Islamabad, May 31 (IANS) A genocide watchdog has issued an alert for genocide monitoring in Pakistan amid the growing rate of human rights violations, a report said.
The organisation Genocide Watch called for genocide monitoring in Pakistan in a report it issued earlier this month, which said that Pakistan is now at stage 3 of genocide (discrimination).
“Because discrimination against women and minorities is deeply embedded in society, and violence against them is both widespread and tolerated, Genocide Watch considers Pakistan to be at Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 5: Organisation. Deepening divisions along religious, gender, and political lines, reinforced by restrictive laws, censorship, and weak protections, place the country at Stage 6: Polarisation. The continued targeting of vulnerable groups through violence, persecution, and displacement further reflects elements of Stage 9: Persecution,” the report noted.
“These stages refer to the developments or circumstances that cause, incite, or bring about the deliberate destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group,” said Turkish journalist Uzay Bulut, writing for American media outlet PJ Media.
The targets of this discrimination are religious minorities (Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Shia, Ahmadiyya), political opposition, women, and gays.
Women face the most severe consequences as they face acid attacks, forced and child marriages, rape, trafficking, forced conversion and domestic abuse.
With the Lahore High Court ruling that marriages after puberty are valid under Islamic law in 2025, girls marriage remains widespread in Pakistan, with millions married before the age of 18.
Pakistan ranked last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index.
According to the Genocide Watch report, journalists, activists, and academics face censorship, violence, threats, arrests, and murder, which are perpetrated by the Pakistani government and contribute to growing self-censorship and restricted public discourse.
“Non-Muslims in Pakistan survive in a tyrannical environment. Christians comprise just 1.8 per cent of the population and are particularly marginalised,” said Bulut.
“As a minority in Pakistan, Christians are exposed to many challenges, which range from everyday discrimination to threats of deadly violence,” he added.
“Genocide never just happens,” says Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT).
“There is always a set of circumstances which occur or which are created to build the climate in which genocide can take place.”
The Genocide Watch recommended that the European Union (EU) use GSP+ review procedures to pressure Pakistan on limitedly enacted reforms in religious freedom, freedom of expression, and women’s rights.
It also recommended that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights consider Pakistan as “a country of special concern” because of its concerning record of human rights abuses against ethnic and religious minorities.
–IANS
ksk/khz
