Country: Pakistan

Letter to EU delegation on Pakistani human rights defender detention

Posted on by fredsaxo

On Tuesday 26 January, Mr. Baloch was brought before the High Court of Sindh, where the Rangers’ legal team (paramilitary forces in Pakistan) claimed Mr Baloch’s involvement in extortion and other offences under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. While Rangers’ spokesperson has stated that Mr. Baloch was arrested on January 25th, his family claims that he has been in unlawful detention since January 16th and has petitioned the court to declare his detention illegal and set him free. 

In a letter to the EU delegation in Pakistan, FIAN International recalls the Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders the EU subscribes to, and hopes the EU delegation takes the necessary diplomatic measures with  the Pakistani government in order to clarify this situation, and to take the appropriate actions if Mr. Baloch’s detention proves to be arbitrary.

Read the letter to the EU delegation here.

Mr. Baloch was released (on bail) in early August 2016. Civil society is following the process closely.

FIAN expresses concern about child deaths caused by malnutrition in Pakistan

Posted on by fredsaxo

In this open letter, FIAN expresses its grave concern regarding the situation in Tharparkar district in the Sindh province, where a high number of child deaths caused by malnutrition have been registered over the past months.

The severe drought affecting the Tharparkar district for several years, and the absence of an irrigation system, prevented thousands of families, mostly from minority communities, from growing food crops and feeding their livestock. This situation left them in a state of extreme vulnerability, hunger and undernourishment. Children and women have been particularly affected; many families have been forced to leave their homes and migrate to other areas in search of water, food and animal feed.

The reaction by the State of Pakistan was initially slow, however, a series of measures have been adopted over the past weeks. FIAN International calls upon the government to take meaningful action to also tackle this situation in a sustainable and long-term manner, including by addressing the structural causes of poverty and hunger.

Please read Open Letter to the Government of Pakistan below

Pakistan: Brutal State Repression Against Landless Farmers in Punjab

Posted on by fredsaxo

One million tenant farmers of Okara district in the Pakistani state of Punjab have been struggling for their land rights and face brutal repression from the military. The tenant farmers have tilled the land for almost a century but under a new contract system, they fear loss of their land and face hunger and malnutrition. In order to force the tenant farmers to make the new contract brutal force, killings and all forms of intimidation is being used against them by the military.

An international action is urgently needed to pressurise the military in Pakistan to stop their violent measures and give land titles to the tenant farmers. Write polite letters to the President of Pakistan with a copy to the Chief minister of Punjab and ask them to respect and protect the tenant farmers’ right to feed themselves.