Human rights are universal

They apply equally to all people  men, women and children. But political,legal,cultural and religious practices in many countries discriminate against women.At home,within their communities,at peace and at war,women are raped,beaten,mutilated for the sake of ‘tradition ’ or honour and killed with impunity.Millions of women have no control over their bodies.They are forced to marry men they do not want.Sexual assault increases their risk of  HIV/AIDS infection.They are punished for having sex outside marriage.Female feticide and infanticide destroy women ’s lives before they have barely begun. Many children fare no better.Everywhere they suffer appalling abuses.Children as young as four are used as camel jockeys. Six-year-olds are forced into bonded labour,seven and eight-year-olds are recruited as soldiers,young girls are forced to work as prostitutes for sex tourists and as domestic servants.The systems that should protect them too often turn against them.Child offenders are imprisoned in inhumane conditions,sometimes in cells with adults who abuse them.Children forced to live on the streets face daily dangers including torture and murder by the police.Refugee children who have lost their homes and families are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Despite facing such human rights abuses,women are playing increasingly important and assertive roles,for example in conflict prevention,conflict resolution and peace-keeping programmes.Women ’s grass-roots groups are essential to community-based education,health care and peace-building initiatives.Educating girls empowers them to participate more widely in communities and politics.By so doing women gradually increase their ability to get involved in,and influence,

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) declares that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of person. Although Pakistan had agreed with the UDHR when it first was proposed stating that "Islam unequivocally endorsed the freedom of conscience," this has not always been the case with Pakistan. (Mayer, p.13) This is a country in which a husband can get away with murdering his wife for taking an action that is considered to be "dishonorable" in the eyes of him or his family. This is a country in which young children are forced into laboring in factories and other bonded labor. Pakistan is also a country in which the police spend more time denying that a crime has happened than they do investigating the alleged crime. Last of all, it is a country in which ideas against the Islamic religion cannot even be expressed without punishment

      

   The laws protecting women’s rights in Pakistan work on paper, but the laws are not being enforced to protect women in the way that they were written. The estimated percentage of women who encounter domestic violence ranges from about 70 to 90 percent according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). (Crime or Custom?, V) This is socially tolerated due to the Islamic tradition of the country, in which the men of Pakistan are dominant over the women. It was also estimated by the HRCP that about eight women are raped nationwide every twenty-four hours in Pakistan, and at least half of them are minors. (Crime or Custom?, V) In addition, the women who file charges endanger themselves to Hudood adultery charges. If the woman cannot prove that she did not consent to the sexual activity, she could be flogged, or publicly stoned due to the Hudood ordinances. The Hudood ordinances were laws trying to make the penal code more Islamic, providing harsh punishments for violations of Islamic law. (US Department of State) Females and non-Muslim men cannot testify on behalf of the woman, which makes the lack of consent very hard to prove. An incident in April of 1998 involved two Afghan women who reported being raped after being kidnapped from a bus leaving a refugee camp. The driver was detained, but paid a bribe to the police which set him free. The Pakistan Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees, which was responsible for the incident, investigated the accusation, and detained the driver again. (HRW World Report 1999) A law was passed that invoked the death penalty for people convicted of gang rape, but due to the fact that gang rape is one of the tools used for social control by criminals, landlords, and the police, complaints aren’t frequently responded to by police. (US Department of State) There also have been many women forced by the police to perform sexual favors in order to be released from custody, while others held by police are just raped. (Islam, Gender & Social Change)    

  

In conclusion, Pakistan is a troubled country that is in the need of serious civil and human rights reform. The government needs to take stronger measures to ensure the safety of women in public and in their own homes. The government of Pakistan also needs to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that it had agreed to long ago. Women in Pakistan also must be treated as equals to men, and not as being subservient. The police and the courts also need to be reformed to protect the rights of the victims, and not let the guilty get away repeatedly. The children of Pakistan must also be protected for they are the future of the country. They cannot be sentenced to death unless they are of age, and have committed a legitimate capitol offense. In addition, the freedom of speech and religion must be protected. The persecution of people for what they say and believe must stop. When these problems are corrected, the country of Pakistan will surely be a better place to live for all, and will most likely prosper in the years following the change.