Source: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

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It is not easy to sum up a year that started with a series of faith-based assaults on religious minorities and came to an end with a massacre of young students that led to the highest death toll in a terrorist attack in the nation’s history. There were many other instances of ever more gruesome violence against the most vulnerable segments of society. However, the year 2014 did throw up the occasional ray of hope too. One of these was women’s active participation in political protests, and adoption of some laws aimed at making the women’s lot easier in the country. At least in some parts of the country, marriage of children younger than 18 years was outlawed. Balochistan also criminalised domestic violence. The provincial governments increased the minimum wage for unskilled workers, although the extent of the raise did not come up to workers’ expectations. The Peshawar school attack in December seemed to have created consensus against bands of thugs of all hues who had been exploiting the religious banner for ends both grand and petty. The government discovered some resolve to restore its writ in the tribal areas and launched military operations against extremist militants. Yet pressing human rights concerns and worrying trends made for a much longer list. Horrific acts of terrorism and sectarian violence continued to ravage the country. Attacks on religious minorities encroached into areas where they had been largely absent hitherto and the government failed to take measures to reassure the citizens that it had the ability or the commitment to clamp down on faith-based violence. Extrajudicial killings, unlawful and arbitrary detention, custodial torture and enforced disappearance continued. Well over two million internally displaced persons, most of them women and children, had to leave their homes in search of safety and joined multitudes of others who had been displaced in earlier bouts of armed conflict between the security forces and 2 State of Human Rights in 2014 militant extremists.

Download Full Report HERE: HRCP Annual Report 2014 – English

Chapters

I             Rule of law

II            Enforcement of law

III          Fundamental freedoms

IV          Democratic development

V            Rights of the disadvantaged

  • Women                       
  • Children                     
  • Labour                        

VI          Social and economic rights

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