UN body to review Pakistan’s compliance with convention against torture: HumSub.TV

UN body to review Pakistan’s compliance with convention against torture: HumSub.TV: The United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) will review the Pakistan government’s compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment on April 18 and April 19, according to rights group Justice Project Pakistan.
This will be the first time that Pakistan is being reviewed by the CAT ever since the country signed and ratified the Convention in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Pakistan ratified the CAT to qualify for its GSP+ scheme, a preferential trade status that has seen the country’s exports rise by 22 per cent and 5.5billion Euros in 2014, making it one of the largest countries to reap benefits from the status granted in the very same year.
In fact, Pakistani exports under the scheme increased to 6.2 billion Euros from January to December of 2016.
While the country’s failure to comply with these requirements can put these economic advantages at risk.
In its Initial State Report, submitted five years after it was due, Pakistan has argued that its pre-existing legal framework is in line with the provisions of the Convention.
It underscores that torture is prohibited and prevented in Pakistan, with allegations of abuse effectively investigated and prosecuted.
However, to support these claims, the report only reiterates sections in the law that bear little connection to torture and fails to address any reported cases of torture.
The bold claims of the State Report only obfuscate the fact that nothing has been done to combat the endemic of torture in Pakistan.
To pretend that torture in custody is not an accepted method of criminal investigation in Pakistan is a dangerous folly, with numerous well-documented cases in the public domain that disprove the assertions of the report.
Justice Project Pakistan and Yale Law School’s Lowenstein Clinic documented the pervasive culture of police brutality in a 2014 report Policing as Torture.
Researchers examined 1,867 medical-legal certificates of independent physical examinations of criminal defendants from Faisalabad.
The figures were striking; physicians found conclusive evidence of severe torture and abuse in 1,424 of the 1,867 cases.
Police were documented as having “beaten victims, suspended, stretched and crushed them, forced them to witness other people’s torture, put them in solitary confinement, subjected them to sleep and sensory deprivation, confined them to small spaces, exposed them to extreme temperatures, humiliated them by imposing culturally inappropriate or unpleasant circumstances, and sexually abused them.”
Moreover, in the seven years since the ratification of the convention, Pakistan has failed to pass a single piece of legislation that comprehensively addresses the issue of torture.
Several private member bills that have sought to criminalize torture have since lapsed.
As such, torture remains ill-defined in the Pakistani jurisprudence as the only mention of torture in the Constitution, in Article 14(2), does not define the scope of torture.
Both the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of Pakistan do not mention torture by name, and the offences and punishments highlighted by the state in its report only concern the “hurt principle” which deals with the severest of bodily injuries resulting in permanent damage.
And so, the law in Pakistan does not consider any act of mental torture, cultural humiliation, or any act of physical torture that does not leave any lasting marks a punishable offence.

UN body to review Pakistan’s compliance with convention against torture: HumSub.TV

UN body to review Pakistan’s compliance with convention against torture: HumSub.TV

UN body to review Pakistan’s compliance with convention against torture: HumSub.TV

About HumSub TV
Introduction
HumSub TV is Pakistan’s leading forwarding-thinking, edutainment channel, aimed at promoting and upholding peace, interfaith harmony and social responsibility within Pakistan through informative and insightful programmes and documentaries; analytical interviews on issues pertaining to social, economic, legal and environmental set-up; dedicated shows to canvass and thereby promote the culture and heritage of Pakistan and in-depth coverage of national and international news.

HumSub TV is the first channel and thus a pioneer within its own right that mainly focuses on emphasising the “Rights” as well as the “Obligations” of the citizens in light of the Constitution of Pakistan, numerous International declarations signed by the Government and various laws that have been promulgated over the years but are not in the knowledge of the common citizen.
HumSub TV also aims to enter into bilateral agreements with other countries to promote not only their culture, heritage and tourism, but also their educational and medical facilities.
Following the successful launch of HumSub TV’s head office in Blue Area, Islamabad; the bureau office has been set up in Lahore.

Vision
To project positive image building of Pakistan and inculcate nationalism, as per the vision of the founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Mission
HumSub TV is resolute about the promotion of a pluralistic, inclusive and egalitarian society in Pakistan where all citizens are allowed to contribute to promote interfaith harmony, peace and collective wisdom in the social, political and economic development of Pakistan and to encourage critical and lateral thinking in the society. HumSub TV strives to make a positive contribution to this end.

HumSub TV’s Theme
HumSub TV, Pakistan’s first EDUTAINMENT Channel, has been set up for not only those audience residing in Pakistan or overseas but the international community on the whole. The vision of the channel is to project positive image building of Pakistan and inculcate nationalism as per the vision of the founder of the nation.

HumSub TV strives to make a positive contribution to this end by promoting pluralism, inclusiveness and egality in Pakistan and give voice to the suppressed. It endeavors to act as a positive catalyst for social change and Pakistani nationalism. It envisions providing a platform for airing critical and lateral thinking and collective wisdom by inviting positive minded intellectuals and opinion forming individuals for the promotion of interfaith harmony and peace in the social, political and economic development of Pakistan.

Whereas the channel airs upbeat edutainment programmes, it, nonetheless, has the primary objective of countering negative anti-Pakistan regional and international propaganda as well as advancing fundamental rights as encapsulated in the Constitution of Pakistan.

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