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.
