Press release

Pakistan must affirm its commitment to ending enforced disappearances

30 August 2022, Lahore. On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) calls on the federal government to ensure that civil society stakeholders—especially from Balochistan, Sindh, South Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—are consulted while the Senate deliberates on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2022. Any ambiguities that might make victims’ families reluctant to report cases must be removed, including the provision that people found guilty of filing ‘fake’ petitions will be imprisoned for up to five years.

Additionally, there is a strong case to be made for introducing civilian oversight of the state agencies that are regularly implicated in cases of enforced disappearance. The Islamabad High Court has already stated in June 2022 that the state is obligated to trace missing persons once there is sufficient evidence, prima facie, to establish a case of enforced disappearance. The court has also held that the public functionaries responsible for protecting and tracing missing persons must be held accountable if they have failed in this duty.

This should underscore the gravity of the situation and the painfully slow progress Pakistan has made in redressing what is internationally considered a crime against humanity. Pakistan must thus affirm its commitment to ending enforced disappearances by ratifying the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Most recently, Faheem Baloch, a Karachi-based publisher and writer, was allegedly detained by uniformed police as well as ‘unidentified’ persons, with his family claiming that his whereabouts are still unknown. We demand that he be released immediately and his right to due process protected.

Hina Jilani
Chairperson