On Thursday (11th April), the United Nations expressed its disappointment with the continued atrocities inflicted upon women from minority communities in Pakistan. A panel of experts from the UN issued a statement in Geneva and slammed the Islamic country for the forced marriages and religious conversions of Christian and Hindu women in Pakistan.
The statement said, “Christian and Hindu girls remain particularly vulnerable to forced religious conversion, abduction, trafficking, child, early and forced marriage, domestic servitude, and sexual violence.”
The statement from the Office of the High Commissioner, United Nations Human Rights, further said, “The exposure of young women and girls belonging to religious minority communities to such heinous human rights violations and the impunity of such crimes can no longer be tolerated or justified.”
The panel of experts included Tomoya Obokata, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; Siobhan Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children: Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstic, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls.
The experts also mentioned that the “Perpetrators often escape accountability. with police dismissing crimes under the guise of ‘love marriages”. The UN press release also mentioned that any child, early, or forced marriage cannot be justified in any case. According to international law, any consent remains irrelevant in the case of marriage, provided the victim is a minor (anyone younger than 18 years).
The experts noted, “A woman’s right to choose a spouse and freely enter into marriage is central to her life, dignity, and equality as a human being and must be protected and upheld by law.” The UN experts emphasised the importance of establishing measures to nullify or dissolve marriages entered into under coercion, with particular attention to the well-being of affected women and girls. They also called for ensuring that victims have access to justice, remedies, protection, and sufficient assistance. The UN experts also highlighted multiple cases of forced marriages and conversions of Pakistani women from minority communities.
Children are entitled to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as stated in Article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and any decision to change one’s religion or beliefs must always be voluntary, devoid of coercion, and free from undue influence. The experts in the UN panel said in their statement, “The Pakistani authorities must enact and rigorously enforce laws to ensure that marriages are contracted only with the free and full consent of the intended spouses and that the minimum age for marriage is raised to 18, including for girls. All women and girls must be treated without discrimination, including those belonging to the Christian and Hindu communities, or indeed other religions and beliefs.”
In conclusion, the UN called upon Pakistan to ensure that those responsible for such actions are held accountable through legal proceedings, to strengthen the enforcement of existing laws safeguarding against child, early, and forced marriage, as well as the abduction and trafficking of minority girls, and to fulfil the country’s international human rights commitments.
