ICC Note:
According to a new report by the U.S. Government, religious freedom in Pakistan is under attack. Specifically, the report detailed the suffering of Sikhs, Christians, and Hindus across the country. The issues faced by these minority communities highlighted in the report were Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws, forced conversions to Islam, and widespread discrimination. Will Pakistan take notice of this most recent report and make the changes necessary to insure religious freedom for all its citizens?
08/16/2017 Pakistan (News 18) – Religious freedom is under attack in Pakistan where minorities like Sikhs, Christians and Hindus remained concerned over government’s “inadequate” action to address forced conversions to Islam.
Members of religious minority communities said that there continued to be inconsistent application of laws safeguarding minority rights and enforcement of protections of religious minorities at both the federal and provincial levels by the federal Ministry of Law, Justice, and Human Rights and its provincial counterparts, said the report released by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“Religious minorities said they remained concerned that government action to address coerced conversions of religious minorities to Islam was inadequate,” the report, first under the Trump administration, said.
“Religious freedom is under attack in Pakistan, where more than two dozen are on death row or serving a life imprisonment for blasphemy,” Tillerson said in his speech as he released the 2016 International Religious Freedom report.
Religious minority community leaders continued to say that the government failed to take adequate action to protect minorities from bonded labor in the brick-making and agricultural sectors, an illegal practice in which victims were disproportionately Christians and Hindus, it said.
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