On January 16, the United Nations (UN) experts expressed grave concern about the alarming rise in coerced marriages, kidnappings and forced conversions of minor girls belonging to religious minority communities in Pakistan.
The UN experts had called for immediate action to ensure justice for the minor victims. They emphasised, “We urge the Government to take immediate steps to prevent and thoroughly investigate these acts objectively and in line with domestic legislation and international human rights commitments.”
“Perpetrators must be held fully accountable…We are deeply troubled to hear that girl as young as 13 are being kidnapped from their families, trafficked to locations far from their homes, made to marry men sometimes twice their age, and coerced to convert to Islam, all in violation of international human rights law,” UN experts added.
“We are very concerned that such marriages and conversions take place under threat of violence to these girls and women or their families,” the UN experts pointed out. They also expressed concern about the “lack of access to justice for victims and their families.”
“Family members say that victims’ complaints are rarely taken seriously by the police, either refusing to register these reports or arguing that no crime has been committed by labelling these abductions as love marriages,” the UN experts said.
They further added, “Abductors force their victims to sign documents which falsely attest to their being of legal age for marriage as well as marrying and converting of free will. These documents are cited by the police as evidence that no crime has occurred.”
“Pakistani authorities must adopt and enforce legislation prohibiting forced conversions, forced and child marriages, kidnapping, and trafficking, and abide by their international human rights commitments to combat slavery and human trafficking and uphold the rights of women and children,” the UN experts said.
The UN experts included Nazila Ghanea, Fernand de Varennes, Siobhán Mullally, Tomoya Obokata, Mama Fatima Singhateh, Reem Alsalem, Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Ivana Radačić, Meskerem Geset Techane, Elizabeth Broderick, and Melissa Upreti.
However, there was no immediate reply from the Pakistani Government to the UN statement.
Human rights groups say that forced conversion and marriage of young women from minority community is a growing problem in Pakistan.
According to a report on over 1000 underage girls belonging to the minority Hindu, Christian and Sikh communities are kidnapped and forcefully converted to Islam every year subjected to rape and forcibly married to old men in Pakistan.
Forced conversion and kidnapping of Hindu girls, their forced marriage to old Muslim men are mainly in the Sindh province, which hosts about 90 per cent of the minority community (Hindu and Sikh).
Notably, Systemic persecution of minorities, including Christians, Ahmadiya, Sikhs, Hindus through Draconian blasphemy laws, forced conversions and marriages and extrajudicial killings, has become a regular phenomenon in Pakistan. Attacks on Holy and ancient sites of religious minorities in Pakistan is also a major issue.
More than 6,700 women and girls were abducted in the Islamic country’s Punjab province in the first half of 2021. Out of that, 1,890 women were raped, 3,721 were tortured and 752 girls were raped, Duniya News reported.
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