{"id":5516,"date":"2019-10-16T19:52:18","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T19:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hrcp-web.org\/hrcpweb\/?p=5516"},"modified":"2021-09-30T19:53:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T19:53:00","slug":"hrcp-condemns-campus-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrcp-web.org\/hrcpweb\/hrcp-condemns-campus-surveillance\/","title":{"rendered":"HRCP condemns campus surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"

HRCP condemns campus surveillance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Islamabad\/Quetta, 16 October<\/em>. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is concerned over allegations that elements associated with the administration at Balochistan University use campus surveillance videos \u2013 including those filmed by \u2018secret\u2019 cameras \u2013 to harass and blackmail students.<\/p>\n

HRCP\u2019s recent fact-finding mission to Quetta found an alarming level of surveillance on campus at the university. While this is in place ostensibly for reasons of security, the recent allegations show how easy it is for surveillance to become a tool of harassment, most often at women\u2019s expense. HRCP\u2019s sources claim that the surveillance system is used as a means of moral policing as well as to disrupt any potential or suspected political activism among students, allegedly at the behest of the Frontier Corps personnel who are permanently deployed at the university.<\/p>\n

Secret cameras have no place at a university. HRCP supports those students who have called this a gross violation of their privacy and a means of coercion, and welcomes the Balochistan High Court\u2019s decision to take suo moto notice of the matter. The Commission also urges the university administration to identify and penalise the perpetrators.<\/p>\n

On behalf of Dr Mehdi Hasan<\/p>\n

Chairperson<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>