The violations of human rights
have always been the fate of a majority of Pakistanis. What is new in recent
times is that such violations are being exposed at a larger scale by the print
and electronic media. Today, a little development to protect and promote the
rights of Pakistanis is undoubtedly indebted to the vibrant media of Pakistan.
But this is certainly not enough, as hundreds of thousands of people are still
deprived of their fundamental rights in this country, a country conceptualized
and established as an Islamic Welfare State.
Today Pakistan is neither an Islamic nor a welfare state. As a matter of fact it
is not really fair separating former from latter since if she was merely
targeted to be Islamic; she would have been a welfare state naturally. I came
out of the library of the London School of Economics with these thoughts after
reading several books and research articles on Islam and Human Rights.
Pakistan was among the first row of countries that adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 according to which ‘the rights to a standard
of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one’s family,
including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services
and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his
control’ [Article 25, UDHR]
Each and every right mentioned above is being violated every day in Pakistan.
The dozens of international and local NGOs, a separate Human Rights Ministry and
so many other institutions working for people’s rights, seem to have failed when
misery and hardships of the down trodden lot remain the same. We still see
hundreds of little kids working in hazardous conditions rather than going to
schools. We still have our government hospitals over filled with no adequate
facilities of free medical care. A large number of people are without shelter
and our educated youth, after going through intense unemployment trauma, find no
choice except to waste their lives doing odd jobs abroad.
In its 2009 report, Amnesty International has identified various areas of
humanitarian crisis in Pakistan which indicates that there has been no
remarkable change from dictatorial period to the establishment of so called
democratic government in the country. These human rights violations
predominantly include arbitrary arrest and detentions; torture and other
ill-treatment; enforced disappearances; violence against women and girls; abuses
by armed groups; children’s rights; religious minorities’ rights; death penalty
and many others.
If the Government of Pakistan has a little concern over these issues, they must
think of:
Whether the Ministry of Human Rights made a slightest contribution so far
towards protecting and promoting the rights of the people of Pakistan?
What efforts have been made to assist the national and international
humanitarian institutions working in rural and urban setting of Pakistan, to
develop a collaborative network focusing the humanitarian crisis in the country
at grass root level?
Whether the Government has taken any initiative to promote human rights
education in Pakistan?
I know I can never find any satisfactory answers of the first two questions but
focusing on the third one can somehow resolve the rights violations issues in
Pakistan to a large extent.
Ignorance is a constant threat to human rights that breeds discrimination,
intolerance and radicalization in societies. According to the federal executive
Government of Australia: ‘Education protects human rights much more
effectively than any punitive or legal regime’ Several countries in the world
started formal qualifications in human rights years ago. An aggressive movement
started around the world that made the governments promote human rights
education and research centres. Even in India, Punjab University, Chundigurh
started a post graduate qualification and several other diploma level study
programmes in 2006/07. The University also extended human rights education to
its affiliate colleges at the bachelors’ degree level.
Surprisingly, in Pakistan, where the need for specific human rights education is
of utmost importance , there seems to be no initiative being taken at government
or private levels to start formal education in the human rights area.Advantages
of specific human rights qualification could be several but the biggest
advantages include an awareness of rights; their securing and promoting
mechanisms; role of the wider human rights movement in protecting human rights
and involvement of various human rights actors including the media, government
and non-government organizations and different national and international
institutions working for the rights of people around the globe.
These human rights violations are inevitable until the time our society as a
whole decides to fight against it and educating our youth about human rights, in
national and international context, could be a milestone towards becoming a true
Islamic Welfare Society.