Religious Freedom under Attack in Pakistan according to CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE (CSW)

Vienna, 17 February 2010.  The Forum for Religious Freedom–Europe (FOREF) and the International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) herewith call attention to the report Pakistan: Religious Freedom Under Attack, published by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), December 2019. 

The report details systematic discrimination and violence against members of the Christian, Shi’a and Hindu communities in Pakistan.

Regarding Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Community, “virtually any public act of worship by an Ahmadi could be treated as a criminal offense, ” according to CSW.

Anti-Ahmadiayya legislation “is in direct contradiction of the almost universally recognised right to freedom of religion or belief, violating Pakistan’s commitments under international law. The basic right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion was set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and acquired binding status in the International Covenant on 

Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Pakistan signed in 2008 and ratifed in 2010…”

CSW expressed concern about the “weaponization and politicization” of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.  

Anti-Ahmadiayya legislation is “being used by Islamist group not only to persecute religious minorities but also to gain political ground,” according to the report.

FULL REPORT (PDF):
Pakistan: Religious freedom under attack