Pakistan faces UN rights review in Geneva today: Aqeel Malik leads delegation to CESCR

Pakistan's record on economic, social and cultural rights is being reviewed today, Wednesday 4 November, by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in Geneva, Dawn reported. The committee, a panel of 18 independent experts, is examining Pakistan's second periodic report under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which covers rights such as work, fair wages, social security, health, education, housing and food.

Who is in Geneva for Pakistan

An 11-member delegation is led by Barrister Aqeel Malik, Minister of State for Law and Justice. It includes Pakistan's ambassador and permanent representative in Geneva, Tahir Andrabi, the secretary of the human rights ministry, and Nayyab Ali, a consultant on transgender rights. The review falls in the committee's eighth session.

Pakistan signed the covenant in November 2004 and ratified it in April 2008, which commits it to report regularly on how it is putting the covenant's Articles 1 to 15 into practice.

What Pakistan says, and what critics say

Pakistan's report tells the committee that covenant rights are increasingly enforceable under domestic law and that courts and administrative bodies can act when they are breached.

Amnesty International, in a submission cited by Dawn, says Pakistan has not taken "substantive steps" to make three of the covenant's rights binding in domestic law, and that despite constitutional amendments they have not been added to the fundamental rights chapter of the Constitution. Amnesty recommends:

• writing the covenant's rights fully into Pakistani law;
• making them directly enforceable in every court and tribunal;
• compulsory training on the covenant for judges, prosecutors, lawyers and officials.

What happens next

After the dialogue, the committee issues concluding observations: a public list of concerns and recommendations that Pakistan is expected to act on before its next report. They usually appear a few weeks after the session ends, on the UN human rights office website.

The review touches everyday issues covered across this site, from the minimum wage and EOBI pensions (our EOBI calculator) to school enrolment and the BISP cash programme.