Pakistan Faces UN Rights Review Amid Human Rights Concerns

Pakistan is due for a UN Human Rights Committee review amid ongoing human rights issues, including extrajudicial killings and the controversial ban on the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM). Amnesty International urges the government to address these concerns and uphold international civil and political rights standards.

Amnesty International has announced that Pakistan will undergo its second review by the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva on October 17 and 18. The review, emphasizing the continued prevalence of human rights violations and abuses, falls under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Pakistan is a signatory.

The organization pointed to multiple alarming issues in recent months, such as extrajudicial killings of blasphemy suspects by police, suppression of protests, the enactment of the restrictive Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act 2024, arbitrary detention and mass arrests of opposition figures, a ban on the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), and harassment of human rights activists, including Mahrang Baloch. Amnesty urged the Pakistani government to use this review as a chance to evaluate and address these human rights challenges.

October 6 saw the PTM banned over national peace and security concerns, with the group being declared 'unlawful' under the Anti-Terrorism Act, leading to its classification as a proscribed organization. By October 10, a tentative agreement had been reached to lift the ban, with specific conditions to be met. Following Amnesty's appeal to revoke the ban, the PTM was allowed to proceed with its meeting on October 11, highlighting tension between security measures and the right to peaceful assembly.