New Delhi: As many as 12 United Nations rights experts have “expressed alarm” at the rising cases of kidnapping, forced conversions and marriages of girls as young as 13 years old in Pakistan, and have asked that the country bring a law to prohibit it.In 2019, with several cases of minority underage Hindu girls abducted, converted to Islam and forced to marry Muslim men, India had issued a note verbale to Pakistan, calling on Islamabad to ensure protection of minorities. In 2012, the Manmohan Singh government had also issued a démarche to Pakistan over India’s “serious concerns on the matter of abduction, forced conversion and marriage of Hindu girls against their will to Muslim men in Pakistan.”On January 17, in a statement issued by the office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, the group of experts comprising special rapporteurs on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, on violence against women and minority issues, and on contemporary forms of slavery, cited reports on the matter, suggesting involvement of religious authorities and “the complicity of security forces and the justice system.” “We urge the government to take immediate steps to prevent and thoroughly investigate these acts objectively and in line with domestic legislation and international human rights commitments. Perpetrators must be held fully accountable,” said the statement. Also read: Pakistan Forced Conversions: Loopholes in Legislation, Probe Panel With No HindusUrging Pakistan to uphold the rights of women and children, the experts pointed out that Pakistan’s courts had enabled the perpetrators by accepting “fraudulent evidence” from them regarding the age of the victims and their willingness to marry and convert to Islam. They further noted that the courts have also sometimes “misused interpretations of religious law to justify victims remaining with their abusers”. “The police had also failed victims’ families by refusing to register the abductions, or dismissing them as ‘love marriages’,” the note says.Expressing concern that marriages and conversions have been taking place “under the threat of violence to these girls and women or their families”, the experts said the victims, regardless of their religion, must be given access to justice and equal protection of law. Several reported cases are also from the minority Christian community of Pakistan.“Pakistan authorities must adopt and enforce legislation prohibiting forced conversions, forced and child marriages, kidnapping and trafficking, and abide by their international human rights commitments to combat slavery and human trafficking and uphold the rights of women and children,” the statement said.There has been no immediate response from Pakistan on the UN statement.
