Open letter: HRCP working group demands immediate measures to protect minorities

11 August 2024. The rights of minorities to practice, profess and propagate their religion are protected under Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution of Pakistan as fundamental rights, as well as upheld by the Supreme Court through various judgements—notably the 2014 Supreme Court judgement. Pakistan is also bound by international obligations and recommendations that were accepted by the state during its fourth Universal Periodic Review. Above all, the right to freedom of religion or belief was unequivocally part of the vision for the state of Pakistan by its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Despite this, flagrant violations of the rights of religious minorities have become commonplace. Mob violence, forced conversions, false allegations of blasphemy, hate speech and attacks on worship places have escalated to the point that religious minorities live in a climate of fear and repression. For its part, the state has pandered to far-right religious groups too long and helped create an increasingly radicalized society that eschews pluralism.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has set up a National Interfaith Working Group comprising community leaders of different faiths and beliefs, including lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders in the field. On National Minorities Day, this group calls on the state to counter the rising tide of hate and violence against minorities as follows:

• Implement the 2014 Supreme Court judgement in letter and spirit. This must include the formation of an autonomous statutory national commission for minorities and protection for minorities’ sites of worship and places of religious significance, including from mob violence, individual miscreants and illegal occupation by state and nonstate actors.
• Make it unequivocally clear that the state will not brook any form of hate speech (online or otherwise), incitement to violence or mob-led violence, including by clerics and far-right political parties or groups. Not only must perpetrators of such rights violations be held accountable and prosecuted, but victims should be compensated for loss of life or property—without this becoming a substitute for accountability.
• Religious seminaries must also be regulated stringently to prevent them from becoming breeding grounds for hate and intolerance against minorities. Multifaith peace committees should be established or restored as necessary at the council, district, divisional and provincial levels and trained regularly in human rights principles and practice. Such committees should also be made responsible for compiling accurate data on incidents of violence and other rights violations against minorities and recording what action was taken by the state.
• Address the increasing number of false blasphemy accusations by holding those who level such accusations accountable. The Parliament should initiate a serious debate on the misuse of the blasphemy laws and ensure that they cannot be used to settle personal scores or to target vulnerable individuals or groups.
• Initiate a concerted campaign for equal citizenship by creating mass awareness of the rights of religious minorities and the idea that national strength lies in religious and ethnic diversity. This should also include training and recruiting more teachers from minorities in public schools and universities to normalize the notion of equality while immediately removing all discriminatory material from educational curricula.
• Take affirmative action by protecting and promoting religious minorities’ right to employment, education and political participation. Minorities’ quota in jobs at the federal and provincial levels must be met without exception. The state should promote the inclusion of members of minorities in the judiciary, civil service and law enforcement while political parties should allocate at least 5 percent of key decision-making posts to party members of different faiths.
• Criminalize early marriages and forced conversions—violations that frequently target girls and women from low-income minority households—and train judges of family courts to adjudicate such cases in line with international norms.
• Record the actual number of people from minority groups in the national census to ensure that their political, economic and social rights are upheld, and recognize Buddhism as a distinct religion equal to other faiths by including a section for Buddhists in all official forms.

The National Interfaith Working Group urges the Government of Pakistan to do its utmost and demonstrate your commitment to uphold minorities’ rights in Pakistan.

Asad Iqbal Butt
Chairperson