ICC Note:
A recent decision by Pakistan’s Supreme Court has many Christians and human rights activists excited that reforms are possible to the country’s notorious blasphemy laws. In a written judgment, the court said that reforms and safeguards should not be seen as objectionable recognizing the widespread abuse of the blasphemy laws. The court went further to said that individuals falsely accused suffer irrevocably. Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan are disproportionately accused and convicted, often falsely, under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Will future reforms help safeguard against this?
11/5/2015 Pakistan (One News Now) – Christians and human rights activists in Pakistan are cheering a recent court decision that has opened the door for possible positive reforms to the country’s blasphemy laws.
Current blasphemy laws in Pakistan are often abused to settle scores for personal gain or to incite hatred against vulnerable religious minorities. But in a recent case, that country’s highest court released a written judgment calling for reforms to be made to the blasphemy laws in order to provide safeguards against their misuse and false allegations.
In the judgment, the court stated that “[reforms] should not be considered objectionable.”
This is quite a change and a long time coming, according to William Stark, South Asia regional manager for International Christian Concern.
“The fact that the highest court in the land feels safe enough or feels comfortable enough to say No, this needs to be reformed; we need to set safeguards to make sure this isn’t happening – is really, really positive,” he tells One News Now.
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