Under the Universal Periodic Review process at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the member states have asked Pakistan to stop enforced disappearances and other human rights abuses and demanded the protection of people.
This review was Pakistan’s fourth, having previously been reviewed under this process in 2008, 2012 and 2017 where Pakistan had promised to criminalize enforced disappearances and to hold perpetrators accountable. However, the Council said that it hasn’t happened despite efforts to legislate against the practice after the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan presented the report of Pakistan.
Germany,India, Brazil, Netherlands, Paraguay and other member states have asked Pakistan to ratify the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and that they need to resolve the issue of custodial killings. Italy recommended ending enforced disappearances, ratifying the EDK Convention and holding those involved accountable.
While the UK and United States demanded democratic policies from Pakistan, they expressed concern over the killing of minority groups, religious minorities, especially Ahmadis.
In addition to the detailed report on killings in fake encounters of missing persons, Pakistan had assured in the previous meeting that children and women would not be harmed during the operation, but the situation hasn’t changed.Apart from this, in the previous meeting, Pakistan had committed to take action against the person involved in the ‘violence’, but a list of 1713 persons was collected whose disappearances were not punished and held accountable.
According to the HRCB, Pakistan had assured a fair and transparent trial of the prisoners, which has not been implemented. All the evidence of Rashid Hussain and Abdul Hafeez Zehri case has been collected till now Pakistan has not given them a chance to trial while Rashid Hussain is still missing.
The Universal Periodic Review was established in 2007, which is an important mechanism of the Human Rights Council under which the human rights record of all the member states of the United Nations is reviewed every four to five years.