the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. In 2013, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights marks 20 years since its establishment. The theme of this year’s celebration is reviewing the progress of human rights in these two decades.

Pakistan, according to the UNCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), has ratified or signed 27 treaties, declarations, and conventions adopted by United Nations from time to time.

In Pakistan, according to UN standards, there is no district with high human development index. The HDI report findings are an eye-opener for policymakers that need to focus on key sectors such as health, education and poverty in order to move towards development.

Pakistan’s expenditure on social sectors is considered lower even than some of the poorest African countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, which spends 1.2 per cent of GDP on health and 6.2 per cent on education. Pakistan spent 0.8 per cent on health and 1.8 per cent on education. Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka also spend higher amounts on both sectors. In fact, Pakistan is one of only four countries in the region that are ranked in the low HDI group, alongside Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal.

The report says that 49 per cent of Pakistan’s population lives in poverty. Last year, Pakistan was on 145th position and now it has further slipped. Experts say the country needs to pursue continuity of policies and take difficult political decisions to move towards development and sustainable economic growth.

"There are many positive and negative aspects of the growth and development of human rights in Pakistan in the past two decades," observed I.A. Rehman, secretary general Human rights Commission of Pakistan, while giving a brief review of this period. He said the good thing is ratification and signing of these conventions and declarations including on torture, women rights, child rights and now Pakistan would have to submit its reports on these violations and development in these areas regularly. "Pakistan has entered a process this way. Civil society has contributed to this struggle a lot," he says.

Pointing out the negative things, he says, the main issue is that the forms of the violations of human rights have not changed so far in these 20 years. Implementation is very slow. There is big gap between acknowledging and implementing these rights. He said the abuses of human rights are of different types and legislation is not appropriately addressing these issues. "The writ of the state is week; justice system is not working efficiently because of many factors. Affirmative action is not seen, for example, in ensuring the rights of labourers."

He said Pakistan ratifies treaties and conventions but does not fulfill the implementation requirement and related conditions in letter and spirit. "We have to put in more efforts," said Rehman. "Especially, when the country is facing civil war and the militancy is on the rise, rights are further suppressed in the name of security." He says we need to improve the human rights standards.

Very recently, a United Kingdom based risk analysis Company Maplecroft, in its Human Rights Risk Atlas (HRRA), has analysed that since 2008, the number of countries posing an extreme risk to the human rights of their populations has risen from 20 to 34 -a 70 per cent rise. Among the top 10 extreme risk countries, Syria is on the top.

Pakistan, sadly, stands fourth in this list and even Afghanistan is better than it. The report says in Asia, the highest risk countries include Pakistan (4th), Afghanistan (6th), Myanmar (8th), Bangladesh (17th) and India (18th). The analysis further points out that workers’ protections continued to deteriorate in low-cost sourcing countries, particularly in Asia.

"Yes, there are many points which indicate low development in human rights in the country during the past 20 years. However, in my view, like many other countries, the record of Pakistan in this subject is also mixed," views Javed Jabbar, intellectual, activist and former federal minister for information. "There is some improvement. This field, in fact, is very vast so it is not easy to be judgmental due to various factors." He says Pakistan is having a historic background with the inherited colonial system and legacy of the rulers and emperors in the Subcontinent. There was no concept of a state and human rights system at that time. Also, the UNHR Declaration was adopted even after the creation of Pakistan (in 1948).

Also, Jabbar says, "we have to think that the UNHR Declaration is a statement of ideal objective. And even in the United States the rights of African-Americans were recognized in 1960, long after this declaration. In the strongest democracies like the US and India, still there are violations of human rights at various levels. He says ideal comparison is not possible in any country."

"Like many other countries, there are gaps in implementation as well. There are differences between theory and practice; real and ideal," he says, adding, "Though Pakistan’s ranking is low, I think it will continue to be improve because of various factors including media freedom, judicial activism and the increasing interest of parliamentarians to improve legislation."