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Civil Society Position Paper on

Implementation of

International Covenant of Economic, Social and CulturalRights (ICESCR)

In Pakistan

Final

Bhittai Social Watch & Advocacy (BSWA)

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“Indeed, in countries where the task of maintaining body and soul together isgetting more and more to be a mission impossible, man’s efforts should befocused in enhancing the socio-economic rights of the vulnerable in our society.For what good is not being arrested if one is already incarcerated by the prisonof poverty? What good is freedom of expression if the only idea you can mumbleare words begging for food? What good is freedom to think on the part of theignorant who is even ignorant of his ignorance? What good is the right toproperty to him who is shirtless, shoeless, and roofless? What good are politicaland civil rights to those whose problem is how to be human?

— Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, Philippine Supreme Court 2006-2010

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Credits

Principle Researchers & Authors:

Hassan Nasir Mirbahar

Ehsan Qazi

Additional Field Research

Sana Khan (Sindh),

Uzma Tahirkhaili (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa)

Razaullah Khan (Baluchistan)

Additional Technical Support

Adam Malik

Mazhar Arif

Year of Publication:

2014

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Copies:

1000

This publication was made possible through a grant from Oxfam Novib

ContentsEXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................6

FOREWORD...................................................................11

PART I: INTRODUCTION.......................................................13

1. INTRODUCTION TO THE PAPER...............................................14

1.1. PURPOSE & OBJECTIVES...................................................151.2. METHODOLOGY...........................................................161.3. CHAPTER ORGANIZATION...................................................17

2. ICESCR: AN INTRODUCTION & KEY CONCEPTS..................................19

2.1. ICESCR INTRODUCTION...................................................192.2. PAKISTAN: RATIFICATION, DECLARATIONS AND RESERVATIONS........................212.3. NATURE OF STATE OBLIGATIONS.............................................21

PART II: CIVIL SOCIETY POSITIONS...........................................25

3. DOMESTICATION & RESOURCE ALLOCATION.....................................26

3.1. LEGISLATION: RESPONDING OR REFLECTING ESCR RIGHTS..........................263.2. RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR ESC RIGHTS.......................................273.3. JUSTICIABILITY OF ESC RIGHTS............................................283.4. REPORT ON ICESCR’S IMPLEMENTATION.......................................293.5. RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION..............................................293.6. RECOMMENDATIONS........................................................30

4. LABOUR RIGHTS...........................................................31

4.1. RIGHT TO WORK.........................................................314.2. RIGHT TO JUST AND SAFE WORKING CONDITIONS..................................34

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4.3. RIGHT TO TRADE UNIONS..................................................384.4. RECOMMENDATIONS........................................................39

5. RIGHT TO EDUCATION......................................................41

6. RIGHT TO HEALTH.........................................................50

7. RIGHT TO ADEQUATE STANDARD OF LIFE......................................58

7.1. RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD..................................................597.2. RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING...............................................637.3. RIGHT TO WATER........................................................68

8. RIGHT TO SOCIAL SECURITY................................................73

9. RIGHT TO CULTURE........................................................77

10. ESC RIGHTS OF VULNERABLE GROUPS.......................................81

10.1. ESC RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES...................................8110.2. ESC RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS...........................................8510.3. ESC RIGHTS OF MINORITIES...............................................9110.4. ESC RIGHTS OF THE TRANSGENDER...........................................95

11. CONCLUSION............................................................97

ANNEXURES..................................................................98

LIST OF KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS..............................................98LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................100Bibliography.............................................................101

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Executive SummaryWhat is considered a welcome move by many, Pakistan ratified theInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR) in 2008. It was a significant step as the covenant requiredPakistan to take specific measures for guarantying the economic,social and cultural (ESC) rights of all citizens. Ratified by over 160countries, the ICESCR enshrines labour rights (right to work, right tojust and safe working conditions and right to trade unions andcollective bargaining), right to education, right to health, right tosocial security and right to culture. The principle of non-discrimination requires equal treatment irrespective of sex, class,race, religion or any other status.

Article 2 of the covenant outlines the obligations of the ratifyingstate. Under these obligations, firstly Pakistan needs to review andreform the domestic state legislations to bring them in accordance andcompliance with the provisions of ICESCR. Secondly, the country needs

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to allocate necessary budgetary resources for ensuring the ESC rightsof all its citizens as per ICECSR. Thirdly, as elaborated in UNCommittee on ESC Rights’ (UNCESCR) general comment, Pakistan isobligated as a state to establish justiciability mechanisms requiredfor the realisation of the ESC rights and to ensure protection,promotion and realization of all rights enshrined in the ICESCR.Pakistan is also under the obligation to submit regular reports on theprogress in the implementation of the ICESCR. The first report was duewithin two years of ratification and subsequent reports were to besubmitted on a five-yearly basis. To date, the state has not submittedany report to the UNCESCR.

This position paper attempts to assess the progress in legislationsand practices in Pakistan in the light of its state obligations underICESCR. Through interviews and consultations with Pakistani civilsociety a shared position was developed and recommendations are givento the state to improve the implementation of the commitments madeunder the ICESCR.

An examination of the domestic legal framework reveals that Pakistanhas a long way to go to institutionalize constitutional and legalsupport for ESC rights in the domestic legislation. Most of the ESCrights, like right to health, right to food, right to housing etc,remain part of Principles of Policy chapter of the constitution. Anyconstitutional expert will testify that provisions under thePrinciples of Policy do not carry the same weight as the rightsoutlined in Fundamental Rights chapter of the constitution. Some ofthe ESC rights recognized as fundamental rights include right toeducation, freedom of association, equality of men and women and someaspects of right to culture and non-discrimination. Hence theprovisions of the constitution do not do justice to the ESC rights asdefined by the ICESCR.

Looking at the practical situation of ESC rights in Pakistan, a ratherdismal picture emerges. Some key highlights are shared below:

For the population of 10 year of age and above, the labour forceparticipation remains at 45.7% as per the Labour Force Survey (LFS)2012-13. 1 Female participation at 21.5% is much lower as compared to

1 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2014. Labour Force Survey 2012-13 [Online]. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan. Available: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/labour-force-survey-2012-13-annual-report [Accessed 20 January 2014].

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68.9% for the men. The unemployment rate was recorded at 6.2% whereasfemale unemployment was recorded at 9%. More urban females (19.2%) areunemployed as compared to rural women. The income levels do not seemto yield decent living as the average income recorded was 9,712 rupeesa month in the LFS 2012-13, a miniscule amount that cannot possiblymatch the inflation over the years. Discrimination against women ismanifested in shape of lower wages with an average of 7,869 rupees amonth as compared to 12,804 rupees per month for men, a difference of63%, reveals the LFS 2012-13.2

Occupational safety is also a grave problem. Recent incidents thatcompromised the safety of the labour men , women and children havecome to fore, when the large scale fires erupted in a garment factoryin Baldia Town Karachi and in a shoe factory in Lahore resulting inthe loss of numerous innocent lives pointing towards gaps in securityprotocols in the formal industrial sector. Incidents are reportedevery now and then from the ship-breaking yards in Karachi andnumerous other factories across the country. However, 73% of the totallabour force works in the informal sector, their conditions areestimated to be much worse as compared to the formal sector. As perLFS 2012-13, 4% workers reported suffering while at work. The highestpercentage of the sufferers (49.1) was reportedly from agriculturesector. In agriculture, women face double the risk as compared to menas 92.5% of women reported sufferings in the agriculture sector. Childlabour and bonded labour are rampant in Pakistan despite theconstitutional bar on child and bonded labour.

With regards to education, Pakistan has taken an important step byrecognizing and providing the right to free and compulsory primaryeducation in the constitution. Following this, primary legislations oneducation were approved for Sindh and Islamabad Capital Territories(ICT). Recently, Baluchistan also enacted a law on free and compulsoryprimary education. ICT, Sindh and Baluchistan still need to enactrules and allocate budgets for implementation of the legislations.With 6.7 million out of school children, the government of Pakistanneeds to put in meaningful efforts to provide and ensure primaryeducation for all. The net primary enrolment rate (NER) for childrenaged 5-9 years is only 68%. The NER for girls is 63% as compared to73% for boys pointing towards a significant gender disparity.Baluchistan has the lowest NER at 51% overall whereas FATA has lowest2 Ibid.

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NER for girls at a mere 42%. Overall, only 50% of the population inrural areas has ever attended a school. To make matter worse there isa big question mark on the quality of the education being provided aslearning levels remain very low. Besides, the primary school survivalrate is not encouraging as only 70% of the enrolled children managedto reach class 5. Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 20133

estimates that one third children dropped out after class five. ASER2013 indicates that only 50% children in class five could read a class2 level story in Urdu/Pashto/Sindhi in the rural areas of Pakistan.This indicates the need for immediate practical steps to improve thequality of education in Pakistan. Besides, a large number of schoolsremain deprived of basic facilities of water, sanitation, furniture,teachers and books.

With only 1 primary health care centre/unit available for 10,000persons, the realization of the right to health remains a distantgoal. To start with the state needs to recognize the right to healthas a fundamental human right in the constitution. The deterioratinghealth indicators in Pakistan are substantial evidence that right tohealth be recognized as a fundamental human right, a demandsubstantiated by the state commitments under the ICESCR. Pakistanranks second in the world in terms of still birth rate with 47 stillbirths per 1000 births. Data in Pakistan Social & Living StandardsMeasure Survey (PSLM) 2011-124 reflect that only 56% children werefully immunized whereas Research and Development Solutions claims that1 in five children in Pakistan is not immunized.5 Pakistan is one ofthe only three countries in world where polio still prevails. Withincreasing attacks on polio vaccination teams, eradication of thepolio has become very difficult to achieve. The conditions of the food and nutrition in the country also demandattention from the state. A total of 80 out of 113 districts are foodinsecure; in this vein, World Food Program (WFP) estimates that about50% population or 83 million people, is food insecure.6 Pakistan ranks57 on 2013 Global Hunger Index with downward trend since 1990.7

3 ITA. 2014. Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013 [Online]. Available: http://www.aserpakistan.org/index.php?func=aser_2013.

4 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2013c. Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2011-12. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan.

5 SOLUTIONS, R. D. 2012. Childhood Immunization in Pakistan Research & Development Solutions

6 PROGRAM, W. F. Food Insecure - Pakistan [Online]. Available: http://www.wfp.org/countries/pakistan/overview [Accessed 7 January 2014 2014].

7 2013b. GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX THE CHALLENGE OF HUNGER: BUILDING RESILIENCE TO ACHIEVE FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY. International Food Policy Research Institute, Walthungerhilfe, Concern

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Authorities claim that production of food is sufficient but there isneed to improve distribution and purchasing power of the people.National Nutrition Survey, 2011 rings alarm bells as stunting ratesfor under-five population increased to 44% in 2011 as compared to 42in 1980s; this amounts to nearly 11.8 million children suffering fromgrowth stunting in 2011 as compared to 6.35 under-five children whostunted in 1985.8 As per WHO’s health profile of the country, theunder-five mortality rate in Pakistan is 72 deaths per 1000 livebirths.9 This way too much of global and regional averages of 51 & 58deaths respectively. Likewise, the maternal mortality rate in Pakistanis high with 260 deaths per 100,000 live births as compared to 250deaths regionally and 210 deaths globally. As of 2010, in prematurity(20% of all cases) and pneumonia (19% of all cases) are major causesof the deaths of the children under-five deaths.10 PSLM 2011-12 indicate that 86% population of Pakistan live in theirown houses. As compared to rural areas, more people in urban areaslive in rented places.11 For example in Islamabad alone 36% populationlives in rented houses. The PSLM data reflects that 69.33% populationlives in 2-4 room houses; with an average household size of 6.5, thesehousing arrangements are not adequate according to the standards laiddown in the ICESCR’s right to adequate housing which requires properspace, privacy and necessary facilities. Moreover, experts estimatethat Pakistan needs 270,000 new housing units a year. Current housingneeds are estimated at about 7.5 million units.12 With the recentseries of floods and the widespread destruction that followed, impacton the housing situation has been severe. While in the recent timesthey have been no major reported incidents of the forced evictions;the issue still persists as developmental projects are used toforcibly evict people. In one such project of Lyari Expressway, about3490 houses were demolished in the first five months of the project. Areported by Urban Resource Center (URC) indicates that 40,900 houseswere destroyed between the years 1992 to 2006 in Karachi alone. Thisresulted in displacement of around 286,300 people.13 Most of the

Worldwise

8 NSS figures cited in: BUTTA, Z. A., GAZDAR, H. & HADDA, L. 2013. Seeing the Unseen: Breaking the Logjam of Undernutrition in Pakistan. IDS Bulletin, 44.

9 ORGANIZATION, W. H. Pakistan: Country Profile [Online]. Available: http://www.who.int/gho/countries/pak.pdf?ua=1 [Accessed 7 January 2014].

10 Ibid.

11 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2013c. Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2011-12. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan.

12 UN-HABITAT AFFORDABLE LAND AND HOUSING IN ASIA.

13 YOUNUS, M. 2013. Pakistan: Forced evictions and socio-economic costs for vulnerable communities: An overview. Karachi: Urban Resource Center.

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displaced persons were left without any viable alternatives ofresettlement and compensation as required under the right to adequatehousing of the ICESCR.14

As per PSLM 2011-12, potable water is available to only 59% of thetotal population in Pakistan. But WaterAid estimates that 15.9 millionpeople lack access to safe drinking water. The organization indicatesthat almost 14 million persons have no choice but to drinkcontaminated water and every year 40000 children die of diarrhoeaassociated with the use of contaminated water.15 The country is fastbecoming water scarce as the water resources are shrinking day by day.Currently, 1100 cubic water is available per capita as compared to1200 cubic water in 2003 and 5600 cubic water in 1950s.16 The stateneeds to ensure just and equal distribution of water to all parts ofthe country to meet the ever growing domestic and agricultural needs.

The right to social security needs substantial commitment andpractical actions by the government in terms of compliance with theICESCR’s provisions. The social security schemes are not as broad andall-encompassing as required under the ICESCR. Existing socialsecurity schemes by government have been criticized for theirinefficiency and ineffectiveness in providing holistic social securityto people. Schemes like Zakat Fund, Employees Old-Age BenefitsInstitution (EOBI), and Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) are runby the government but their outreach, accessibility and effectivenessneeds to be strengthened. According to the Pakistan Bureau ofStatistics (PBS) only 1.9 million workers out of a total estimate of59 million labour force enjoy some form of social security.

In terms of right to culture, there is a strong need to have fullrecognition of right to culture in the constitution. Currently, theconstitution provides for preservation and promotion of the languages,which only covers a small fraction of the entire spectrum of culturalrights. The exercise of right to culture remains under threat due tomanifold reasons. First, there have been limitations from the statewhich does not fully recognize cultural diversity and have in factsuppressed many cultural and/or ethnic groups. With more than 6014 Ibid.

15 Pakistan [Online]. WaterAid, Pakistan. Available: http://www.wateraid.org/where-we-work/page/pakistan [Accessed 7 January 2014].

16 KHAN, F. J. & JAVED, Y. 2007. Delivering Access to Safe Drinking Water and Adequate Sanitation in Pakistan. Working Paper. Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

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languages spoken in the country, only Urdu has been given status ofnational language. Secondly, the recent attacks on the shrines,mosques, temples and other public places as well as attacks onperforming artists such as singers also point towards the governmentinability to uphold and ensure cultural rights.

Marginalised groups like women, persons with disabilities, transgenderand religious minorities face various forms of discrimination which isa blatant violation of their rights under the ICESCR which urges thegovernment to promote non-discrimination and violence.

In the light of the above stated scenario the civil society deploredthe passivity and lack of political will on the part of the governmentto ensure compliance with obligations under the ICESCR. The civilsociety believes that ESC rights are crucial not just because of theobligation under ICESCR but also for the attainment of social justicein Pakistan. Hence, the civil society recommends that Pakistan meetits obligations under ICESCR by:

Recognizing all rights enshrined in ICESCR as fundamental humanrights in the constitution.

Allocating resources needed for practical measures and creatingan enabling environment for the realization of ESC rights.

Establishing clear mechanisms for justiciability of all ESCrights in Pakistan.

With provincial autonomy given under 18th amendment, the civil societyalso demands from the provinces to proactively work for promotion,protection and realization of rights enshrined in ICESCR in theirrespective jurisdictions.

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Foreword 

By compiling this Civil Society Paper on implementation of theInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR) the Bhittai Social Watch and Advocacy (BSWA) has done asignal service to the people of Pakistan, and in particular to thegovernment and human rights movement in the country.Pakistan ignored the ICESCR and its sister instrument, InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), both in force since1976, for 32 years. Although the ICESCR was signed in 2003 it was notratified till 2008, when ICCPR and CAT (Convention against Torture)were also ratified. This marked Pakistan’s adherence to the UN humanrights system, as these two covenants provide for the mechanism forthe enforcement of the standards summed up in the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights (UDHR). But this development ismeaningless unless the steps needed to ensure implementation of theCovenants are taken. This is especially true of the ICESCR becausewhile the people have become aware, to some extent, of their civil andpolitical rights, their economic, social and cultural rights have not

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acquired their due place in public discourse. It is doubtful if theimportance of this covenant is adequately appreciated by thegovernment and the people.The ICESCR resolved the debate on the significance of economic andsocial rights that had raged at the time of adoption of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The socialist states had taken thestand that the UDHR reflected Western European perspective on humanrights and took note largely of political and civil entitlements,while for a greater part of humankind the economic, social andcultural rights were as important, if not more, as the civil andpolitical rights. Many other communities supported this view and thematter was resolved only in 1966 when the two covenants – ICESCR andICCPR – were adopted and economic, social and cultural rights were putat par with civil and political rights. In this manner the principleof indivisibility of rights was affirmed.For Pakistan, and other countries at comparable levels of socio-economic development – or backwardness – the significance of economic,social and cultural rights is easy to realize. A large part of thepopulation, perhaps a majority, is poor – and about a third of thetotal has been condemned to live in gruelling poverty. Not only theliteracy level is low Pakistan is lagging behind many Asian andAfrican states in social development and progress towards freeingtheir culture of feudal-tribal bonds, on the one hand and colonialmoulds on the other, is extremely slow and subject to reversal.The state of Pakistan is not unaware of the people’s economic, socialand cultural rights but they figure mostly in the Principles of Policyand not in the chapter on Fundamental Rights. Thus these rights cannotbe claimed at any forum and cannot be enforced through judicialintervention. It was only in 2010, vide the 18th Amendment, thateducation was transferred from the Principles of Policy to theFundamental Rights chapter by the insertion of Article 25-A in it.Several other economic and social rights, including the right tohealth and to social security, are still in the Principles of Policy.This means that poverty cannot be eradicated and the disadvantagedcannot be guaranteed a decent standard of living because the people’sright to work, the right to a fair wage and women’s right to equalwage for equal work are not recognized as basic human rights. Therecognition of these rights as fundamental rights is one of theprimary objectives of the country’s human rights activists.Implementation of the ICESCR should enable the people of Pakistan tomove towards realization of their economic and social rights.

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Non-realization of economic and social rights by the people alsoadversely affects their ability to enjoy the civil and politicalrights. There can be no democracy in a country where a largepopulation is economically dependent on landowners’ whim and caprice,where millions of people are living in slavery-like conditions, wherewomen do not have equality with men, and where discrimination on thebasis of belief, language, domicile and social status is accepted aslegitimate by the state and citizens alike. Implementation of theICESCR will thus strengthen the foundations of democratic governancein Pakistan.However, in a country like Pakistan implementation of ICESCR presentsnumerous challenges. The process can only be progressive and thequestion of determining core objectives or fixing priorities is ofbasic importance. Where security is the presiding deity in thenational pantheon lack of resources is all too often advanced as anexcuse for depriving the people of their right to socio-economicamelioration. Alleviation of poverty and not its eradication can beaccepted as a national goal for ever. Then, making the laws requiredfor meeting the obligations assumed under the ICESCR will be a time-consuming exercise and adoption of laws does not mean their automaticand satisfactory enforcement. Besides, no people can acquire theirrights and the means of enjoying them without their own efforts toavail of them.BSWA has approached these issues in this paper in the most effectivemanner possible. The significance of the ICESCR provisions has beendebated with experts, activists and common citizens. This yields twoadvantages. First, the community’s understanding of economic andsocial rights is raised to the required level. And, secondly, thepriorities are clearly mapped out. After analysing each article of thecovenant the authors of the paper have laid down priorities. The papershould help Authority to draw up a program of implementing the ICESCRin the light of realistically assessed needs of the people – and noton the basis of a few functionaries’ subjective considerations. Itwill also serve the human rights activists and friends of the peoplein political parties to plan their campaigns for the deliverance ofthe weak and the marginalized from the shackles of poverty, ignorance,exploitation, discrimination, prejudice and superstition.

I. A. RehmanLahore, January 2014

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Part I: Introduction

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1. Introduction to the Paper“Roughly one third of all human deaths, some 18 millionannually, are due to poverty-related causes, easilypreventable through better nutrition, safe drinking water,mosquito nets, re-hydration packs, vaccines and othermedicines. This sums up to over 300 million deaths in justthe 17 years since the end of the Cold War — many morethan were caused by all the wars, civil wars, andgovernment repression of the entire 20th century.”

– Thomas Pogge17

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights18 (hereafter referred to as ICESCR or the covenant) is part of internationalbill of rights and one of the key frameworks of rights. The Covenantwas adopted by General Assembly through resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16December 1966 and was enforced in January 1976. The United NationCommittee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (herein after17 POGGE, T. Poverty and Human Rights [Online]. Available: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/poverty/expert/docs/Thomas_Pogge_Summary.pdf [Accessed 14 September 2013. See also POGGE, T. 2007. Freedom from poverty as a human right: who owes what to the very poor?, New York, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

18 ASSEMBLY, U. G. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 993, p. 3 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b36c0.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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referred to UN CESCR or the committee) is the monitoring body forICESCR. It was established under United Nations Economic and SocialCouncil (ECOSOC) Resolution 1985/17 of 28 May 1985 to “carry out themonitoring functions assigned to the ECOSOC in Part IV of the ICESCR.Till date there are 70 Signatories and 160 parties to this Covenant.Pakistan ratified the covenant in 2008 when it also ratifiedInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) andInternational Covenant against Torture, cruel, inhuman and degradingtreatment (UN-CAT). Thereby Pakistan made international commitments toensure rights enshrined in these covenants. It was a land markprogress as the country had been dodging the covenant for a longperiod of time.

Despite the fact that 5 years have gone by since the ratification ofICESCR, the progress with respect to implementing the rights enshrinedin the covenant has been rather slow. Except for right to education,freedom of association, equality of men and women, right to cultureand non-discrimination, almost all the rights recognized in ICESCR donot have a legal basis in constitution and other legislations. Most ofthe rights enshrined in the ICESCR, are part of principles of policybut they do not carry the same weight as the fundamental rights.Hence, though the ratification was a starting point, implementation isa big challenge and would eventually indicate the commitment and thepolitical will of the government to realise and ensure these rights.Under the article 2 of the covenant the state is responsible forsubmitting a report on progress made to ensure the rights; however nosuch report has been submitted to UN ESCR so far and in fact requestsfor the extension of the reporting date have been submitted by thegovernment

Economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights) are consideredextremely important for human development and to ensure human dignity,the basic premise of human rights as elaborated in the preamble ofUniversal Declaration of Human Rights. However, in Pakistan, the stateof ESC rights remains, in general, very appalling.

In the economic sector, the unemployment rate has been mounting on anannual basis; currently 6.2% of the labour force is unemployed. 73%labour works in informal sector, where the labour rights situation isalarming19 in the absence of policies and work norms. With 6.7 million19 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2014. Labour Force Survey 2012-13 [Online]. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Governmentof Pakistan. Available: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/labour-force-survey-2012-13-annual-report [Accessed 20 January 2014]. See also PILER 2011. Labour Rights in Pakistan: Expanding Informality

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school-going-age children (aged 5-9 years) out of school,20 access toeducation and right to universal and free primary education is amatter of concern. Those in school do not enjoy acceptable or evenbasic standards of quality education service. Apart from that theschools lack basic facilities of water, sanitation, rooms, furnitureetc. Health sector needs major reforms and facilities are far and few.About 15.9 million people do not have access to safe drinking water.In terms of right to food, about half the population of the country isfood insecure according to a report by WFP.21 With ever increasingextremism and terrorism, and continued and systematic attacks oneducational facilities the access to right of education has become afar flung dream in many parts of the country. Widespreaddiscriminatory practices against the marginalized group severelycompromise their right to culture. The discrimination is often alongthe lines of gender, ethnic and regional differences as well as onurban-rural basis. The absence of legalized support for ESC rightsfurther aggravates the situation as claiming the rights in any courtof law becomes difficult. Domestic obligations and application of ESCrights remains limited because most provisions of ICESCR continue toremain in under the “principles of policy” chapter in theconstitution.

However, the ratification of the ICESCR has put Pakistan underobligation to not only recognize these rights into local legislationbut also to make efforts, including making resources available, for“progressive realization” of the ESC rights.

In this backdrop, this paper intends to present a civil societyposition and/or perspective on how far Pakistan has been able to meetthe obligations under ICESCR and what is required in terms ofpractical measures. It also presents a basic understanding ofnormative content of key rights provided in ICESCR and presents aconcise analysis of the state of such rights in Pakistan, even thoughmost of them remain legally unrecognized. While Bhittai Social Watch &Advocacy (BSWA) took the initiative for coordination, the positionsand Diminishing Wages. Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research.

20 TRAINING, M. O. E. 2013. Country Report of Pakistan Regarding: AcceleratingMillennium Development Goals 2013-15. Ministry of Education & Training, Government of Pakistan.21 PROGRAM, W. F. Food Insecure - Pakistan [Online]. Available: http://www.wfp.org/countries/pakistan/overview [Accessed 7 January 2014 2014].

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presented in this paper reflect the perspectives of Pakistani civilsociety at large.

1.1. Purpose & ObjectivesThe main purpose of the position paper is to present a joint positionof the Pakistani civil society with respect to ICESCR’s implementationin Pakistan. It is hoped that this paper would prove to be animportant advocacy tool for various actors. The objectives of thispaper are:

To consolidate and document Civil Society perspective on ICESCRbased on situational analysis of ESC rights in Pakistan.

To develop recommendations for lobbying and campaigning forimplementation of the international commitments and strengthendemocratic processes with focus on transparency andaccountability in policy making.

1.2. MethodologyUtilizing the evidence-based advocacy approach, this paper involvedinterviewing civil society organizations from across the country. 53interviews were conducted with experts and activists from across thecountry. The organizations and experts come from a range of fieldsrelevant to ICESCR i.e. education, health, labour rights and culture.Labour unions and legal experts were also consulted in the preparationof this paper. Additionally, a consultation was organized in Karachiwhere 21 people with relevant backgrounds participated. Due to timeand resource constraints, the interviews were limited to the fourprovincial capitals and Islamabad. Two further consultations wereorganized to review the first draft of the position paper withrelevant stakeholders to seek and include their opinions on the finalposition and the recommendations. The first one was done in Islamabadin November 2013. A total of 29 persons, including four members of thenational parliament, participated. Second consultation was done inHyderabad on December 11, 2013. Approximately 66 persons from civilsociety, media and human rights activists, students, healthprofessionals, educationists, trade unionists and others participatedfrom across Pakistan. Overall, we were able to collect and consolidatethe views of 175 persons, 24 females and 151 males, working in variousareas concerned with the ESC rights

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Activity Title Venue TotalParticipation

Female

Male

Consultation meetingwith parliamentarians &CSOs on National Plan ofAction & Position paperon ICESCR

Karachi 21 5 16

National Consultation onthe Draft Civil SocietyPosition Paper on ICESCR

Hyderabad 66 5 61

Consultation meetingwith parliamentarians &CSOs on National Plan ofAction on ICESCR

Islamabad 35 6 29

Interviews 53 8 45

TOTAL 175 24 151

In addition, the research team also studied various civil society andgovernment reports on key rights enshrined in the ICESCR to have a 360degree situational analysis with respect to the current state of ESCrights in Pakistan.

Analytical FrameworkICESCR was initially criticized for lacking clarity on various rights.One issue was how to monitor the progress by the states. This led todiscussions on formulation of indicators for progress on variousrights. Consequently, the Limburg Principles22 and MaastrichtGuidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights23

22 The Limburg Principles on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, RIGHTS, U. C. O. H. Note verbale dated 86/12/05 from the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the United Nations Office at Geneva addressed to the Centre for Human Rights ("Limburg Principles"), 8 January 1987, E/CN.4/1987/17 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/48abd5790.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

23 Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted 22–26 Jan.1997 JURISTS, I. C. O. Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 26 January 1997 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/48abd5730.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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emerged out of various consultations, conferences, seminars anddiscussions that took place. These documents set out indicators forthe rights enshrined in the ICESCR and mechanisms for reviewing theviolations of such rights as well. The UN Committee on Economic,Cultural and Social rights, which monitors the implementation ofICESCR, has adopted these principles and guidelines and the indicatorsare made part of the rights through General Comments issued by theCommittee. These indicators are explained and used for the analysiswith respect to the situation in the domain of each right underdiscussion. Pakistan has also ratified Convention on Elimination ofAll forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),24 Convention onRights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),25 International Conventionon Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD),26 the Convention onthe Rights of the Child (CRC)27 and International Labour Organization’s(ILO) Core conventions. These additional conventions require Pakistanto meet various inter-linked and inter-dependent obligations in thecontext of the ICESCR.

LimitationsThe scope of ICESCR is so broad that producing any report on all itsprovisions is a daunting task. It would not be an exaggeration to saythat each right in the covenant, or the broad section it addresses,require detailed study for understanding and producing a positionpaper. We have tried our best to provide as much information relevantto various rights as could be done within the limited time andresources. However, this study should be considered a means of workingtowards having more in depth position papers and research studies oneach and every aspect covered in ICESCR.

24 ASSEMBLY, U. G. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly , 15 January 2014, A/RES/68/138 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/52f351c94.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

25 ASSEMBLY, U. G. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly, 24 January 2007, A/RES/61/106 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/45f973632.html [Accessed7 January 2014].

26 ASSEMBLY, U. G. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 21 December 1965, UnitedNations, Treaty Series, vol. 660, p. 195 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3940.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

27 ASSEMBLY, U. G. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, p. 3 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b38f0.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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1.3. Chapter Organization The paper begins with an introduction in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 dealswith introduction of the various aspects of ICESCR. This also includesa discussion on the nature of state obligations under ICESCR and theconcept of progressive realization. Both chapters 1 and 2 comprise thefirst part of the paper.

Part II of the paper presents the civil society positions andrecommendations on various key rights as enshrined in the ICESCR. Eachchapter begins with detailed understanding of what is entailed in aparticular right and the indicators or the normative content of theright under discussion. This is followed by a situational analysis ofPakistan based on available data and information sources andultimately the views and recommendations from the civil society

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2. ICESCR: An Introduction & Key ConceptsThe advent of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948brought to fore a holistic human rights declaration with view ofpromoting and attaining human dignity. As compared to past treaties,the precursors to UDHR, human rights were now considered universal,interdependent and indivisible. They were recognized rights foreveryone, all human beings, regardless of their age, sex, race,ethnicity, nationality or any other status, hence they were universal.The interdependence and indivisibility meant that there was nohierarchy within human rights; each right was equally important toensure the human dignity promised in the preamble of the UDHR.28 Thesecharacteristics of human rights were properly recognized in UnitedNations Charter. However, the interdependence and indivisibility wassoon clouded by doubts when in 1966, the rights enshrined into UDHRwere separately codified into ICCPR and ICESCR, a situation whichhuman rights expert John Pace calls – divorce of human rights.29

Until 1951, the committee which was commissioned to draft covenantbased on UDHR, was forming a unitary treaty. By the time, they haddrafted 14 articles on social and economic rights, the ideologicaldebates intensified in the United Nations.30 What John Pace calls adivorce was a result of two ideological debates and disagreements onmeaning of human rights. The USA and its allies, or the neo-liberalsso to speak, believed that states should take responsibilities for

28 JOHN, P. P. 1998. The development of human rights law in the United Nations, its control and monitoring machinery. International Social Science Journal, 50, 499-511.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid

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civil and political rights which were truly human rights as mere non-interference of state would result in ensuring such rights. Contraryto this, socialists and a lot of developing countries wanted a singlecovenant covering all rights as declared in UDHR. These departureswere, however, reconciled when in 1993 World Human Rights Conferencein Vienna, all countries recognized a right to development, which alsocoincided with the emergence, or rather reinforcement of, right-basedapproach to development.

2.1. ICESCR Introduction ICESCR was issued in 1966 along with its sister covenant ICCPR. Thetreaty came into force in 1976. The covenant is divided into fiveparts and a preamble. Today, the covenant is ratified by around 160countries and another 70 are signatories.

The covenant is divided into five parts and there 31 articles in all:

Part-IThis part only contains one article. The article 1 recognizes right ofself-determination; this by and large is identical to right to self-determination in ICCPR. It recognizes that people have a right todetermine freely their political status; pursue their economic, socialand cultural goals. It also gives them right to manage and dispose offtheir resources and not to be deprived of the basic means of life.

Figure 1: Map highlighting Ratifications to ICESCR31

31 Ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, January 2013, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/HRIndicators/Ratification//Status_ICESCR.pdf

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Part-IIThe articles 2-5 in this part of the covenant discuss the nature ofstate parties’ obligation and establish progressive realization of therights. The principle of non-discrimination is also included here.

Part-IIIThis part covers the core rights which are recognized in the covenant,its main subject matter. It includes a total of 9 articles (6 – 15).

Part-IVThis part deals with reporting and monitoring of the treaty aselaborated in articles 16 to 25. This may cover the steps taken bystate parties. The monitoring body, UN Committee on Economic Culturaland Social Rights (here in after referred as UN CESCR or thecommittee) was mandated to give general recommendations with regardsto necessary measures for realization of the enshrined rights.

Part-VThis section (articles 26 to 31) enunciates the procedures forratification, entry into force and amendments to the covenant. Thesection also affirms the submission of regular reports by stateparties highlighting legislature, judicial, policy and other measurestake to realize the rights of the covenant.

ICESCR, as the name suggests, covers economic, social and culturalrights. Though the covenant is broad in its scope but it is oftencriticized, by activists and scholars, for not having clarity on therange of rights included. For example, most economic rights’ advocatescontend that labour rights do not have specific details as compared toclarifications given in ILO’s conventions on similar rights.Similarly, right to social security is not too specific and clear.Others argue that this leaves room for the Committee on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights to give more elaborations through generalcomments as per changing circumstances. Furthermore, such vaguenessalso gives room to state parties to manipulate interpretations towardstheir own interests.

2.2. Pakistan: Ratification, Declarations and ReservationsPakistan signed the covenant on 3rd November, 2004 and ratified onApril 17, 2008. Later, Pakistan also ratified the Convention Against

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Torture (UN-CAT) and ICCPR. It is considered a major step in terms oftaking responsibilities for international human rights law. However,as is the case with other states, the decision to ratify was takenunder international pressures to gain concessions and alsoparticularly to be eligible for membership of Human Rights Council.

As state parties could submit reservations and declarations at thetime of ratification, Pakistan did make one reservation stating:“Pakistan, with a view to achieving progressively the full realizationof the rights recognized in the present Covenant, shall use allappropriate means to the maximum of its available resources”.

2.3. Nature of State ObligationsAs stated before the article 2 of the covenant chalks out detailedobligations of the state parties to the ICESCR. These obligations arefurther elaborated by UN CESCR in its General Comment 3 “nature ofstate parties’ obligation”.32

As per the article 2.1 the state parties are required to “maximize”and “make available” maximum resources for the realization of theserights, including through international cooperation. Furthermore, theright requires the state parties to make legislative measures forrealization of these rights through the domestic legal system. Thearticle also sets focus on the progressive realization of the rights.

Progressive realization The progressive realization affirmation in the ICESCR is often taken,especially by state parties, as an excuse for delaying the realizationof the rights. Argument is often made that rights enshrined in thecovenant cannot be immediately realized as it takes time to buildmeans necessary for realization of the full range of the rights.While, this argument is partly true; it is not completely viable. Forexample, most rights in the covenant also include freedoms, forexample, right of freedom of association/trade unions. Suchresponsibility merely requires non-interference or negative actions bythe state. Moreover, while full realization of the rights will berealized progressively, it is the responsibility of the states, under32 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 3: The Nature of States Parties' Obligations (Art. 2, Para. 1, of the Covenant), 14 December 1990, E/1991/23 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838e10.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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article 2.1, to make immediate efforts for realization of the rights.The UN CESCR thus asserts:

“The concept of progressive realization constitutes recognitionof the fact that full realization of all economic, social andcultural rights will generally not be able to be achieved in ashort period of time…... Nevertheless, the fact that realizationover time, or in other words progressively, is foreseen under theCovenant should not be misinterpreted as depriving the obligationof all meaningful content…….It thus imposes an obligation to move asexpeditiously and effectively as possible towards that goal.” 33

The committee takes into account the valid argument that many states,particularly the developing countries, lack resources for therealization of these rights. Hence, it has elaborated “coreobligations” related to each right enshrined in the covenant. No statecan deviate from these core obligations as they are non-derogable, nomatter what the grounds and conditions may be including nationalemergency or lack of resources.34 Additionally, as cited above, thecommittee makes it clear that the article “imposes an obligation tomove as expeditiously and effectively as possible towards that goal”.The committee in this purview further asserts that “Thus while thefull realization of the relevant rights may be achieved progressively,steps towards that goal must be taken within a reasonably short timeafter the Covenant’s entry into force for the States concerned. Suchsteps should be deliberate, concrete and targeted as clearly aspossible towards meeting the obligations recognized in the Covenant”.Moreover, the committee also makes it clear that obligations of thestate not only include the “obligation of conduct” but “obligations ofresult” as well. These obligations imply that it is both important tomake immediate efforts for expeditious realization of the rightsthereby making progress towards achieving meaningful content of thearticles. In terms of conduct, the committee has clarified and setupminimum core obligations/contents of the rights. These minimum corecontents must be met by the states, irrespective of their financialstatus. It includes first of all non-discrimination in dischargingobligations under ICESCR.

33 Ibid.

34 WELLING, J. V. 2008. International Indicators and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 30, 933-958.

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Non-discrimination The non-discrimination in guarantying the ESCR rights is also stressedunder article 2. The 2.2 states that “The States Parties to thepresent Covenant undertake to guarantee that the rights enunciated inthe present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of anykind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or otheropinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

Non-discrimination is a cross cutting theme in the ICESCR and itapplies to obligations of the conduct. Hence, it is an importantobligation of the state parties to ensure that rights are realizedwithout discrimination of any kind. To this end, the committeeconsiders having adequate judicial remedies available for violationsof non-discrimination of the rights.

Tripartite approach In defining obligations, the UN CESCR has considered three aspects toobligations. These three aspects of state obligations are definedbelow:

The obligation of respect requires state to recognize and respecthuman rights and not interfere with individuals’ right to haveand exercise these rights;

The obligation to protect requires a state to protect individuals’rights from being violated by state agencies or by a third party;

The obligation to fulfil requires state to fulfil the rights of theindividuals, where these rights are not available to citizens.This obligation also includes the obligation to facilitate fulfilmentof the rights. It means that state provides people access toadequate resources and institutional arrangements, which enablethem to fulfil these rights.

This approach was adopted under famous General Comment 12, adopted in1999 by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Theparagraph 15 of the comment mentions:

“The right to adequate food, like any other human right, imposesthree types or levels of obligations on State parties: theobligations to respect, to protect and to fulfill. In turn, the

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obligation to fulfill incorporates both an obligation to facilitate andan obligation to provide. The obligation to respect existing accessto adequate food requires State parties not to take any measuresthat result in preventing such access. The obligation to protectrequires measures by the State to ensure that enterprises orindividuals do not deprive individuals of their access toadequate food. The obligation to fulfill (facilitate) means the Statemust pro-actively engage in activities intended to strengthenpeople‘s access to and utilization of resources and means toensure their livelihood, including food security. Finally,whenever an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyondtheir control, to enjoy the right to adequate food by the meansat their disposal, States have the obligation to fulfill (provide) thatright directly. This obligation also applies for persons who arevictims of natural or other disasters.35

Minimum core obligations As discussed before, the committee has laid out minimum coreobligations for various rights codified in ICESCR. Considering theresource constraints of the state parties, the committee has adopted a“minimum threshold approach” to define the minimum content of therights. This “core content” defines what a right constitutes.36 Thesehave characteristics of universality and uniqueness. Non-discrimination, discussed above, is one such universal characteristic.Other minimum core obligations differed from right to right. Aselucidated in many general comments on specific rights, “Protectionfrom starvation, primary education, emergency healthcare, and basichousing are among the minimum requirements to live a dignified lifeand it is the duty of governments to ensure these at all times”.37 Oneelaboration of this minimum is that no one should die of hunger, incase of the right of food. As was discussed before, the state partiescannot deviate from the minimum core obligations despite “unfavourableconditions”.

35 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 12: The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11 of the Covenant) [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838c11.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

36 WELLING, J. V. 2008. International Indicators and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 30, 933-958.

37 ESC-NET. 2012. Minimum Core Obligations [Online]. Available: http://www.escr-net.org/docs/i/401622 [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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Though some people criticize such approach of the committee on groundsthat it kills the basic purpose of the human rights, it should benoted that minimum threshold approach is not a specific case to ESCrights. The approach is also applied in case of civil and politicalrights. For example, the right to freedom from arbitrary arrest hastwo core contents: 1) no one can be arrested without an arrest warrantand 2) no one can be held indefinitely. While, anyone can be arrestedwithout a warrant in case of national emergency; no one can be heldindefinitely even in such emergencies. This second part defines theminimum core obligation under the right to freedom from arbitrarydetention.38

38 MINNESOTA, U. O. MODULE 8: DEFINING THE CONTENT OF ESC RIGHTS—PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS [Online]. International Human Rights Internship Program, University of Minnesota & Forum-Asia. Available: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/IHRIP/circle/modules/module8.htm [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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Part II: Civil Society Positions

"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome anderadicated by the actions of human beings."

…

"Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of afundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there isno true freedom."

…

"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let yourgreatness blossom. Of course the task will not be easy. But not to do this would be a crimeagainst humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up."

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Nelson Mandela (Make Poverty History Speech)

3. Domestication & Resource allocation This chapter provides civil society position on domesticating therights provided in ICESCR, allocation of the resource andjusticiability of the ECR rights. In each section below, briefdiscussion is done with respect to obligation given in ICESCR andcivil society position. The key recommendations are provided at theend of the chapter.

3.1. Legislation: Responding or Reflecting ESCR rightsAs set out in the article 2.1 of the ICESCR, the state parties havethe obligations to make these rights parts of domestic legal systemthrough appropriate legislation. The UN CESCR is aware of the factthat different countries follow different legal systems with highdegrees of variation. Hence, it does not set out specific obligationsfor recognition within domestic legal system.39 However, the committeedoes require, under article 2.1 to have these rights appropriatelyrecognized.

Table 1: ESCR rights in Pakistan’s Constitution: Chapter 1 Fundamental Rights

ESC Rights in Constitution Corresponding Rights in ICESCREquality of citizens (article Equality between men and women

39 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 3: The Nature of States Parties' Obligations (Art. 2, Para. 1, of the Covenant), 14 December 1990, E/1991/23 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838e10.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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25) & Safeguard againstdiscrimination in services(article 27)

(Article 3) and Non-discrimination(Article 2.2)

Prohibition of slavery (article11.1), forced labour (article11.2) and child labour withrespect to hazardous engagement(article 11.3)

Protection of children from economicand social exploitation (article10.3)

Freedom of assembly (Article 16) Right to strike (article 8.d)Freedom to form tradeunions/associations (article17.1)

Right to trade unions (article 8)

Freedom of trade, business orprofession (article 18)

Right to work (article 6)40

Freedom to profess religion andto manage religious institutions(article 20).

As part of Right to participate incultural life (article 15 aselaborated in General Comment 21 byUN CESCR

Safeguards with respect toeducational institutions ,respect of religion (article 22)

Right to education (article 13) andright to culture (article 15)

Right to education (article 25-A)

Right to education: right to freeand compulsory education (articles13-14)

Preservation of language, scriptand culture (article 28)

Right to culture (article 15)

Broadly speaking, countries follow either the doctrine ofincorporation (monist) or the doctrine of transformation (dualist) intheir domestic legal system. In the monist legal systems, onceratified, the international human rights treaties automatically becomepart of local legislation and are ready to be implemented. However, indualistic models, the states have to pass legislations in appropriatecompetent representative bodies to formally recognize these rights.Since Pakistan follows dualistic system, it is an obligation forPakistan to recognize rights enshrined in ICESCR within theconstitution. It is important that ESC rights be made part of theChapter 1 on Fundamental rights in the Constitutions. However, after

40 The way article 18 is framed in the Constitution; it does not make explicit if it constitutes aright to work as well. To our interpretation it only covers one aspect of right to work i.e. freedom to choose any profession.

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the 18th amendment, most of the provincial assemblies could alsolegislate directly to recognize these rights in their respectivejurisdictions.

The civil society welcomes state’s formal recognition of ESC rights byratifying ICESCR because the civil society considers the formalrecognition of these rights in the constitution as highly important.However without constitutional recognition or legislative backing fromprovinces, the importance of ESCR rights is diminished. As table 1highlights, there are fewer rights recognized in the constitution, sothere is need to legislate for constitutional recognition of a host ofthe economic, social and cultural rights as enshrined in ICESCR. Thereare also provisions with regard to right to health, education andlabour rights, among other ESC rights, in the principles of policychapter but it rests with the state to decide how far they wouldimplement these principles of the policies. While principles of policycreate obligation on the Pakistani state to implement, the provisionsdo not carry the same weight as rights recognized in the fundamentalrights chapter of the constitution.

The civil society considers that without recognizing these rightsthrough appropriate legislation and subsequent implementation, theratification of the covenant may be taken as a mere show of concernfor human rights before the international community. In this respect,a number of civil society members argued that “these ratificationsshould not only be done to bargain for international financialconcessions, which are also important for a developing country likeours. But at the same time, the government has to make serious effortsfor actually implementing them”. Similarly, other members of civilsociety argued that “Pakistan has only ratified ICESCR, and otherconventions, just to be eligible for the membership in Human RightsCouncil; if it is serious it must not recognize these rights asfundamental rights but also implement them”. This coincides with theviews of the committee in the general comment 3 where it asserts thatlegislation at the domestic level is indispensable for the realizationof most of these rights.

So it is a strong demand of the civil society and an obligation underICESCR that these rights should be recognized as fundamental rights inthe constitution. Moreover, the civil society demands the provincialgovernments to make direct legislation on these rights as per their

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mandate and increased autonomy under 18th amendment. In Pakistan, it isinsufficient to have primary legislation as actual implementation oflaws requires development of rules, among other things. So the civilsociety also asserts that for implementing the relevant laws, there isa need to make rules to start the implementation process as soon asthe legislation is passed.

3.2. Resource Allocation for ESC RightsAs has been argued before, that ESC rights are resource intensive andrequire positive efforts from the state to move towards theirrealization. Under the article 2.1 of the ICESCR, the state ofPakistan not only has to make resources available but to maximizethese resources for the realization of ESC rights.

In this connection, the civil society recommends that the stateallocate appropriate budgets for the realizations of these rights. Thecivil society also considers that in some sectors the budgets arealready there but the government needs to have efficient and effectivemechanism for budget utilization. Moreover, huge lapses in theallocated budgets are alarming and force attention towards properutilization of the already available funds.

.The civil society demands appropriate funds allocation where thereare genuine funding gaps. In addition to that spending should be madeeffective and efficient. The civil society also believes that variousstakeholders should be consulted in the budget making process;opinions should be sought from the relevant experts. Government shoulddevise and implement indicators for budgeting for various sectors inthe light of ICESCR.

3.3. Justiciability of ESC RightsJusticiability of ESC rights usually remains a debated issue amongmany scholars and activists. The main contention comes from separationof powers envisioned under a political system between different organsof the state. This stems from the nature of the ESC rights themselves.

The main argument presented here is that ESC rights bear positiveduties on the states since they require resources; hence states haveto take actions to achieve them. For example, as discussed above,there is a strong need to establish schools and provide teachers for

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realizing a right to education. But allocation of such resourceslargely remains in the domain of the executive or the policy makers.So for courts it might be difficult to determine the violations andthey might find themselves carrying out the duties of the executive.Contrary to this, in the case of civil and political rights, theduties required by state are negative in nature – that is mere non-interference by the state results in realization of the rights. Thisargument, however, is an oversimplification of the issue because notall civil and political rights require negative actions or non-actionsfrom the state. For example, the right to non-discrimination, article2.1 of ICESCR, does not require any positive actions from state; orright to form trade unions is also a negative right. However, in caseof right to political participation/vote, the state has positiveresponsibilities to hold periodic elections which are also resourceintensive. Similarly, the right to personal security requiresestablishing law enforcement agencies or courts to realize the rightto due process of law.

To resolve such debate, the committee on ESC rights has affirmed inGeneral Comment No 3 and 9 that ESC rights are justiciable and stateshave to make available necessary remedies available. In the generalcomment 9, the committee affirms that principle of having remedies forviolation of the human rights stem from UDHR article 8 which reads“Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competentnational tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights grantedhim by the constitution or by law.”41 Hence committee has concludedthat states have obligation to make remedies for violations of ESCrights available and to make them justiciable; so it states:

“Nevertheless, a State party seeking to justify its failure to provide any domestic legalremedies for violations of economic, social and cultural rights would need to show eitherthat such remedies are not “appropriate means” within the terms of article 2.1 of theCovenant or that, in view of the other means used, they are unnecessary. It will bedifficult to show this and the Committee considers that, in many cases, the other“means” used could be rendered ineffective if they are not reinforced or complementedby judicial remedies”42

41 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 9: The domestic application of the Covenant, 3 December 1998, E/C.12/1998/24 [Online].Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/47a7079d6.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

42 Ibid.

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To this effect, the committee in the general comments on article 3 hasclarified that for some rights justiciability is a must; it says“provisions in the International Covenant on Economic, Social andCultural Rights, including articles 3, 7 (a) (i), 8, 10 (3), 13 (2)(a), (3) and (4) and 15 (3) which would seem to be capable ofimmediate application by judicial and other organs in many nationallegal systems”.

Pakistani civil society is in complete agreement with the committeeand believes that lack of justiciability of the ESC rights will weakenthe case for the enforcement of the rights. One of leading rightsactivists commented “In absence of justiciability, there is nofoundation to the human rights, even if they are ESC rights. How youcould seek redress for violations of the rights when you cannot invokethe courts?” Similarly, other civil society members have concurredthat having just legal recourses for the justiciability of the ESCrights is imperative. The civil society also believes that in case ofcertain rights there might be need for special courts. One labourrights activist opined that “there may also be need to set up specialcourts for labour rights”. In the General Comment 9, the UN CESCR alsorequires to include justiciability of ESC rights in judicialtraining.43 The civil society proposes the inclusion of human rightstraining, including ESC rights and their justiciability within thejudicial training of judge.

In a nutshell the Pakistani civil society strongly advocates forjusticiability of the rights codified in ICESCR and stresses that themechanism for redress should be made clear in the appropriatelegislations related to ESC rights in Pakistan.

3.4. Report on ICESCR’s implementation Under the ICESCR, the state parties are required to submit reportsafter two years of ratification.44 Subsequently, the reports are to besubmitted on a five yearly basis. The UN CESCR committee has clarifiedthat the reporting should not been seen as mere procedural requirementas it embodies greater objectives than that. The committee statesthat reporting helps the committee and state parties themselves in

43 Ibid, para 11.

44 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 1: Reporting by States Parties, 27 July 1981, E/1989/22 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838b2.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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reviewing implementation of the ICESCR. It notes that state partiescan themselves use reports as means to monitor the implementation ofthe rights enshrined in ICESCR at domestic level. It is also importantbecause reporting allows for public scrutiny of the government’sefforts on implementation of the rights in the domestic sphere. Inthis way, reporting helps in ensuring principles of transparency andaccountability as well.

The civil society in Pakistan also believes that Pakistan should issuethe ESCR report without any further delay. “Without robust reportingon ICESCR as per guidelines, we cannot know what the state is doingabout its implementation”, said a civil society activist in Islamabad.Hence, the civil society demands the state to immediately issue thereport and also make subsequent efforts to issue report on ICESCR on aregular basis.

3.5. Right to self-determination The very first article of the ICESCR lays down the right of all peopleto self-determination. It entitles them to decide their politicalstatus and pursue economic, social and cultural development freely.They are also given the right to decide how they might dispose offtheir natural resources. A similar provision is also present in ICCPRwhich Pakistan has also ratified.

In this connection, the civil society has welcomed the introduction of18th amendment which was an appropriate and a long awaited step forprovincial autonomy and thus a realization of the right to self-determination in Pakistan. However, from the point of implementationof this provision there are several issues involved. Notably, there ishuge state interference within Baluchistan; not only there isinsurgency going on in the province, but by and large the provincedoes not enjoy freedom in deciding the fate of its available naturalresources. Prevailing perceptions about inequalities and sociallyunjust conditions, both at inter and intra provincial levels havesparked debates for creation of more provinces.

The civil society believes that such issues demand due attention fromthe state. The situation in Baluchistan particularly needs urgentattention and there is need to implement provincial autonomy in itstrue spirit and also to make affirmative efforts to addressdevelopment inequalities in Baluchistan.

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3.6. Recommendations Based on the above discussion on legal obligations under ICESCR andthe stance of the civil society, following are key recommendations fordomesticating the ICESCR in Pakistan:

All rights encapsulated in ICESCR should be recognized asfundamental rights in the constitution of Pakistan.

The provinces should pass legislations to recognize ESC rights asper ICESCR in their respective jurisdiction, whether they arerecognized in constitution or not.

Necessary budgets should be allocated for realization of variousrights enshrined in ICESCR. Where funds are already available,the spending should be made transparent, accountable, efficientand effective.

Justiciability should be recognized for all the rights of ICESCR.Proper mechanisms should be elaborated for such purposes. Whereneed be special courts, such as labour courts and peasant courtsshould be established.

Human rights education should be made part of the judicialtraining and must include a greater focus on international humanrights including ESC rights and their justiciability.

Pakistan should immediately issue the much awaited and delayedreport on ICESCR implementation. Regular reporting should beensured.

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4. Labour Rights Labour or economics rights in the covenantare covered in articles 6 to 8. Theseinclude the right to work, right to just andsafe working conditions and the right totrade unions and collective bargaining. Thischapter discusses these rights, situation ofsuch rights in Pakistan and civil society’spositions on these rights. The constitutionof Pakistan partially recognizes the rightto work, besides recognizing the right toassociations/trade unions and the right toassembly. Prohibition of slavery, forcedlabour and child labour are also recognized(see Table 1 in chapter 3 above).

The obligations with respect to the labourrights stem from the ICESCR and the ILOconventions which Pakistan has ratified.Overall, it is good to see that incooperation with ILO, Pakistan has put inplace a National Plan of Action and DecentWork and is being supported by the ILO inthe implementation of the same. Buildingupon Pakistan’s international obligationsunder ICESCR, ILO conventions, CEDAW, CRCand ICERD, among others, the plan and theprogram identify four main areas of action:

Labour law reform Employment generation through human

resource development, with a focus onemployable

skills Social protection expansion, including

in the informal economy Tripartism and social dialogue

promotion

Fundamental/Core Conventions

C029 - Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) C087 - Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) C098 - Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) C100 - Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) C105 - Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) C111 - Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) C138 - Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)Minimum age specified: 14 years C182 - Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)

Governance Conventions (Priority)

C081 - Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) C144 - Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144)

Pakistan has also ratified a range of technical conventions. In all Pakistan has ratified 36 ILO conventions. Full list is available here:

http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:11200:2319091215996624::::P11200_INSTRUMENT_SORT:1 (Accessed on September 11, 2013)

Some ILO Conventions Ratified by Pakistan

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Overall, the legal protection of the labour rights in Pakistanremains very weak as will be discussed presently in the sectionsbelow.

4.1. Right to work Right to work is recognized in article 6 of the covenant. It lays downthe right for everyone to earn their living through engaging in anywork of their choice. Furthermore, it requires the state parties totake steps such as providing vocational skill trainings and otherpolicies for realization of the right to work (article 6.2). Right towork is considered very important for human survival and for attaininghuman dignity, the premise of the human rights. The right aselaborated also includes freedom of individuals to choose any work oftheir choice.45 Hence, people cannot be forced into doing anythingagainst their will. This is further complemented by the ICCPR article8 which prohibits forced labour and slavery with application overbonded labour as well. Article 10.3 of ICESCR prohibits the economicand social exploitation of children which includes child labour andprotection of children from the worst forms of labour. To this end,Pakistan has additional obligations under ILO Convention 138 and 182which define the minimum age for labour and worst forms of childlabour. In General Comment 18, the UN CESCR has linked the right towork with ILO Convention No. 122 concerning Employment Policy (1964)and stressed state parties’ obligation “to create the conditions forfull employment with the obligation to ensure the absence of forcedlabour”.

At the outset it should be reaffirmed here that right to work is notfully recognized in Pakistan. Article 18 of the constitutionrecognizes freedom to enter into any profession. As discussed above,the right to work not only includes the freedom to choose a professionbut also requires the state to make opportunities of work available.This needs to be accomplished by positive actions on behalf of thestate that enable people through education and vocational skilldevelopment to avail decent work opportunities. So while, theconstitution ensures freedom it does not guarantee that opportunitiesof work will be created and employment will be ensured. Nonetheless,under article 38.b of the constitution, the state has to make efforts

45 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 18: The Right to Work (Art. 6 of the Covenant), 6 February 2006, E/C.12/GC/18 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4415453b4.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

Fundamental/Core Conventions

C029 - Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) C087 - Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) C098 - Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) C100 - Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) C105 - Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) C111 - Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) C138 - Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)Minimum age specified: 14 years C182 - Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)

Governance Conventions (Priority)

C081 - Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) C144 - Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144)

Pakistan has also ratified a range of technical conventions. In all Pakistan has ratified 36 ILO conventions. Full list is available here:

http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:11200:2319091215996624::::P11200_INSTRUMENT_SORT:1 (Accessed on September 11, 2013)

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for providing opportunities of employment. This article is part ofprinciples of the policies chapter which does not enjoy same force asfundamental rights.

Looking at Pakistan’s statistics regarding the labour force, it isclear that efforts directed towards the realisation of the right towork are unsatisfactory. While, the 2012-13 Labour Force46 surveyreveals, a very minute increase of .1% in crude labour force,47 itstill remains low as compared to 33% in 2009-10 survey. While overallurban-rural participation does not seem a big issue, there areregional disparities which need attention. As compared to Sindh andPunjab, the labour participation remains lows in Baluchistan (28.4%)and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (25.7%). Gender disparity remains a big concernas well, since as compared to 49.3 male population’s participation,females only account for 15.6% of the total labour force as per cruderate. The augmented figures48 for women are somewhat better, as theyalso take into account women’s participation in homemaking and similarchores. It is good to note that women’s participation in the labourforce in Baluchistan has increased from 5.6% in 2011-12 to 6.7% in2012-13, however, the current figure of 6.7% is still quite alarming.

As compared to crude rates, refined rates indicate labourparticipation as a total percentage of 10+ year’s population. TheLabour force survey indicates that out of the total population of 10years old and above, the labour participation rate remains unchangedat 45.7%; here male account for 68.9% whereas females account for21.5%, a conspicuous gender inequality again. It is also important tonote that women’s overall participation has decreased by 0.2%. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has lowest participation with 36.9% which compared to thedata from 2010-11, shows a decrease of 1.2% Female participation inBaluchistan remains low with 9.2%.

46 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2014. Labour Force Survey 2012-13 [Online]. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Governmentof Pakistan. Available: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/labour-force-survey-2012-13-annual-report [Accessed 20 January 2014].

47 Crude labour force includes labour force against total estimated population of Pakistan.

48 Augmented figures take into account women’s participation in homemaking and other similar chores; it is not just limited to women’s participation in labour which earns them cash.

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Table 2: Refined Labour Force Participation49

Province/Area

2010-11 2012-13Total Male Female *Augmented Total Male Female *Augmented

Total Female Total FemalePakistan 45.7 68. 21.7 53.5 37.4 45.7 68.9 21.5 53.1 36.4Rural 49.1 70.

027.6 60.4 50.3 49.0 70.3 27.3 59.7 48.7

Urban 39.5 66. 10.7 40.8 13.3 39.7 66.4 10.8 41.0 13.6KP 38.1 62. 14.7 53.4 44.3 36.9 60.2 14.2 49.4 38.6Rural 38.6 62. 15.9 56.4 50.1 37.1 60.0 15.3 51.8 43.7Urban 36.0 62. 8.8 39.9 16.6 35.9 61.0 8. 38.5 14.1Punjab 48.3 69. 26.7 52.3 34.7 48.3 70.2 26.4 52.9 35.4Rural 51.8 70.

633.2 57.5 44.4 52.3 71.7 33.1 58.6 45.7

Urban 41.2 68. 13.4 42.0 14.9 40.8 67.4 13.2 41.7 15.0Sindh 45.0 70.

315.9 55.1 37.5 45.3 70.7 16.0 54.0 34.6

Rural 52.3 75. 25.2 71.7 67.2 51.6 74.9 24.4 68.1 59.9Urban 38.1 65.

57.2 39.3 9.6 39.2 66.6 7.

940.3 10.4

Baluchistan

39.8 64.7

9.2 59.3 52.2 42.3 68.5 10.3 61.4 52.3Rural 41.5 66.

410.6 65.1 63.2 44.6 71.2 12.0 67.6 62.8

Urban 34.8 59.6

5.1 41.6 20.0 36.0 61.0 5.3 43.5 22.0

According to the principle of non-discrimination that applies to allrights prescribed by the ICESCR, it requires the states to ensure allrights are realized without any discrimination of sex, race, age,nationality, religion or any other status. We can see that regionaland gender inequalities prevail in terms of opportunities The Tablebelow reflects such inequalities in unemployment rates. Overallunemployment in Pakistan has increased from 6% in 2010-11 to 6.2% inthe 2012-13. Women’s unemployment has reached 9% and in the ruralareas we see a marginal decrease to 19.2% from 20.7 in the lastsurvey.

Table 3: Unemployment rates with gender and urban-rural disaggregation50

Area/Sex 2010-11 2012-13Total Male Female Total Male Female

Pakistan 6.0

5.1

8.9

6.2

5.4

9.0Rural 4.

74.0

6.4

5.1

4.4

6.9Urban 8.

87.1

20.7 8.8 7.3

19.2

49 Source: Labour Force Survey 2012-13

50 Ibid.

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In light of the above statistics, the civil society believes thatPakistan has a long way to go with respect to full realization of theright to work. The civil society organizations interviewed during thisstudy stressed the need to address the regional (provincial), urban-rural and gender disparities in the employment/national labour forces.It considers this very important for not only upholding human rightsbut also for national stability. As one noted human rights activist inBaluchistan mentioned that “Baluchistan is way backward in everyaspect; state needs to pay attention to addressing these disparitiesto keep the state intact”.

4.2. Right to just and safe working conditions Article 7 of ICESCR recognizes the right to just and safe workingconditions. The main provisions of the article are:

“(a) Remuneration which provides all workers, as a minimum, with:

(i) Fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equalvalue without distinction of any kind, in particular womenbeing guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to thoseenjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal work;

(ii) A decent living for themselves and their families inaccordance with the provisions of the present Covenant;

(b) Safe and healthy working conditions;

(c) Equal opportunity for everyone to be promoted in his/heremployment to an appropriate higher level, subject to noconsiderations other than those of seniority and competence;

(d) Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours andperiodic holidays with pay, as well as remuneration for publicholidays”

As could be seen from above sub-articles, the scope of just and fairwork conditions is too broad. It requires detailed analysis andopinions as well which might be beyond the scope of this paper. Thediscussion on the issues and features of the right mainly focuses onminimum wages and safe and healthy working conditions. The article isparticularly important because it delineates the conditions for decentwork by requiring state parties to ensure just and fair workingconditions.

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To start with the minimum wages, boards for minimum wages alreadyexist in Pakistan. One of the core functions of these boards is thedetermination of minimum wages.

As per the labour force survey 2012-13, the average monthly wages invarious sectors were recorded to be Rs. 9715. It has increased to anaverage of 12,118 rupees as per 2012-13 survey. For the unskilledlabour the average monthly wage was recorded at 6658 in 2010-11survey51 and 7928 in 2012-13 survey; it remains much lower than thenational minimum wage standard which is 10000. Again with regards towomen’s wages, the average wages of 7869 rupees are much lower ascompared to 12804 rupees for men; this indicates that women earn 61.3%the amount their male counterparts earn; it was 63% in 2010-11 survey.This is surely a violation of the article 7.1.a cited above and thenon-discrimination principles of the ICESCR. Moreover, the minimumwages cannot be termed fair as the inflation figures recorded in theLabour force survey exceed the average minimum monthly wage in most ofthe sectors. For example, as per the Labour Force Survey 2010-11,inflation was recorded at 34.9% whereas the increase in nominal wageswas 30.4%.

51 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2012. Labour Force Survey 2010-11 [Online]. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Governmentof Pakistan. Available: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/labour-force-survey-2010-11 [Accessed 20 January 2014].

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The civil society believes that minimum wage system in the country isnot fair. Above statistics also show that wage increase does notcorrelate with inflation. So in the given wages of about 8000-10000

Constitution of Pakistan: Provisions on Labour

Fundamental Rights Chapter

Article 11: (1) Slavery is non-existent and forbidden and no law shallpermit or facilitate its introduction into Pakistan in any form. (2) All forms of forced labour and traffic in human beings are prohibited. (3) No child below the age of fourteen years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment. (4) Nothing in this Article shall be deemed to affect compulsory service:-

(a) by any person undergoing punishment for an offence against any law; or

(b) required by any law for public purpose provided that no compulsory service shall be of a cruel nature or incompatible with human dignity.

Article 17.1: Every citizen shall have the right to form associations orunions, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of sovereignty or integrity of Pakistan, public order or morality.

Article 18: Subject to such qualifications, if any, as may be prescribedby law, every citizen shall have the right to enter upon any lawful profession or occupation, and to conduct any lawful trade or business

Article 25: (1) All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law. (2) There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex. (3) Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the protection of women and children.

Article 27.1: No citizen otherwise qualified for appointment in the service of Pakistan shall be discriminated against in respect of any such appointment on the ground only of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth

Principles of Policy Chapter

Article 37(e): make provision for securing just and humane conditions ofwork, ensuring that children and women are not employed in vocations

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rupees per month, one cannot secure a decent living. As the labourunion workers said “what we can make is hardly enough to pay utilitiesbills; how can we afford other necessities of life. We cannot evenafford education for our children”. Similarly, an interviewee inKarachi said that “I earn so little that it becomes highly difficultfor me to maintain basic necessities of my family”. The civil societyconsiders that there is a pressing need for improving the system todetermine the minimum wages. As noted Labour rights activists said“there is a scientific way for determining the minimum wages. We dohave a minimum wage standard but it is not fair. So in order to makeit fair, a scientific method should be used to determine minimumwage”. It is important to note thatbefore the 18th amendment the boardoperated at the federal level; however,in post 18th amendment scenario,provincial wage boards have beenestablished. It is the responsibility ofthese boards to work for determining of the minimum wage. Regardlessof these changes, the decisions on the minimum wages are madepolitically. The leader of political parties and the governmentannounce the minimum wages; there is no connection of theirannouncement with the situation on the ground.

As per the Labour force survey 2012-13, 4% labour had reportedsufferings. By industry, agriculture had more sufferings at 49.1%,followed by 15.2% sufferers in construction and 13.3% inmanufacturing. In agriculture, the sufferings of women have increasedlargely. As per the 2012-13 survey, 92.4% females suffered as comparedto 42.8% males

Safety at the work place is an issue of grave concern. It should benoted that 73% of the labour force works in the informal sector. Bothformal and informal sectors suffer from deplorable conditions in termsof occupational health and safety precautions. Two fire incidentsoccurred on the same day, September 11, 2012, one in Ali Enterprisesin Baldia Town Karachi52 killed around 257 workers and another in ashoe factory in Lahore killed more than 50 workers. These incidentsare strong reminders of the situation of safety standards at work

52 DAWN, D. 2012. Baldia fire mystery deepens as 70 persons still missing [Online]. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/755195/baldia-fire-mystery-deepens-as-70-persons-still-missing [Accessed7 January 2014].

“Females are twice (92.4%) as exposed to risk as males (42.8%) in Agriculture.”

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place. The repeated fires and killing of workers in accidents in theShip Breaking Industry in Karachi is another case in point.53 There arenumerous other incidents which go unreported. These incidentshighlight the need for better regulations and reforms in theregulatory laws. However, given the corruption and business-governmentcollusion with their vested interests, it is easy for many businesspeople to dodge the requirements for occupational safety at workplace. While this paper was being written, another fire was reportedin a factory in Karachi.

Predictably the conditions in the informal sector which is unregulatedare abysmal. The informal sector in Pakistan includes small scaleproduction units, home-based workers related to production sector,domestic workers, self-operated micro-enterprises, street vendors andagriculture labours. Over 73% of the labour force works in theinformal sector whereas rest are in the formal sector. As the LabourForce Survey indicates, the vulnerability with regards to occupationalhealth and safety is increasing and highlights differences acrossgender and area of work. There is more exploitation in many areas e.g.domestic workers such as house-maids. There are regular reports ofrape and sexual assaults on maids and child helpers in the domesticlabour sector. Home-based workers are exploited as in most cases theircontracts are verbal, the wages are very low and the middle meninvolved usurp a big share of the earnings. Similarly, those workingon the brick kilns and agriculture sector also face severe conditions.A report by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research(PILER) states that a majority of those who work in brick kilns andagriculture are bonded labours and work in slave like conditions.According to PILER’s estimates there are 1 to 6 million bondedlabourers in the country.54 Despite constitutional prohibition ofslavery, Supreme Court decision to end bonded labour and promulgationof Bonded Labour Act 1962, the state has failed to eradicate bondedlabour and safe guard the right to freedom of labour of millions ofpersons, including children and women. This is quite disappointingespecially in view of the National Policy and Plan of Action for the

53 See reports on Labour Watch http://labourwatchpakistan.com/

54 See PILER cited in NETWORK, I. D. S. Dalits and bonded labour in Pakistan [Online]. International Dalit Solidarity Network. Available: http://idsn.org/caste-discrimination/key-issues/bonded-labour/pakistan/ [Accessed 20 January 2014].

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Abolition of Bonded Labour and Rehabilitation of Freed BondedLabourers (NPPA) which the government had adopted in 2001.

One of the issues related to occupational safety also concerns thelack of awareness among the workers about occupational health andsafety standards. In many high-risk areas of work, such as Shipbreaking, the workers are mostly illiterate and come from humblefamily backgrounds. So they are not fully aware of the measures to betaken for occupational safety and health. This points towards the needto educate workers about work place hazards and safety and healthconditions.

The state also has the obligation to provide social order where in therights may be realized. The increasing crimes and terrorism have badlyaffected the economy and right to work. The cases of extortions are onrise in various parts of the country including Karachi and Hyderabad.The business men have repeatedly made demands for the provision ofsecurity but law enforcement agencies and state have failed to do so.As was discussed before, it is the state’s obligation to provideprotection against interferences from non-state actors but state hascompletely failed to this end. Another factor which has badly affectedthe workers all over the country is severe energy crisis in thecountry and state has also not been able to overcome this crisis sofar. These factors have further affected the working conditions invarious industries as well. More businesses are shifting towards usinginformal mode of production for their trade. Wherein the employerswill be free to do verbal contracts which are devoid of social andlegal protection.

No serious efforts by the state are visible with regards tooccupational safety and prevention of occupational accidents in thefuture. A Country Profile on Occupational Safety and Health forPakistan prepared by ILO few years back reveals many such grim facts.The report also identifies inadequacy issues with the currentlegislation to deal with challenges such as those mentioned above. Thereport also revealed that majority of the workforce in Pakistan isilliterate and not trained in occupational safety and health. It alsohighlights the fact that occupational safety and health is notincluded in any curricula in Pakistan. The report also acknowledgesthe fact that as compared to local industries the industries that

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export their products have relatively better standards.55 The reportcalled for concrete actions ranging from legislation to training andraising awareness in the areas of Occupational health and safety. Thereport chalked out following major areas which have also beenmentioned in one way or the other under ICESCR. These are

Legislation on the issue of Occupation health and safety Training of doctors in occupational health and safety Workers' Right to Know(awareness raising of workers on this

issue) Occupational Hygiene Programmes(effective monitoring on these

matters)

All this shows that a great amount of work needs to be done to improvethe standards of occupational health and safety which is also animportant aspect of health and health rights as stipulated underICESCR.

The government needs to improve the existing legal framework forlabour rights to bring them in conformity with ILO standards andICESCR. It is of vital importance to ensure implementation of 40standards of occupational safety as devised by ILO. Informal sectorneeds immediate attention as presently there are no regulations forthe same. The civil society believes that government not only needs toregulate the informal sector by introducing relevant laws but also toeffectively implement them.

Child labour is another area which needs attention. Article 10.3requires protection of children from economic and socialexploitations. As per ILO around 12 million children are active in thelabour market. As per Labour force survey 2012-13, children aged 10-14account for 11.4% of Pakistan’s labour force. National Child Laboursurvey 1996 had found 3.3 million of 40 million children (5-14) activein the labour force. As constitution and other relevant laws ban childlabour, the government needs to be more vigilant at curb child labourwith particular focus on ending engagement of children in hazardouslabour.

55 ILO. Country Profile on Occupational Safety and Health in Pakistan [Online]. International Labour Organization.Available: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/policy/wcms_187800.pdf [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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4.3. Right to trade unions Article 8 of ICESCR recognizes the right to trade unions and freedomto association. It gives every individual right to form and join tradeunions as per their will for “protection and promotion of theireconomic and social interest”. The right further establishes thattrade unions can make federal or international networks of theworkers’ unions. It also gives them the right to strike subject onlyto meaningful limits by the law for “national security or public orderor for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others”. The rightto association and trade unions is also part of the ICCPR. It isconsidered a part of right to freedom of expression as well. This isfurther elucidated in the general comment 18 which states that rightto work is not an individual right but also a collective right.56 Thecollective part includes the right for the workers to form and jointrade unions for individual or collective economic or socialinterests. These interests are mainly related to securing forthemselves right to work and also just and safe working conditions.

In Pakistan, the right to association includes forming and joiningtrade unions and is recognized under article 17 of the constitution.Despite such recognition trade unions in Pakistan face unnecessarylimitations and coercion which restrict them from exercising theirright to association and collective bargaining. For example EssentialServices Maintenance Act of 1952 (ESA)57 is used to restrict the rightto strike and collective bargaining. Similarly, in the IndustrialRegulation Ordinance various provisions are used to limit the rightsof the trade unions and collective bargaining. In many cases, thetrade unions are dealt with hard measures, social pressures andeconomic manipulations to reach compromises. E.g. trade unionists arethreatened with the possibility of termination of employment in orderto manipulate compromises. Given these conditions, the culture ofunion formation in Pakistan is declining. As per estimates, less than5% workers are unionized in the formal sector; leave alone theinformal sector that has none.

56 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 18: The Right to Work (Art. 6 of the Covenant), 6 February 2006, E/C.12/GC/18 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4415453b4.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].57 This applies to government services and state enterprises, such as energy production, power generation and transmission

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In recent years a lot of trade unions both in the government andprivate sector have been struggling for their rights. There arenumerous cases to quote in this category. The medical nurses arestruggling for regularization in Lahore, doctors called strikes inLahore for increase in salaries as did the lady health workers, thePTCL workers are struggling against layoffs, wage workers movement hasbeen demanding decent work conditions in Ship breaking industries,fishermen and home based workers continue to ask for decent workconditions using various constitutional means including their right toform trade unions, strike and collective bargaining. Employers areknown for manipulating and concocting situations to limit the exerciseof the trade union rights. Bullying, intimidations and blacklistingare used as tactics in this regard. Various reports also indicate thatemployers can influence the registration process of the unions,stalling the process which can then sometimes extend to years. Intheir ploy to make the workers ineligible for union memberships, someemployers promote them to the management cadre. Such promotions arenot accompanied with a raise in the salary to the management cadre andare simply devious tactics that prevent the workers from joiningunions. Such situations are prime examples of exploitation of workersat the hands of the state organs as well as private employers.

The state is obligated to protect the rights of workers in the privatesector, however, it is ironical to note that the state as an employeritself emerged to be a violator of the rights of its workers. Thecases of strikes in WAPDA, HESCO, FESCO, PIA, State Life Insurance andby government employed doctors and nurses speak volumes about theviolations in the government sector employment.

4.4. Recommendations Recognize the right to work in constitution as per the ICESCR.

Provinces should also legislate to recognize the right to work intheir respective jurisdictions.

Increase resources for employment generation includingintroducing programs for vocational development and SME financingso that more people exercise their right to work.

Address employment gaps across provinces, urban-rural areas andgender by introducing programs that give employment opportunitiesto those who are unemployed.

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Discrimination between men and women in terms of wages should beaddressed through necessary regulatory laws ensuring equality ofwages for men and women.

Scientific method should be adopted to determine minimum wages;the minimum wages should be calculated on the basis of livingcost of the people and should support them in living a decentlife as per human rights standards.

Laws should be reformed to improve work place safety requirementsfor industries. Strict regulatory mechanisms, complying withILO’s 40 standards of occupational safety, should be adopted andimplemented.

Legislation should be introduced to regulate the informal sectorlabour to put an end to the grave human rights violationsprevalent in various informal sector areas. This should befollowed up by proper implementation and enforcement of theseregulations.

Trade unions should be given complete freedom to exercise theirrights. The limitations should be objective and reasonable and beclearly spelled out in law. Unnecessary and subjectivelimitations placed in various laws should be removed.

Abolish bonded labour system to comply with the constitution.

Eliminate child labour with particular focus on children engagedin hazardous labour.

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5. Right to Education‘Nothing enfranchises like Education’

Voltaire

It was due to the efforts of prominent figures like Voltairethroughout the history that education which was previously consideredprimarily a private and individual affair, became a mainstreamphenomenon and responsibility of the state. Right to Education isdescribed under Article 13 of ICESCR in the following words,

“The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the rightof everyone to education. They agree that education shall bedirected to the full development of the human personality and thesense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for humanrights and fundamental freedoms.”

The article further discusses the importance of this right overalldevelopment of human personality as well.

The opening paragraph of the article is very comprehensive in chalkingout various aspects, purposes and objectives of education in general.Further elaboration and detail of the right to education is providedin subsequent sub-sections of the same article. The subsection 2 ofthe article deals with the right to free primary education and thus itreads;

“2. The States Parties to the present covenant recognize that, with aview to achieving the full realization of this right:

(a) Primary education shall be compulsory and available free toall;”

This article makes it obligatory to the state party to the covenantthat it will provide free primary education to its citizens and itwill be compulsory as well. The interpretation and further explanationof this provision on education is provided in the General comment bythe Committee on Economic, social and cultural rights. The comment ofthe committee deals with the famous 4-A framework:58

58 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 13: The Right to Education (Art. 13 of the Covenant), 8 December 1999, E/C.12/1999/10 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838c22.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

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Availability: Education should be available to the citizens inform of functioning educational institutions. “Functioning”implies that schools have facilities including but not limited to“buildings or other protection from the elements, sanitationfacilities for both sexes, safe drinking water, trained teachersreceiving domestically competitive salaries, teaching materials”

Accessibility: educational institutions and programmes have to beaccessible to everyone, without discrimination. The institutionsshould be accessible both physically59and economically.60

Acceptability: The form and substance of education, includingcurricula and teaching methods, have to be acceptable. This alsoinvolves cultural sensitivity.

Adaptability: Flexibility within education system so it couldadapt “to the needs of changing societies and communities andrespond to the needs of students within their diverse social andcultural settings”

The comments of the committee make itquite clear that if these fourconditions are met only then it canbe concluded that the right toEducation is being exercised fully bythe citizens of the state party tothe covenant. This comment is in facta general comment on right toEducation and it covers Primary aswell as secondary and highereducation. However, for primaryeducation the comments of thecommittee are more elaborate andclear which says that primary

59 “Physical accessibility - education has to be within safe physical reach, either by attendanceat some reasonably convenient geographic location (e.g. a neighbourhood school) or via modern technology (e.g. access to a “distance learning” programme)”60 “Economic accessibility - education has to be affordable to all. This dimension of accessibility is subject to the differential wording of article 13 (2) in relation to primary, secondary and higher education: whereas primary education shall be available “free to all”, States parties are required to progressively introduce free secondary and higher education”;

Education is not just asocial Right

Commenting about theimportance of right toeducation, the UN CESCR hasrecognized that educationis a civil, political,social, economic andcultural right; it asserts:

“It has been variously classified as aneconomic right, a social right and a cultural right. It is all of these. It is also, in many ways, a civil right and apolitical right, since it is central to thefull and effective realization of those rights as well. In this respect, the right to education epitomizes the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights.”

General Comment 11, Para 2

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education has two distinctive features: it must be “compulsory” and“available free to all”.

The sub section b and c of the article deals with the issue ofsecondary Education and Higher education including technical andvocational education and urges the states party to it to make itavailable and accessible. State parties are obligated to makesecondary education generally available and equally accessible andthat secondary education should be made free progressively. Highereducation should be made general and equally available and accessible.

Subsection d deals with the right to fundamental education for thosewho have not received or completed the whole period of primaryeducation. Subsection f of the article talks about development ofsystems of schools equipped with material conditions and adequatestaff.

Part 3 of the article urges states party to the covenant to haverespect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legalguardians to choose for their children schools, other than thoseestablished by the public authorities, which conform to such minimumeducational standards as may be laid down or approved by the State andto ensure the religious and moral education of their children inconformity with their own convictions.

Pakistan has also made commitments under to Education for All (EFA)]campaign and Millennium Development Goals as well whose Goal 2 isachieving universal primary education.

In this connection, National Education Policy 2009 states that toachieve the commitments of Government of Pakistan towards EFA and theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs), inclusive and child-friendlyeducation shall be promoted.61 While there are references to EFA andMDGs in various policy documents including National Education Policy,interestingly, there is no mention of ICESCR. This shows the lack ofcoordination among different policy making institutions. The ICESCRwas ratified in 2008 but the policy makers involved in preparation ofNational Education Policy 2009 seemed unaware about this importantdevelopment. There is need to create coherence and harmony amongvarious national and provincial level legislation, policies, projectsand other initiatives. Right to education is also part of Convention61 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2009. NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2009. Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan.

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of Rights of Child (CRC) and Convention for Elimination of all kindsof Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The right to Education has been recognized in the Constitution ofPakistan under article 25-A which says, ‘The State shall provide freeand compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteenyears in such manner as may be determined by law’. Made under 18thamendment to the Constitution, this new insertion makes educationcompulsory and free as well. The insertion of this new article washailed as a very positive step from many quarters because Right toEducation in Pakistan was not as precisely spelled out in the previousarticle and it was not binding as well. Earlier, Article 37 B of theconstitution stated: “the state shall remove illiteracy and providefree and compulsory secondary education within minimal possible time”.

Previously, subject of education was dealt under article 37 of thePrinciples of Policy in the Constitution, implementation of which wasan obligation of the State but subject to the availability ofresources. But, since the insertion of Article 25-A in the Chapter onFundamental Rights, the State is duty bound to provide free andcompulsory education to all children between the ages 5 to 16 yearswithout offering any excuses about lack of resources.62

In addition to this important development, Right to Free andCompulsory Education Act, 2012 has also been passed by Nationalassembly and senate. According to the news reports the bill,originally, was meant for schools established within the IslamabadCapital Territory (ICT)but, referring to Article 25-A of theConstitution, the National Assembly unanimously called upon allprovinces to enact similar bills as soon as possible, ensuring accessto quality free education for all children of school-going age.63 Sucha reminder to provinces was deemed necessary by parliament because thefederal government can no longer legislate on education forprovinces.64 Following this, Sindh province has also enacted a law on

62 IDARA-E-TALEEM-O-AAGAHI. 2011. Report on ‘Right to Education’ in Pakistan A Draft for Discussion [Online]. Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) & Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE) Available: http://www.itacec.org/document/Right%20to%20Education_Report%20final%20ITA.pdf [Accessed 7 January 2014].

63 GHUMMAN, K. 2012. NA adopts bill on free school education [Online]. Daily Dawn Karachi. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/763867/na-adopts-bill-on-free-school-education [Accessed 7 February 2014].

64 FAROOQ, F. 2012. Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2012: A landmark development (Part One) [Online]. NewsPakistan. Available: http://www.newspakistan.pk/2012/11/24/free-compulsory-education-act-

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free and compulsory education while in Baluchistan an ordinance wasissued by Governor to declare right to education as free andcompulsory. Recently, the Baluchistan assembly passed this ordinancein the assembly and formalized its status as an ‘act’. Other provincesare yet to follow suit. However, for the implementation of acts passedfor ICT and Sindh, there is a need of preparation and enactment ofrules which are pending in both the areas.

Though at constitutional and legal level Right to free and compulsoryprimary education has been recognized fully, however, the situation onground remains as grim as ever. The Government to end has adopted aNational Plan of Action, which is also required under ICESCR Article14. According to the plan, 6.7 million Pakistani children of primaryschool age are estimated to be out of schools.65 However, according toPSLM 9.3 million children of the primary age are out of the schools.66

The same article cites many examples of status of education in thecountry and draws comparison to other countries as well. An importantaspect highlighted by many reports is that of low spending onEducation as compared to other sectors. Pakistan spends between 1.7%to 2.5% of GDP on education.67 National Education Policy 2009 has alsostated that with such minimal allocation and spending we cannot expectto become a vibrant knowledge economy”.68

As indicated in the table below, there are 21 million children ofschool going age (5-9) years in Pakistan. The urban share is 6.7million whereas 14 million children of school going age live in ruralareas. The report indicates that 32 percent of these children are outof the schools.

2012-landmark-development-part-one/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

65 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, T. A. S. I. H. E. 2013. National Plan of Action to Accelerate Education-Related MDGs 2013-16: Achieving Universal Quality Primary Education in Pakistan. In: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, T. A. S. I. H. E., GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN (ed.).

66 TRAINING, M. O. E. 2013. Country Report of Pakistan Regarding: Accelerating Millennium Development Goals 2013-15. Ministry of Education & Training, Government of Pakistan. (See See footnote 9, page 31)

67 Ibid.

68 NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2009, http://unesco.org.pk/education/teachereducation/files/National%20Education%20Policy.pdf

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Table 4: Population of Children in ages of 5-9 year in Pakistan69

Baluchist KP Punjab Sindh GB ICT FATA AJ&K PAKISTANAllBoys 589,248 1,473,07 5,557,051 2,642,660 102,131 75,417 266,491 286,210 10,992,282Girls 510,622 1,371,72 5,213,914 2,378,944 95,089 68,544 250,587 271,230 10,160,655Both 1,099,870 2,844,79 10,770,96 5,021,604 197,220 143,961 517,078 557,440 21,152,937UrbanBoys 154,404 235,692 1,770,188 1,219,413 15,320 25,936 34,345 3,455,297Girls 141,716 219,476 1,740,385 1,147,837 14,263 23,080 32,548 3,319,305Both 296,120 455,168 3,510,573 2,367,250 29,583 49,016 66,893 6,774,603RuralBoys 434,844 1,237,38 3,786,863 1,423,247 86,811 49,481 266,491 251,865 7,536,985Girls 368,906 1,152,24 3,473,529 1,231,107 80,826 45,464 250,587 238,682 6,841,350Both 803,750 2,389,63 7,260,392 2,654,354 167,637 94,945 517,078 490,547 14,378,334

There are inequalities based on gender and location (urban-rural) inparticipation/enrolment. As per the report, the Gross Enrolment rate(GER) for this age group remains at 85% overall. However as comparedto boys (92%), only 79% girls are enrolled in the schools.Provincially speaking, Baluchistan has lowest GER at 63% followed bySindh with 79% GER. For girls, the lowest GER is in FATA where only53% girls are enrolled.

Table 5: Gross Enrolment Rate (5-9 years)70

Baluchistanan

KP Punjab

Sindh

GB ICT FATA AJ&K PAKISTANBoys 70% 116% 91% 86% 103% 85% 101% 73% 92%Girls 55% 85% 84% 71% 87% 90% 53% 73% 79%Both 63% 101% 88% 79% 95% 87% 77% 73% 85%

The Net Enrolment Rate (NER) reflects a bleaker situation with afigure of only 68% NER for Pakistan. Girls’ NER is recorded at 63% ascompared to 73% for the boys. Baluchistan again has lowest NER at 51%and FATA has lowest NER for girls (42%) only. Unfortunately this grimdisparity in gender indicators in education has also been corroboratedby various international rankings. In one of such reports Pakistan is

69 Source: TRAINING, M. O. E. 2013. Country Report of Pakistan Regarding: Accelerating Millennium Development Goals 2013-15. Ministry of Education & Training, Government of Pakistan.

70 Source: ibid.

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ranked among the bottom ten countries in the world where poor girlsaged 7 to 16 have never been to school.71

Table 6: Net enrolment Rate (5-9 years)72

Baluchistan

KP Punjab

Sindh

GB ICT FATA AJ&K PAKISTAN

Boys 56% 92% 73% 69% 82% 68% 81% 58% 73%

Girls

44% 68% 67% 57% 69% 72% 42% 59% 63%

Both 51% 81% 70% 63% 76% 70% 62% 58% 68%

The report indicates that 73% population in urban areas has everattended a school as compared to 50% in the rural areas. This againreflects inequalities on urban-rural level.

However, enrolment is not just an issue in Pakistan; the equallyimportant issue is that of survival of children in the school. As perthe report of Ministry of Education, only 70% children who enrol atprimary level reach grade 5. In case of girls, only 68% reach gradefive as compared to 71% boys. Islamabad has the highest survival ratewith 91% whereas Giligit Baltistan has lowest at 32% of survival rate.In Baluchistan only one-half of the children reach class five ascompared to two-third children in FATA, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.73

According to Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013 report one-third children drop out after primary in rural areas.74 Unavailabilityof further educational facilities is cited as main reason of drop outsin the report.

71 ROSE, P. 2012. The bottom ten countries for female education [Online]. World Education Blog. Available: http://efareport.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/the-bottom-ten-countries-for-female-education/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

72 Source: TRAINING, M. O. E. 2013. Country Report of Pakistan Regarding: Accelerating Millennium Development Goals 2013-15. Ministry of Education & Training, Government of Pakistan.

73 Ibid.

74 ITA. 2014. Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013 [Online]. Available: http://www.aserpakistan.org/index.php?func=aser_2013.

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The major issues in education pointed bythe National Education Policy were ofequity and gender and region baseddisparities. The Policy paper states thatthere are large differences in accessacross gender, ethnic minorities,provinces, regions and rural-urbandivides. This results in weakerperformance on equitable distribution ofeducational opportunities. It is commonknowledge, as well as a proven outcome ofmany studies, that discrimination existsin the education system in various forms.75

Girls continue to remain underrepresentedin the education system, both public andprivate. The rural urban divide is starkon most indicators of school provision andparticipation, which becomes particularlyattenuated in some provinces and areas.There are not only inter-provincialdisparities but within the provinces aswell. Such disparities exist bothquantitatively and qualitatively. Thereare fewer opportunities of education inremote districts like Cholistan, Thar,Kacho of Sindh and Punjab as well asseveral rural districts of Baluchistan.Similarly, due to lack of effectivemonitoring, the teacher absenteeism ishigh and quality of teachers available isnot satisfactory. Hence, the quality ofeducation is also bad as compared to manyurban areas and fails miserably whencompared to international standards. Thiscertainly, as in the case of many other

75 Ibid, See Also MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, T. A. S. I. H. E. 2013. National Plan of Action to Accelerate Education-Related MDGs 2013-16: Achieving Universal Quality Primary Education in Pakistan. In: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, T. A. S. I. H. E., GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN (ed.). And ROSE, P. 2012. The bottom ten countries for female education [Online]. World Education Blog. Available: http://efareport.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/the-bottom-ten-countries-for-female-education/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

Right to qualityEducationDr A.H Nayarit, arenowned human Rights andEducation Expert saidthat Article 25-A was animportant step and weshould appreciate this.However, he said thatmost of the time suchmeasures are taken justdue to leverage somepolitical gains and therequired actions areavoided. He said that hehad observed during theprevious regime thatthere was huge increasein enrolment in schoolsin some provinces but nofacilities were providedfor children at schools.He said that some reportssuggested that many girlsdrop out of school due tothe fact that there wereno latrines at schools.

He claims that due to theabove cited situation thequality of Education hassuffered heavily, Thiscompromised the citizensright to education, whichin fact should desirablybe the right to qualityeducation. Interview with DrNayyar, August 2013

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rights, is a failure on the state’s end to ensure education withoutany discrimination of.

On the other hand despite the allocation of resources the situation ofbasic facilities at school level is not improving which is animportant link and part of quality education. A recent report by ASERpresented in January 2014 states that in rural Pakistan only 64%government primary schools have drinkable water facility, 57% havecomplete boundary walls and 47% have usable toilets.76 These figuresindicate non-compliance with the ICESCR which requires schoolsequipped adequate water, sanitation and infrastructure.77

. Moreover, the National Policy of 2009 makes it mandatory for allstudents, irrespective of their religious beliefs, to study Islamiceducation.78 This is against the constitutional provision under article22.1 which provides safeguards against such mandatory religiouseducation.79 This is also against the ICESCR’s right to culture andICCPR’s right to religion and thought (article 18).80

These are the issues which are well recorded in various policydocuments. However, there are other issues which are linked with theoverall socio-political situation of the country which have alsoaffected directly or indirectly the overall education scenario inPakistan. For example, the law and order situation in two provinces ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan as well as in FATA region has had anegative impact on Education in various forms. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwaand FATA region schools have been blown up. Conflict Monitoring Center(CMC) annual Report shows that the militants blew up 81 schools inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federal Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) in2012. An official data shows that the militants had destroyed over 758

76 ITA. 2014. Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013 [Online]. Available: http://www.aserpakistan.org/index.php?func=aser_2013.

77 See General Comment 13 and description of content of right to education already cited above.

78 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2009. NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2009. Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan.

79 Article 22.1 reads: “No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony, or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own”

80 ASSOCIATION, P. M. T. 2012. “National Education Policy 2009” comments of PMTA published in the Pakistan Christian Post [Online]. Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association. Available: http://pmtapk.blogspot.com/2012/07/national-education-policy-2009-comments.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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schools in different districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,including 640 schools in Malakand Division from 2009 to 2011.81 Incertain areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA there are constantthreats from militants to girls and their schools. . The tragicincident of the murder attempt on Malala Yousuf Zai and her fellows in2012 in Swat was a strong reminder that the right to education ofcitizens of Pakistan faces clear and present danger.

This again shows that the state has been unable to protect againstinfringement of human rights of its citizen by such terrorist groups.In this backdrop it becomes imperative to take strong actions not onlyto promote and protect this right but also to prevent its violation aswell.

On closer examination, the Higher Educational System prevalent in thecountry did not present a much different picture. During the previousregime (from 2002-2008) there was much focus on Higher Education. Andduring that period an autonomous Higher Education Commission (HEC) wasestablished for promotion of Higher Education in the county. When HECwas formed in 2002, “only about 2.5% of students had access to highereducation”. By the end of the 2010, this had improved by 5.1%.82 Thebiggest and more difficult problem to solve was that of quality ofhigher education, which was linked directly with the quality andavailability of highly qualified faculty in universities. However,the momentum of this initiative as not built up and there were majorcuts in funding for Higher Education Commission which affected theoverall situation of Higher Education in the country.

All the important stakeholders in the civil society, like NGOs workingon human rights, NGOs working on education and education expertsagreed that without proper realization of the Right to Education therewas no future for the country. However, at the same time all hailedthe insertion of article 25-A in the constitution as a positive stepbut expressed their concern over slow implementation. For example, ifoverall spending on Education remains low as ever, how we can expectthat the conditions necessary to realize this important right arefulfilled?

81 AHSAN, N. 2013. Schools vs Militants: An overview of the situation in KPK and FATA [Online]. Conflict Monitoring Center. Available: http://cmcpk.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/schools-vs-militants-an-overview-of-the-situation-in-kpk-and-fata/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].82 AKHTAR, M. M. S., RAFI, M. S., AHMED, S. & RAUF, M. 2011. Quality in Higher Education: Issues and Current Practices Journal of Elementary Education 21, 43-51.

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Civil society activist and rights’ campaigners urged that this is along struggle because passing of one law is just a beginning but themore important task is of implementation and monitoring the progressagainst set indicators. In this situation, the role of civil societybecomes more important to engage with government at various levels.Similarly, after the passing of the 18th Amendment, many such powersand particularly those related to education has become a provincialsubject.

It shows that stronger advocacy, capacity building and awareness-raising is required at provincial level. It is also crucial because18th amendment is a recent intervention and provinces are not entirelyfamiliar with the process of policy making and legislation.

Many experts pointed out that education is not just about figures andnumbers but about quality as well, and various assessment reports aresuggesting that though enrolment has risen but quality of educationand learning achievements is dropping. ASER 2013 reports suggestdismal state of the quality of education. Assessing the learningachievements of the children, the report highlights that in ruralPakistan, only 50% children can read a story of class 2 level inSindhi/Pashto/Urdu; and only 55.2% children of class five level couldread same level story. The situation was the worst in FATA where 30%children of class five could read the story. The percentage for Sindh,Baluchistan, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were 41%, 49% and 39%respectively. Only 43% of class 5 children could read a sentencewhereas in arithmetic only 43% children of class five could solve a 2digit sum in rural areas. As compared to government schools, childrenin private schools seem to do better where 61% children could read astory in Urdu/Sindhi/Pashto (Compared to 46% in government schools).This indicates the need for improving teachers’ capacity and skills,providing necessary teaching material and ensuring attendance ofteachers as their absenteeism is very high in many areas of thecountry.

The right to education in ICESCR recognizes and obligates states thateducation should be geared towards “full human development” of theindividuals. It also asserts that education “shall strengthen therespect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”. This is animportant element particularly with respect to quality and content ofthe right to education. If we apply this provision to the situation inPakistan, there is no exaggeration in saying that education is notpromoting these elements rather the text books are full of hate speech

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and religion mongering, as various studies prove. As per a 2012 studyby National Commission for Justice and Peace and PILER, the text bookspromote fanaticism instead of promoting respect for all citizens.83 Thestudy analysed 2011-12 curriculum for Sindh and Punjab and found 55chapters which include hate speech against “Hindus, India, andChristians” and “insulting remarks against the minority religions anddistorted historical facts”.84 Similarly, a detailed study bySustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) makes similarconclusions.85 Similarly, there are reports that vulnerable groups andminorities have discrimination issues in accessibility andacceptability of the content.

The ICESCR right requires states to ensure that education gears thestudents towards respect for other human rights, it should promotepeace and tolerance as well. However, the negative propaganda in stateeducation is very much against this obligation. The civil societystrongly feels that hateful materials should be eliminated from thecurriculum and that necessary changes in the curriculum be made torender it neutral and bias-free and include elements which helppromote respect for human rights, tolerance and peace. .

Recommendations

Appropriate resource and budget allocations for realization ofright to education should be made. Budget utilization andresource management should be effective and efficient.

Federal and provincial governments should establish adequateeducation facilities, with adequate facilities, staff andcurriculum, as per right to education enshrined in ICESCR andArticle 25-A.

Girls’ education needs particularly attention and there is needto increase functioning facilities of education for girls.

Support provinces in by enhancing their capacity realization ofright to education at provincial level after 18th Amendment

Devising a Monitoring mechanism for monitoring the implementationof article 25-A for compulsory and free education

83 See: PEACE, N. C. F. J. A. 2013. Education Vs Fanatic Literacy: A Study on the Hate Content in the Textbooks in Punjab and Sindh Provinces. National Commission for Justice and Peace.

84 ibid85 NAYYAR, A. H. & SALIM, A. (eds.) The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICY INSTITUTE.

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Monitor and address issues of regional disparities within andbetween provinces and between various regions within provincesincluding Urban-Rural. There is a particular need toincrease/open educational facilities in such areas.

Government should develop robust mechanisms for learningassessment at primary level to improve quality of education.

Curriculum should be revised; hate and discriminatory elementsshould be removed. The curriculum should include a focus on humanrights education to help promote awareness, respect andrealization of human rights, tolerance and peace.

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Photo Credit: UPI/Hussain Fatemi – Courtesy of Dawn.Com86

6. Right to Health The issue of health is one of the fundamental concerns of human life.Without health no positive and productive activity is possible. Thisimportant aspect of human life and right has been recognized inarticle 12 of the ICESCR which specifically deals with the right tohealth for every individual in society. However, it is important tomention that the Constitution of Pakistan doesn’t recognize right tohealth exclusively and there are only provisions in the articles whichdeal with the issues of health but not with the right to health perse.87

Article 12 has 2 sub articles which deal with five subjects related tohealth. The first part of the article deals exclusively with the rightto health, both physical and mental, thus urging the state parties tothe covenant to recognize this as well (The States Parties to thepresent Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of86 http://dawn.com/news/1043251/kp-to-use-pti-goodwill-to-rein-in-polio

87 NISHTAR, S. Health and 18th Amendment Retaining National functions in development. Heart File.

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the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health). Thesub article 2 deals with necessary steps to be taken for therealization of the right to health. These include;

Steps for reduction of still birth rate and child mortality andhealthy development of the child,

Improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrialhygiene

Prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic,occupational and other diseases

Creation of conditions which would ensure medical service andmedical attention in the event of sickness for all

The UN CESCR further defines and explains various aspects of the rightto health and provides guidelines for action and monitoring in theGeneral Comment 14. For example, it states that the right to healthis not to be understood as a right to be healthy; it contains bothfreedoms and entitlements. Thus the comments of the committee widensthe scope of the right to health and it covers other related aspectsof human rights as well, for example right to control one’s body andfreedom from torture, non-consensual medical treatment andexperimentation. The committee on ICESCR thus states thatconsequently, the right to health must be understood as a right to theenjoyment of a variety of facilities, goods, services and conditionsnecessary for the realization of the highest attainable standard ofhealth.88

As a general framework the committee also further formulates manynecessary conditions for realization of the right to health. Thus asstated by the committee the right to health in all its forms and atall levels contains “the following interrelated and essentialelements, the precise application of which will depend on theconditions prevailing in a particular State party”:

Availability: Public health and health care facilities must beavailable in functional conditions and in sufficient quantity;facilities include among others: “…safe and potable drinkingwater and adequate sanitation facilities, hospitals, clinics andother health-related buildings, trained medical and professionalpersonnel receiving domestically competitive salaries, and

88 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12 of the Covenant), 11 August 2000, E/C.12/2000/4 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838d0.html [Accessed7 February 2014].

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essential drugs, as defined by the WHO Action Programme onEssential Drugs”.

Accessibility: Health facilities, goods and services have to beaccessible to everyone without discrimination, within thejurisdiction of the State party. Accessibility has fouroverlapping dimensions:

o Non-discrimination: No discrimination in provision servicesof any kind.

o Physical accessibility: Services must be reachable and atsafe locations. Accessibility of vulnerable groups likepersons with disabilities etc to be ensured.

o Economic accessibility (affordability): The availableservices must be affordable for all. For the poorer sectioncost should be subsidized.

o Information accessibility: This implies everyone should haveright to “seek, receive and impart information and ideasconcerning health issues” as long they don’t infringe uponthe confidentiality of the personal health data.

Acceptability: Services, including health facilities and goods,must adhere to medical ethics and be culturally appropriateincluding confidentiality of personal health data.

Quality: The committee asserts that available services, goods andfacilities related to health should be appropriate and of goodquality medically and scientifically besides being “culturally”acceptable.

The committee on ICESCR further stipulates the core obligations forthe state party to the covenant with regard to right to health. Theseare:

“(a) To ensure the right of access to health facilities, goodsand services on a non-discriminatory basis, especially forvulnerable or marginalized groups;(b) To ensure access to the minimum essential food which isnutritionally adequate and safe, to ensure freedom from hunger toeveryone;(c) To ensure access to basic shelter, housing and sanitation,and an adequate supply of safe and potable water;(d) To provide essential drugs, as from time to time definedunder the WHO Action Programme on Essential Drugs;(e) To ensure equitable distribution of all health facilities,

goods and services;

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(f) To adopt and implement a national public health strategy andplan of action, on the basis of epidemiological evidence,addressing the health concerns of the whole population;”

In addition to these obligations and conditions the committee alsourges the state parties to the covenant to provide special care tovulnerable groups like women, children, older persons, persons withdisabilities and indigenous people. This is the summary of the rightto health in general and the comments of the committee which makes itquite obvious that right to health is to be considered in a broadersense when taking actions for realization of this right. Nonetheless,the same makes it impossible to present a detailed analysis based onall aspects of right to health in ICESCR; but main issues arediscussed below.

As stated earlier in the section that right to health has not beenrecognized as a fundamental human right in the constitution as such.However, article 38 of the constitution which primarily deals withsocial and economic wellbeing of the people does talk about provisionof medical relief in general. Thus the article states;

“provide basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing,housing, education and medical relief, for all such citizens,irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, as are permanently ortemporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account ofinfirmity, sickness or unemployment;"89

According to a renowned health specialist and human rights expert DrSania Nishtar this is a vague reference to medical relief but nothealth as basic right like Education. She states further in her paperon 18th Amendment and health issues that unlike 115 countries of theworld, the Constitution of Pakistan does not explicitly recognize theright to health.90

There is only 1 primary health care centre/unit per 10000 persons inPakistan. The public primary health care system includes 5000 basichealth units, 600 rural health centres and 7500 other first level carefacilities. In addition, over 100,000 lady health workers provide89 Article 38.d, Constitution of Pakistan.

90 NISHTAR, S. Health and 18th Amendment Retaining National functions in development. Heart File.

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services across the country. At secondary health care level, there are989 hospitals at Tehsil and District levels.91 According to thePlanning and Development Division, at present there are 149,201registered doctors in the country which means for every 1,206 peoplethere is just one doctor. There are just 76,244 registered nurses inthe country, and for every 1,665 people there is just one hospitalbed.92

The statistics grow more alarming when we see the status ofimmunizations. PSLM indicates an increase in the full immunizationbase on the health records from 53 percent in 2010-11 to 56 percent in2011-12. However, report by Research and Development Solutionsindicates that one in every 5 children is not immunized in Pakistan.This is despite the huge inflow of funding in the immunizationprograms.93

Still births are one of the biggest problems in Pakistan, as thecountry is second among the top five countries in the incidence ofstill birth. In Pakistan, there are 47 still births per 10000 birthscompared to global statistics of 19 still births per 1000. Thedecrease has only been 6% (from 51 to 27) between 1995 to 2009.According to Dr Bhutta, the issue is severe in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa,Baluchistan and Sindh.94 As per WHO’s health profile of the country,the under-five mortality rate in Pakistan is 72 deaths per 1000 livebirths.95 This way too much of global and regional averages of 51 & 58deaths respectively. Likewise, the maternal mortality rate in Pakistanis high with 260 deaths per 100,000 live births as compared to 250deaths regionally and 210 deaths globally. As of 2010, in prematurity

91 ORGANIZATION, W. H. Pakistan: Primary and secondary health care [Online]. Available: http://www.emro.who.int/pak/programmes/primary-a-secoundary-health-care.html?-Secoundary-Health-Care- [Accessed 7 February 2014.

92WASIF, S. 2013. World Health Day: In Pakistan, healthcare remains a luxury [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/532208/world-health-day-in-pakistan-healthcare-remains-a-luxury/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].93 SOLUTIONS, R. D. 2012. Childhood Immunization in Pakistan Research & Development Solutions94 DAWN, D. 2011. Pakistan stillbirth rate second highest in world [Online]. Daily Dawn. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/620651/pakistan-stillbirth-rate-second-highest-in-world [Accessed 7 January 2014].

95 ORGANIZATION, W. H. Pakistan: Country Profile [Online]. Available: http://www.who.int/gho/countries/pak.pdf?ua=1 [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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(20% of all cases) and pneumonia (19% of all cases) are major causesof the deaths of the children under-five deaths.96

The status of public sector health facilities in Pakistan is ratherdismal, and does not seem to enjoy public confidence. Various researchreports have indicated that only 30% of patients visit public healthfacilities and more than 70% seek private treatment .97 So the privatesector serves nearly 70% of the population, is primarily a fee-for-service system and covers the range of health care provision fromtrained allopathic physicians to faith healers and quacks operating inthe informal private sector. Neither private, nor non-governmentsectors work within a regulatory framework and very little informationis available regarding the extent of human, physical, and financialresources involved. Less than 30 % of the population uses publichealth facilities and some studies indicate that, on average, eachperson visits a public health facility less than once a year. Reasonsfor their underutilization, as identified by both the managers andconsumers, are the relative lack of health care professionals andespecially female care providers, high rates of absenteeism, poorquality of services, lack of medicines and inconvenient location ofPrimary Healthcare Units.

This is a general state of affairs in health in Pakistan which showsthat state has not been able to provide adequate health facilities toits people in accordance with the standards stipulated in the ICESCR,regardless of the fact that the right to health is recognized by thestate or not. In addition to this general picture of the healthsituation in the country there are other regional aspects as well.Pakistan is a federation unit of four provinces and federallyadministered tribal areas called FATA. The situation of health withinthese provinces also depicts other regional disparities. For example,Punjab is the largest province by population so the situation in thisprovince in terms of health is relatively better than the otherprovinces. However, within Punjab there are other regional disparitiesbetween rural and urban and south and central Punjab. Similarly,Baluchistan is the largest province in size but smallest in

96 ibid

97 ORGANIZATION, W. H. Health System Organization. Health Systems Profile- Pakistan World Health Organization (Regional Health Systems Observatory- EMRO).

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population. Thus the situation of health in Baluchistan due to variousfactors including geographic and cultural are considered hardestobstacles for provision of quality health care. A case in point is thematernal mortality rate in Baluchistan which is the highest inPakistan being above 700.98 Similar trends in overall health situationin the other two provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh could beobserved with small variations.

According to a statement made in National Health Policy, the health ofthe people of Pakistan has improved since 1990; however the rate ofimprovement in health outcomes has been slow compared to itsneighbouring countries. The Policy states that “Pakistan’s under-fivemortality remains the highest among the South Asian countries”. Thepolicy also states that “high maternal mortality (deaths) combinedwith high fertility results in one out of every 89 women dying frompregnancy related causes”. Another issue is that of malnutrition whichaccording to the policy paper remains “widespread and unaddressed”. Inaddition, “persistent burden of infectious diseases is now compoundedby increasing burden of non-communicable diseases”.99

The situation in terms of specific health issues with regard to motherand child health and particularly child and infant mortality have seenimprovements in recent years according to various reports, but theyare still far from satisfactory.100 Pakistan has a commitment underMillennium Development Goals to reduce the global child and infantmortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.

A recent development in this connection has been passing ofReproductive health Rights bill which was passed in March 2013 by thenational assembly. The bill was actually passed to fulfil anotherinternational obligation under Convention on Elimination ofDiscrimination against Women (CEDAW) however it is unfortunate to notethat the bill lapsed in the senate. Interestingly, there is no mentionof ICESCR in the bill or other legislation which also calls for suchlegislation. The purpose behind the bill was to provide comprehensive98 STUDIES, N. I. O. P. Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2007. National Institute of Population Studies & Macro International Inc. Calverton, Maryland USA.

99 HEALTH, M. O. 2009. National Health Policy 2009: Stepping Towards Better Health. Ministry of Health, Government of Pakistan.100 TRIBUNE, E. 2012a. Child deaths in Pakistan down by 5.1 million a year: UN report [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/436328/child-deaths-in-pakistan-down-by-5-1-million-a-year-un-report/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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reproductive healthcare services particularly to women in remote areas andmarginalized groups. Though this could have been a positive development inits own right but this would have been just one step toward therealization of this right. There is a need to make other necessaryarrangements like resource allocation and other such measures for actualrealization of this right.

Similarly, the overall improvement in environmental and industrialhygiene is also not very different. Though there are improvements atcertain places however, in general, environmental concerns get aslittle attention as they should. There are news reports on daily basiswhich depict the unhygienic work conditions at various industriesincluding, ironically even at hospitals.101 This also shows that thereare very few regulatory and monitoring mechanisms to monitor andreport this situation.

On the control and treatment of epidemic and endemic diseases thereare various national level programs to control, prevent and treatepidemic and endemic diseases. These programs include;

National Programme for Family Planning & Primary Health Care (LHWProgramme),

Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI),

National Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) Programme,

National Programme for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis,

National AIDS Control Programme,

National Tuberculosis Control Programme.

Despite these huge programs the overall situation in terms of healthhas not improved in Pakistan, though obviously there are improvementsin certain areas like immunization etc. According to many health andhuman rights experts, there is huge gap in policy, planning and actualdelivery of health services. For example, GDP to health spending ratiohas remained very low in Pakistan. The Health expenditure; total

101 NATION, T. 2012. Unhygienic conditions in twin cities hospitals [Online]. Available: http://www.nation.com.pk/islamabad/29-Aug-2012/unhygienic-conditions-in-twin-cities-hospitals [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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percentage of GDP in Pakistan was last reported at 2.20 in 2010,according to a World Bank report published in 2012.102

Various experts in health and organizations of civil society are ofthe opinion that as health system is predominantly private this putsextra burden on the vulnerable segment of society as their out ofpocket expenses in health costs too much. Private health system isnot very regularized and there are no fixed mechanisms forstandardizing service fees etc. This fact has been highlighted even inthe National Policy which says that , “Poor are not benefiting fromthe health system whereas they bear major burden of diseases.” Thefact is that the vulnerable groups like poor have no health insuranceschemes and they have to rely on out of pocket expenses. Thegovernment infrastructure is poorly located, inadequately equipped andmaintained resulting in inadequate coverage and access to essentialbasic services. Private health sector continues to expand unregulatedmainly in urban areas. The Policy paper also indicates that most (75%)of the health expenditure is out of pocket (OOP).This puts extraburden on these groups thus depriving them of their meagre earnedincomes. Thus the situation is also commensurate to violation underICESCR’s right to health. On pilot basis, the government has startedWaseela-e-Sehat, a health insurance program, for the underprivileged.103

This was good step; however there is need to continue and expandoutreach of such programs.

The people living in rural areas have to rely solely on private healthclinics as public health facilities like BHUs (Basic Health Units) areonly day clinics and they are not available at nights when most of theemergencies usually occur, particularly in the rural areas. Then thereis issue of trust in public health service providers which is quitelow. This is an obvious issue of availability and access to qualityhealth service. Similarly, the quality of medicines and otherservices at public health facilities are generally considered of lowquality. So an efficient health system requires a holistic approach tothe issue of health both at policy, planning and delivery level. Inaddition, the issue of resource allocation is also crucial forprovision of quality health services.

102 ECONOMICS, T. Health expenditure - total (% of GDP) in Pakistan [Online]. Available: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/pakistan/health-expenditure-total-percent-of-gdp-wb-data.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

103 BISP. Waseela-e-Sehet (Health & Life Insurance) [Online]. Available: http://www.bisp.gov.pk/si_health_insurance.aspx [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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After the 18th amendment, health has become a provincial subject. Thiscan have huge impact on overall health situation of the country bothpositively and negatively. The provinces have to enable and equipthemselves to deal with issues of health in general as they lackresources. Another aspect is that provinces will have to struggle withthe questions of legislation and policy making in health as they arenot trained to do this. In this connection it is important that someroles should remain with the centre in this transitional phase andmeanwhile capacity of provinces should be enhanced to fully assumethis role.

The right to health under ICESCR, obligates Pakistan to take measuresfor removing endemics and epidemics in Pakistan. This also includesimmunization coverage for the children. Recent trends show thatPakistan is falling short on this obligation. For example, while thecountry was on brink of the declaring itself polio free, theresurgence of the cases has surprised all stakeholders. It remains oneof the only three countries in the world which is not polio free. Theterrorists have further added to this deteriorating situation. Therecent attacks on polio teams and killings of innocent polio workersby the militants in various parts of the country have severelyretarded the efforts to end polio.104 According to statistics available,nearly 1 million children could not be provided polio drops in one ofthe drives.105 Experts fear that situation will have counterproductiveeffects on the polio eradication efforts. It not only puts into dangerthose children who missed but also those who have been provided drops.Similarly, the government has been unable to effectively respond tothe cholera outbreaks in various parts of the country and manychildren have died as result. In addition to Malaria which is endemicin Pakistan, dangers of dengue have also been lurking over thepopulations in many parts of the country..

Recommendations

Recognize the Right to Health in the Constitution. Provincesshould follow the suit.

104 Pakistani militants shoot dead two polio vaccination workers [Online]. The Guardian. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/16/pakistan-militants-kill-health-workers [Accessed 7 January 2014].

105 TRIBUNE, E. 2012b. One million children miss polio vaccination [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/453046/one-million-pakistani-children-miss-polio-vaccination/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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Take obligations under ICESCR into account in designing andimplementing the health policy. The current health policy shouldbe revised based on the obligations under ICESCR.

Allocation of adequate budget on the basis of proper informationand evidence

Build capacity of provinces on legislation and policy making onhealth issues.

Regularize public and private Health system so that affordabilityissue can be tackled.

Health insurance schemes for poor and vulnerable groups should beinitiated.

Protection should be provided to polio workers. State shouldensure that not a single child is missed in the polio drives.

Implementation of special programs, such as MNCH, EPI, Polio etc,is improved to reach out to more and more people.

Take measures for controlling still births; such measures mayinclude increasing obstetric services and EmOC (EmergencyObstetrics Care), provision of folic acid supplements, andmanagement of diabetes during pregnancy and awareness-raising oncare during pregnancy (antenatal and postnatal care).

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7. Right to Adequate Standard of LifeHunger is exclusion – exclusion from the land, from income, jobs, wages,life and citizenship. When a person gets to the point of not havinganything to eat, it is because all the rest has been denied. This is amodern form of exile. It is death in life...

– Josue de Castro

“Food insecurity anywhere, threatens peace everywhere”

– Popular maxim (Anonymous)

The right to adequate standards of life obligates a state party toensure that people have basic needs of life and consistently makeimprovement in the standard of life. The right leaves the standardsopen as may be the case; some standards mentioned include, food,housing, shelter and clothing. The right to adequate standards of lifeis also recognized under UDHR article 25 which also includes someaspects of right to social security. The UN CESCR have, however,clarified that these are just some standards mentioned directly in theright, there can be other standards as well. For example, thecommittee considers that right to water is part of adequate standardsof life.106 So this chapter presents the views on three rights which106 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 15: The Right to Water (Arts. 11 and 12 of the Covenant), 20 January 2003, E/C.12/2002/1 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838d11.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

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stem from this right: the right to food, right to housing and right towater.

Article 38 of the constitution of Pakistan deals with right toadequate standard of life. As said earlier, the article 38 is part ofprinciples of policy so it does not have same force as human rightsrecognized under the Fundamental rights of the constitution. Itspecifically emphasizes on food, water and housing:

“provide basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing,housing, education and medical relief, for all such citizens,irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, as are permanently ortemporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account ofinfirmity, sickness or unemployment;”107

As mentioned already, the right obligates the state parties toconstantly improve living conditions of human beings in itsterritories. However, as we can see from statistics the life standardsin Pakistan are declining with passage of time. As per the HumanDevelopment Index, Pakistan currently ranks 146, this is the result ofa continuous declining trend in human development indices in recentyears.108 The increasing terrorism, repeated natural calamitiesparticularly the consecutive floods since 2010, has severely affectedthe standards of life. The food insecurity has increased and Pakistanis already declared a water scarce country. Millions have lost basicshelters as a result of both terrorism and floods in recent years.Moreover, forced evictions, particularly in cities, also presentdismal state of affairs with respect to living standards.

7.1. Right to adequate foodRight to food or food security draws much attention in the right tostandards of life and rightly so as food is a basic necessity of lifewhich is essential to the realization of all rights, most importantlythe right of life. Articles, 11.2, 11.2.a and 11.2.b define it in muchdetails. It emphasizes that the right of “everyone to be free fromhunger” and malnutrition. It further obligates the states, under the11.2.a, to make necessary steps, either individually or throughinternational cooperation “to improve methods of production,conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical

107 Article 38.d, Principles of Policy, Constitution of Pakistan 1973108 UNDP 2013. Explanatory note on 2013 HDR composite indices Human Development Report 2013 - The Rise of theSouth: Human Progress in a Diverse World. United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

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and scientific knowledge”. The state party is also under obligation todisseminate the knowledge on principles of the nutrition. The right tofood is also recognized in the Convention on the Elimination ofDiscrimination Against Women (Article 14g & h) and the Convention onthe Rights of the Child (Article 24.c).

Elaborating the right to food, the UN Committee through GeneralComment 12 reaffirmed that right to food is “indivisible and linked toinherent human dignity’ and it is inevitable for realization of otherrights enshrined in international bill of human rights. The committeealso considers that right to food is a necessary aspect of socialjustice and has termed it “inseparable from social justice”.109 It setsthe core content of the right to food as:

“The availability of food in a quantity and quality sufficient tosatisfy the dietary needs of individuals, free from adversesubstances, and acceptable within a given culture;

The accessibility of such food in ways that are sustainable andthat do not interfere with the enjoyment of other human rights.”

Further elaborating on the content of the right to adequate food thecommittee has established elements for the full realization of theright to adequate food. These are explained here:

Adequacy and sustainability: Adequacy implies that theavailable food, in their quality and quantity, are sufficientto meet the nutritional needs of concerned people. Adequacy iscontingent upon “social, economic, cultural, climatic,ecological and other conditions”. The sustainability isexplained to have long term “availability” and “accessibility”of the food including for present and future generations.

Dietary: This implies that food available is nutritious enoughto contribute to overall and full physiological, includingmental, growth and development of human beings as per theirneeds in various cycles of growth and development.

Free from adverse substances: This stresses the need to ensurefood safety and taking measures to prevent food contaminationeither through “adulteration” or “gaps in environmentalhygiene”. State parties thus should ensure proper regulation

109 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 12: The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11 of the Covenant) [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838c11.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

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of different cycles / steps of food production and fooddelivery chain.

Cultural or consumer acceptability: This implies that theavailable and accessible food is acceptable to the consumers’“perceived non nutrient-based values attached to food and foodconsumption”. In this sense, the cultural acceptability hasanother aspect as well such assuring ‘halal food for Muslims andprohibition of meat for Hindu community’.

Availability: This means that food is available to people asper demand. This may either be available for feeding directlyfrom the food farm or through having effective market systemswhich make food available wherever it is required.

Accessibility: The committee has defined accessibility in twosenses. The economic accessibility refers to cost of attainingadequate food. This should be in reach of the household’sincome levels i.e. food should be affordable. The otherelement is physical accessibility and implies that “adequatefood” must be physically accessible to all. The committee hasparticularly stressed upon physical accessibility forvulnerable groups such as infants and young children, elderlypeople, the physically disabled, the terminally ill andpersons with persistent medical problems, including thementally ill” and those affected by the natural disasters orwars.

Moreover, as was discussed in Chapter 2 under Tripartite approach, thestate parties are under an obligation to fulfil the right to foodparticularly where the individuals or groups lack the ability torealize the right to food themselves.

Given such a broad scope of the right to adequate food and state’sobligations, it may be difficult to comment on all aspects. But keyissues related to right to food and the civil society’sopinions/positions are discussed presently.

With respect to Pakistan, food insecurity has been increasing withpassage of every year and number of people suffering from under-nutrition and mal-nutrition is also on rise. The natural calamities,particularly series of recent floods, have further threatened the foodsecurity not only for the affected populations but also the long termsustainability of food security as the committee presents in itsgeneral comments. According to recent reports, 80 out of 113 districts(61% of the districts) in Pakistan are facing food insecurity.

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However, as per a 2003 report on food insecurity, 54 districts (or 45%districts) were declared as food secure. The SDPI-WFP report estimatedthat 48.6 percent, almost half of the population does not haveadequate food for healthy life.110 The report highlighted “intra andinter provincial” disparities in terms of food insecurity. FATA wasreported as highly food insecure where 67.7% population was withoutadequate food. Baluchistan is second highest in food insecurity with apercentage of 61.2. Islamabad is among the most food secure districts;but despite that 23.6% population is still food insecure. Thiscertainly reflects that state needs to promote the principle of non-discrimination. A recent report has indicated that 71% population inSindh is now food insecure. Seventeen percent of Sindh’s population isfood insecure with hunger.111 The 2011 National Nutrition Survey,however, indicates that 58.1% population in Pakistan is foodinsecure.112 But current WFP estimates indicate that 50% population isfood insecure, this amount about 83 million people.113 Whatever the foodsecurity, it becomes very clearly established that realization of theright to food is far cry in Pakistan.

In terms of access, the food is both physically and economicallyinaccessible in a number of districts as per the 2009 statistics. Interms of the food’s economic accessibility, tremendous inflation hasmade it difficult for the people to have adequate access to the food.As per the 2009 SDPI-WFP report, the spending on the food was about61.6% as compared to 55.6% in 2005 as per House Integrated EconomicSurvey (HIES) 2005-2006.114 The inequality in production anddistribution of the food systems makes the physical access a problem.

With respect to nutrition, the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2011reveals an alarming situation. The growth stunting rates for under-

110 SULERI, ABID Q. & HAQ, S. 2009. Food Insecurity in Pakistan. Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) & World Food Program.

111 MANSOOR, H. 2013. 71pc households in Sindh food insecure: report [Online]. Karachi. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/1028994/71pc-households-in-sindh-food-insecure-report [Accessed 7 January 2014].112 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2011. National Nutrition Survey. Ministry of Planning & Development, Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination, Government of Pakistan.113 PROGRAM, W. F. Food Insecure - Pakistan [Online]. Available: http://www.wfp.org/countries/pakistan/overview [Accessed 7 January 2014 2014].

114 PAKISTAN, G. O. Household Integrated Economic Survey 2005-06. In: STATISTIC, F. B. O. (ed.). Federal Bureau of Statistic, Government of Pakistan.cited in Food Insecurity in Pakistan report by SDPI-WFP.

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five population has increased to 44% in 2011 as compared to 42 in1980s – double the population under five is now suffering from growthstunting; 11.8 million in 2011 as compared to 6.35 under-five childrenin 1985.115 Zulfikar Bhutta, one of the key figures on health researchin Pakistan, states that "The fact that thousands of children wereaffected by an outbreak of measles in Sindh and southern Punjabprovinces reflects poor nutritional status”.116 He argues that scalingup of ten core nutritional components could help save around 1 millionchildren, reducing deaths of children under-five to 15%. Again thereare regional and urban-rural differences with respect to under-nutrition. For example, as per NNS, Sindh is amongst the most undernourished province. The province also has lowest calories intake andit corresponds to the malnutrition rates as well. Overall in Pakistan,average daily calories intake for adults is around 2400 calories andis well within the rage of minimum calorie requirement; yet nearlytwo-fifths of the households consumed less than 2,100kcal/day.117

Pakistan ranks 57 on Global Hunger Index 2013. Its score hascontinuously dropped since 1990 when it received a score of 25.9.Currently, Pakistan’s score is 19.2, a decline of 6.2.118

Civil society has expressed its grave concerns over the state of foodinsecurity and malnutrition in Pakistan. It considers that foodsecurity is essential for life and the state has ultimateresponsibility to make progressive plans to increase food security andalso to regulate food supply to make it more equitable. “You see asper statistics that food basket has been increasing and yet despitethat food insecurity is also increasing. This shows a lack ofcommitment on part of the state to regulate and ensure equitablesupply”, said a civil society member. The civil society also thinksthat government has to start programs to make production equitable. An

115 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2011. National Nutrition Survey. Ministry of Planning & Development, Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination, Government of Pakistan. figures cited inBHUTTA, Z. A., GAZDAR, H. & HADDAD, L. 2013a. Seeing the Unseen: Breaking the Logjam of Undernutrition in Pakistan. IDS Bulletin, 44, 1-9.

116 Nutrition drives can save Pakistani children, published in http://www.scidev.net/south-asia/health/news/nutrition-drives-can-save-pakistani-children.html (accessed on 13/9/2013); See also BHUTTA, Z. A., HAFEEZ, A., RIZVI, A., ALI, N., KHAN, A., AHMAD,F., BHUTTA, S., HAZIR, T., ZAIDI, A. & JAFAREY, S. N. 2013b. Reproductive, maternal, newborn, andchild health in Pakistan: challenges and opportunities. Lancet, 381, 2207-18.

117 Ibid Bhutta et al, IDS

118 2013b. GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX THE CHALLENGE OF HUNGER: BUILDING RESILIENCE TO ACHIEVE FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY. International Food Policy Research Institute, Walthungerhilfe, Concern Worldwise

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NGO member in Baluchistan said that “There is lack of agriculturalland; where it is available; there is shortage of water forirrigation. So government should provide opportunities to increaseproduction at local level along with ensuring food supply from otherparts of the country”. Moreover, the recent successes in improvingnutritional initiatives require government to initiate and sustainmore such programs.119

The issue in food security is not just with increasing production butalso with its affordability. In, The State of Food Security in Pakistan: FutureChallenges and Coping Strategies, Ahmad and Farooq argue that due to povertypeople lack capacity to buy “stable and non-stable” foot items.120 Theyargue that land holding, education and employment affects economicaccessibility of the households in the rural areas. This establishesthat for securing right to food such populations need facilitation notjust in the form of cash-for-food programs but also interlinked humanrights to education and employment.

Hence the civil society demands, that state should fulfil itsobligation for full realization of the right to food security byimproving food production, its distribution and also have positivemeasures to address issues of malnutrition and hunger across Pakistan.The civil society is concerned with malnutrition in Pakistan anddemands the state to pay urgent attention to the situation. Itbelieves that small interventions could help improve nutrition inPakistan.

Recommendations

Recognize right to food in the constitution of Pakistan asfundamental right.

Mechanisms for production, preservation and distribution of foodshould be improved through “conservation tillage, soil fertilitymanagement, soil and water conservation, water harvesting, andintegrated pest management”

Production should be promoted, where possible, across Pakistan. Food distribution system should be made more equitable by

ensuring that all groups across Pakistan have access to food.

119 Bhutta et al, IDS argue that programs like Tawana Pakistan have positive impact in improving nutrition among children in Pakistan. 120 AHMAD, M. & FAROOQ, U. 2010. The state of food security in Pakistan: future challenges and coping strategies. The Pakistan development review, 49, 903-923.

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Marginalized and poor sectors should be supported with food aidthrough state run food programs. This may include among otherscash for food grants, sustainable employment opportunities in acash based economy and initiatives like work for food grants.

Nutrition needs urgent attention and the state needs to startprograms to improve nutritional status, particularly among thechildren. School-food initiatives may be used to targetchildren’s nutrition and education concurrently.

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“A girl stands beside her house in a slum in Islamabad March 25,2013”121

7.2. Right to adequate HousingThe right to housing is considered an important part of the right toadequate standard of life and for “human dignity” and is recognizedunder article 11.1 of ICESCR.122 It is not merely a right to housing,where one might have a roof or so, but an adequate housing – UN CESCRclarifies: a place where one can live in “security, peace and121 Photo credit: The News; http://photos.thenews.com.pk/e_image_detail.asp?picId=70432&catId=2 accessed on 13/9/2013

122 It is also recognized in article 25 (1) of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, article 5 (e) (iii) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, article 14 (2) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, article 27 (3) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 10 of the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, section III (8) of the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements, 1976 (Report of Habitat: United Nations Conference onHuman Settlements (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.76.IV.7 and corrigendum), chap. I), article 8 (1) of the Declaration on the Right to Development and the ILO Recommendation Concerning Workers' Housing, 1961 (No. 115).

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dignity”.123 The committee has adopted the definition given by theCommission on Human Settlements and the Global Strategy for Shelter tothe Year 2000:

“Adequate shelter means ... adequate privacy, adequate space,adequate security, adequate lighting and ventilation, adequatebasic infrastructure and adequate location with regard to workand basic facilities - all at a reasonable cost"124

Further elaborating the adequacy of housing, the committee has laiddown following elements of the adequacy of housing/shelter:125

Legal Security of Tenure: This implies possible degree ofsecurity of tenure guaranteeing legal protection against “forcedeviction, harassment and other threats” regardless of the type ofthe tenure. The state parties are obligated to provideproper/formal legal tenure on immediate basis to those who arewithout such legal protection.

Availability of services, material, facilities andinfrastructure: This means that house/shelter should haveessential facilities related to “health, security, comfort andnutrition”; implying sustainable access and availability of“natural and common resources, safe drinking water, energy forcooking, heating and lighting, sanitation and washing facilities,means of food storage, refuse disposal, site drainage andemergency services”.

Affordability: It refers to bringing and maintaining the costsrelated to adequate housing within the income levels in such away that people have an adequate margin to pay for othernecessities of life. The state parties have obligation tointroduce subsidies for those who cannot afford and also havehousing finances available.

Habitability: The houses should be liveable; they should haveadequate space and protection from “cold, damp, heat, rain, windor other threats to health, structural hazards, and disease

123 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 4: The Right to Adequate Housing (Art. 11 (1) of the Covenant), 13 December 1991, E/1992/23 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/47a7079a1.html [Accessed 20 September2013].124 Ibid

125 Ibid

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vectors”. Housing should adhere to Health Principles of Housingby WHO.

Accessibility: Disadvantaged groups should have full andsustainable access to adequate housing; including but not limitedto the elderly, children, the physically disabled, the terminallyill, HIV-positive individuals, persons with persistent medicalproblems, the mentally ill, victims of natural disasters, peopleliving in disaster-prone areas”

Location: The adequate housing should be located at a place fromwhere it is easy to access one’s place of employment, health-careservices, schools and other necessary facilities.

Cultural adequacy: Housing policies should allow for expressionof cultural identity and diversity in the way houses are built.

The committee has also left room open for further defining adequacybased on “social, economic, cultural, climatic, ecological and otherfactors”.

Pakistan Living Standards Measurement Survey (PLSM) 2010-11, indicatesaround 86% of households possess their own houses in Pakistan, adecrease of 1% as compared to 2008-09.126 In rural areas morehouseholds, 91 percent, are owned houses as compared to urban areaswhere 76% have own dwellings. Regionally, there are subtledifferences: “Punjab at 86 percent (88 Percent in 2008-09), Sindh at84 percent (86 Percent in 2008-09), and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 87percent (88 Percent in 2008-09) and Baluchistan at 89 percent (87Percent in 2008-09)”. However, in Islamabad only 55% households livein their own houses whereas 36% live in rented houses. Yet it isimportant to mention that Pakistan’s housing needs increase at about270,000 per year. With this rate, the housing needs in Pakistan areestimated at around 7.5 million units.127 Moreover, the repeated cyclesof flooding have further increased the need for housing. In 2010floods alone, 1,744,471 houses were damaged and in 2011 floods another1.5 million houses were affected.128 Moreover, the figures from PSLM may

126 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2013c. Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2011-12.Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan.

127 UN-HABITAT AFFORDABLE LAND AND HOUSING IN ASIA.

128 NDMA. Pakistan 2010 Floods - Lessons Learnt [Online]. National Disaster Management Authority. Available: http://www.ndma.gov.pk/Documents/flood_2010/lesson_learned/Lessons%20Learned%20-%20Flood%202010.pdf [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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paint a glossy picture of the percentage of owned housing but does notelaborate on the adequacy of the houses according to the definedcriteria in the right to adequate housing discussed above. Theavailable data not indicate a uniform trend and often varies fromsource to source.

As per the HIES 2010-11, the average household size in Pakistan is6.38; whereas in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the averagehousehold size are 7.08 and 7.18.129 The PLSM data indicates that about24.83% population lives in one room houses, 69.33 lives in 2-4 roomhouses, and rest 5.84% in more than 5 room houses. Considering, theaverage household size of 6, it is safe to say that about 94%population does not have adequate housing. This is because a 4 roomhouse might not provide adequate housing space for 6 persons, or sevenas in the case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan. According toplanning commission, 3.3 people live per room in Pakistan based on1998 census.130 According to a report by Dr. Noman Ahmed “45 percentpopulation in urban Sindh and 50 percent in urban Punjab live in oneroom house”.131 Expanding on this, Arif Hasan shares that on average 7persons share a room in Karachi. Such conditions of course do not meetstated requirements of adequate housing.132 The PSLM outlines that 91%households across Pakistan have access to electricity for lighting.However, energy shortfall has made electricity supply erratic and manyareas in Pakistan suffer prolonged power cuts. While PSLM boasts thata vast population in Pakistan has access to water, including 31%having piped water, an independent assessment indicate that around 93million people do not have access to safe drinking water.

Moreover, the Food Security report by SDPI-WFP points out that morethan 50% household live in mud houses. According to the report, in 70percent of districts more than 50 percent houses are mud houses. Itfurther points that only in 5 districts, 80% population lives inbetter houses made of cement and concrete. Baluchistan with 28

129 PAKISTAN, G. O. Household Integrated Economic Survey 2010-11. Federal Bureau of Statistic, Government of Pakistan.

130 Chapter 13, Housing for All [Online]. Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan. Available: http://www.pc.gov.pk/mtdf/13-Housing/13-Housing%20for%20All%20final.pdf [Accessed 7 January 2014].131 AHMAD, N. AN OVERVIEW OF PRESENT HOUSING CRISIS IN PAKISTAN AND A WAY FORWARD [Online]. Available: http://www.urckarachi.org/Housing%20Situation%20by%20Noman%20Ahmed.pdf [Accessed 7 January 2014].132 Arif Hasan Talk at The Second Floor [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/562442/residents-displaced-by-circular-railway-should-be-settled-where-they-prefer-arif-hasan/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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districts, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with18 districts and Punjabwith 16 have high percentage of mud houses. So based on abovediscussions, it is safe to say that while apparently from governmentdata’s perspective a vast majority may have housing facilities, thesedo not meet the stated criteria of an adequate housing or shelter. Theprovided spaces are insufficient; there is lack of availability ofbasic facilities such as electricity and water.

The problem of housing, looking at available data, seems more severein urban areas where around 27 million people live in slums with noadequate housing and in many, if not the most, cases with insecuretenure. In Karachi alone, 7.6 million of 15 million population live inslums and informal houses – there are estimated 600-800 slum areas inKarachi. The total housing needs in urban areas were estimated at 2.5million (before floods).133 A leading cause for this is that as perestimates about two-thirds of people cannot afford houses in Pakistan.The housing conditions in urban areas are generally pathetic.According to Ahmed, “only 53 percent have access to a water source inurban Pakistan, not necessarily drinkable and 25 percent have accessto sanitation”.134 The operations of land mafias have made the situationworse in terms of meeting housing needs in Pakistan, particularly inurban areas. Most government and private housing schemes are targetedat affluent and middle classes. They also have options of availinghouse financing. The poor practically remain out of the housingfinance by and large. However, at the consultation in Hyderabad it wasshared that government data was misleading because in rural areas ofSindh a lot of people lack security of tenure. A participant commentedthat “feudal Waderas manipulate people in rural Sindh and snatch theirhouses”. “So while on paper people have houses, but in reality they donot own them and are at the mercy of the feudal”, another commented.

The civil society of Pakistan believes that government has by andlarge failed to help people realize the right to adequate housing. Italso believes after ratifying ICESCR it has increased obligations tomeet housing needs of its population. There is a need to make housingfacilities available especially for the poor people. Moreover, thosewho already have houses but are not adequate should be supported inupgrading their homes to make them adequate as per ICESCR’sprovisions.

133 AHMAD, N. AN OVERVIEW OF PRESENT HOUSING CRISIS IN PAKISTAN AND A WAY FORWARD [Online]. Available: http://www.urckarachi.org/Housing%20Situation%20by%20Noman%20Ahmed.pdf [Accessed 7 January 2014].

134 Ibid.

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Forced EvictionsAn important element in the above factors is protection from “forcedevictions”. The UN committee on ESC rights, in General Comment 7,135 hasspelled out freedom from forced evictions irrespective of the type oflegal tenure, and the state has the obligation to protect citizensfrom the forced evictions. General Assembly resolution 43/181 alsoobligates states: “protect and improve houses and neighbourhoods,rather than damage or destroy them". The resolution further recognizesthat “people should be protected by law against unfair eviction fromtheir homes or land”.136 The committee defines forced eviction as:

“the permanent or temporary removal against the will of individuals, families and/orcommunities from the homes and/or land which they occupy, without the provision of,and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection”137

The committee has elaborated upon evictions clarifying when they arein accordance with law and conforming to international human rights.138

The committee has, however, clarified, that forced evictions mayresult in violation of other rights including “the right to securityof the person, the right to non-interference with privacy, family andhome and the right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions”.Furthermore the committee has clarified that in cases of the forcedeviction, the state parties’ excuses based on article 2.1 of availableof resources will be irrelevant. Reading this provision in conjunctionwith article 17 of ICCPR 17.1, the committee asserts that withadequate alternatives, forced evictions are clear violation of humanrights and deviation from states’ obligations.139

Forced eviction is particularly evident in urban cities like Karachi,Lahore and Islamabad to name a few. Karachi where almost half of thepopulation lives in slums areas, the threats seem higher. Mostly theseevictions are a result of mega projects, land grabbing attempts andcommunal riots. Although there has been gradual slight decrease in theforced evictions, the low income communities still live in a state of

135 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 7: The right to adequate housing (Art.11.1): forced evictions, 20 May 1997, E/1998/22 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/47a70799d.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

136 Ibid.137 Ibid. para 3.138 "determined by law only insofar as this may be compatible with the nature of these [i.e. economic, social and cultural] rights and solely for the purpose of promoting the general welfarein a democratic society", General Comment 7, para 5139 General Comment 7, para 8.

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vulnerability. As per Mohammad Younus of Urban Resource Center,Karachi, since 2007 there has been no reported forced evictions inKarachi.140 However, he indicates that from 1992 to 2006, around “40,900houses have been bulldozed” and same resulted in evictions of 286,300people.141 The displaced communities were neither provided anycompensation nor any alternative housing. This is clearly a violationof the right to adequate housing and freedom from forced evictions asdiscussed before. As if evictions were not enough, the governmentagencies also threw out household items, damaging them in the process.In 2006 alone, government demolished about 3000 houses whose residentshad invested around 1.04 billion rupees in terms of the constructioncost. The subsequent protests by residents in many slums, supported byNGOs, political parties and other groups, forced evictions have beenstopped in the city. The human cost of these settlements is very high.The displaced communities mostly lose their jobs, either permanentlyor temporarily. Education of the children also suffers a great deal asindicated in the text box above.142

Similarly, in Islamabad, a wave of forced evictions was started by thegovernment targeting mostly slum areas. Islamabad houses about 0.8million population and 30% of these live in slums. Overall there are34 slum areas in Islamabad and of these only 11 are recognized by theCapital Development Authority. Forced evictions are widely practicedby CDA.143 Afghan Refugee Basti and Christian settlements haveparticularly been under the threat of forced eviction. As per areport, house of Karamat Maseeh, a Christian, was demolished 24 timesby CDA.144

A related issue of forced evictions also happens in cases of thedevelopment of mega projects like dams. As part of construction ofShahpur Dam, the Small Dams Organization (SDO) of Punjab Irrigationand Power Department had served 31 eviction notices to fishermenfamilies living around the proposed construction sites. This meantthat around 450-500 fisher folks were to be forcibly evicted depriving

140 YOUNUS, M. 2013. Pakistan: Forced evictions and socio-economic costs for vulnerable communities: An overview. Karachi: Urban Resource Center.

141 Ibid.142 Ibid.143 Shelter for Poor: Legislation and Enforcement, a case study of Islamabad. , Akhtar Hameed KhanResource Center 144 2010b. Right of Shelter in Katchi Abadies of Islamabad [Online]. http://www.ahkrc.net.pk/Right-of-Shelter-in-Katchi-Abadies-of-Islamabad.html. [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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them of their livelihoods and land on which they had lived for manyyears.145

Due to construction of mega projects like dams the threat of forcedeviction cannot be completely ruled out. For example, according toArif Hasan another 5000 houses are expected to be bulldozed for therevival of the circular railway system in Karachi.146 He also notes thatmany villages which were part of Karachi city have disappeared andmany more are fast disappearing.

Civil society opines that freedom from forced evictions should berespected and people, mostly poor people, should not bear the cost ofmega projects. Moreover, if the evictions become inevitable, then theresettlement plans should provide new housing facilities in nearbyvicinities. This will ensure that those who are affected do not haveto bear a huge cost of displacement and that the affected peoplecontinue to have access to livelihoods, healthcare, schooling andother facilities.

Recommendations Facilities should be increased for housing to provide everyone in

Pakistan the right to adequate housing. There is a particularneed to start services, including housing financing, for poorestof the poor sectors.

Upgrade services through finances and other means for those whohave inadequate housing.

Supply of necessary housing facilities such as water, sanitation,fuel and lightening should be promoted across all areas ofPakistan.

Forced evictions should be stopped. Where evictions areinevitable, resettlement should be provided in adjacent areas soas to reduce human cost of the evictions. Adequate compensationshould be provided to those affected by the evictions.

145 PAKISTAN: Forcible eviction of fisherfolks by a government organization in the name of so-called development [Online]. Asian Human Rights Commission. [Accessed 7 January 2014].

146 HASAN, S. Urban development: migration being forced on people [Online]. Daily Dawn. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/1027927/urban-development-migration-being-forced-on-people [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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7.3. Right to WaterAlthough article 11.1 of ICESCR does not explicitly mention the wordwater in it, the right to adequate water is considered an importantand integral part of it. UN CESCR, in its General Comment 15, on rightto water states that word “including” in article 11.1 means that allbasic needs of life are part of the adequate standards of life.147 Thecommittee affirms that right to water is indispensable for realizationof human rights and human dignity. It is indivisible as other rightssuch as right to life, right to food, right to health etc are alldependent on the right to water. In this way everyone is entitled toright to water, that is “sufficient, safe, acceptable, physicallyaccessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses”. Inaddition to this, the committee also asserts availability of the waterfor irrigation purposes. The right to water also includes obligationon states to prevent contamination of water from harmful elements suchindustrial waste. It also includes freedom from arbitrarydisconnection of water.

The committee considers that water may be required for variety ofreasons, to fulfil other rights; for example “water is necessary toproduce food (right to adequate food) and ensure environmental hygiene(right to health). Water is essential for securing livelihoods (rightto gain a living by work) and enjoying certain cultural practices(right to take part in cultural life)”.148 It asserts that priorityshould be given to water’s availability for personal and domestic usein order to avoid deaths and starvation. It also considers thatavailability of water for irrigation purposes is important as it is apre-requisite to access the right to food.

Defining the adequacy characteristics of water the committee notesthat “volumetric” and technological adequacy is not sufficient withregards to realization of right to water. So it sets the criteria as“availability”, “quality”, and “accessibility” as explained below:149

Availability: The quantity of the water should be availablecontinuously and sufficiently for various domestic and personaluses including “drinking, personal sanitation, washing of

147 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 15: The Right to Water (Arts. 11 and 12 of the Covenant), 20 January 2003, E/C.12/2002/1 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838d11.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

148 Ibid.149 Ibid. para 12, a, b, c, c.i, c.ii, c.ii, c.iv for discussion by the committee.

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clothes, food preparation, personal and household hygiene”. Theavailability should adhere to WHO’s guidelines for availabilityof water for person.150

Quality: Available water should be safe and free from “micro-organisms, chemical substances and radiological hazards thatconstitute a threat to a person’s health”. The “colour, odour andtaste” should be acceptable.

Accessibility: Water should be available without anydiscrimination to all ensuring following elements ofaccessibility:

o Physical Accessibility: Water, including water facilities,should be located in safe locations which are accessible toall population groups; while sufficient, safe and acceptablewater may be available within household or schoolvicinities. The facilities and water services must besufficient, “culturally appropriate and sensitive to gender”and meet “life-cycle” and privacy requirements.

o Economic Accessibility: Water facilities and services shouldbe affordable; the cost should not threaten the realizationof the right to water.

o Non-Discrimination: Water, including water facilities andservices, should be accessible to all, includingmarginalized groups, without any discrimination or legalprohibitions of any sort.

o Informational Accessibility: People should have freedom andright to “seek, receive and impart information concerningwater issues”. By way of explanation, this also implies thatpeople participate in formulation on national water plansand plan of actions.

Within the constitution of Pakistan, provision of water is recognizedunder article 38 under Principles of policy. The same articles dealswith other necessities of life as well.

150 See HOWARD, G. & BARTRAM, J. 2003. Domestic Water Quantity, Service Level and Health [Online]. World HealthOrganization. Available: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/WSH0302.pdf [Accessed 24 February 2014]. See also GLEICK, P. H. 1996. Basic Water Requirements for Human Activities: Meeting Basic Need. 21, 83-92.; cited in General Comment 15.

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Coming to the situation in Pakistan, the statistics reveal a ratherappalling situation with respect to right to adequate waterfacilities. Pakistan Living Standard’s Measurement Survey (PLSM) 2011-12 states that only 59% population has access to improved drinkingwater facilities. This means that a huge chunk of 41% does not havesuch facilities.151 As per WaterAid there are 15.9 million people inPakistan who do not have access to safe water and almost half of thepopulation, 93 million, lacks access to sanitation facilities.152

Diarrhoea, caused by drinking unsafe water, causes deaths of around40,000 children every year as almost 14 million have no choice but todrink dirty water. Another report suggest that 40 million Pakistanisuse irrigation water for domestic use and that almost half thepatients in hospital visit them with ailments related to water.153

Again there are regional disparities in terms of quality of wateravailable across various provinces in Pakistan. A 2005-6 NationalWater Quality Monitoring Program (NWQMP) survey by Pakistan Councilfor Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) shows that out of that 357sources tested, 87% were considered unsafe for drinking purpose due topresence of impurities such as bacteria(68%), arsenic (24%), nitrate (13%) andfluoride (5%).154 The survey reportfurther indicates that in Islamabad alone74% sources, out of 27 tested sources,were unsafe for drinking. In Sindh, allsources were found unsafe, in Karachi 93%sources were considered unfit fordrinking and in Sukkur 11 out of 12sources were unfit. In Punjab, 16 sourcestested in Kasur were found unsafe and asmany as 25 sources in Bahawalpur werefound unfit for drinking. For Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 80% samples were unsafe for

151 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2013c. Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2011-12.Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan.

152 Pakistan [Online]. WaterAid, Pakistan. Available: http://www.wateraid.org/where-we-work/page/pakistan [Accessed 7 January 2014].153 ALAM, A. R. Navigating the Currents of Pakistan’s Water Debate [Online]. Available: http://jinnah-institute.org/navigating-the-currents-of-pakistans-water-debate-2/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].154 RESOURCES, P. C. F. R. I. W. National Water Quality Monitoring Program (NWQMP) survey 2005-6 Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, Ministry of Science & Techonology, Government of Pakistan.

“Sindh and Punjab the mainbeneficiaries of the river watersystem are the main contendersand are in hot debate forunequal water distribution. Sindhsituated in lower part blamesPunjab for using most of thewater. The remaining provincesof Balochistan and KhyberPakhtunkhwa are out of thecontest as they receive very littleamount of the available water.The dilemma is when the samerivers are flooded; the floodwater is channeled towardsBalochistan, which is deprived of

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drinking in Mingora whereas in Peshawar 77% sources were unsafe. InBaluchistan, 76% samples were found to be unsafe in Quetta and inZiarat all ten sources were unfit. The report concludes that federaland provincial governments need to make immediate efforts forproviding safe drinking water to public in order to prevent outbreakof water borne diseases.

Another study by PCRWR shows that in terms of rural areas, Punjab hasthe best water supply sources as only 7% rural population depends upondug wells, canals or other such sources. The situation is the worst inKhyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan where 46% urban and 72% of therural population, respectively uses unsafe water sources. Ascomparison, in Sindh 24% population uses unsafe drinking waterfacilities.155

Water facilities in Pakistan suffer from variety of contaminationsources. The major source of contamination are bacteria. This is aresult of “leakage of pipes, pollution from sewerage pipes due toproblem within the distribution system, intermittent water supply, andshallow water tables due to human activities”.156 Industrial waste andirrigated water are the second most common reasons behind thecontamination of water in Pakistan. These conditions require the stateto pay attention to making such water facilities safer.

In terms of availability of sufficient water (quantity) Pakistan isfast becoming a water scarce country. The per capita wateravailability has diminished rapidly. Currently, 1100 cubic water isavailable per capita157 as compared to 1200 cubic water in 2003 and 5600cubic water in 1950s.158 With such shrinking water resources accompaniedby uncontrolled increase in population, the distribution of waterresources becomes an even bigger challenge.

A relevant dimension of right to water is irrigation water which isdistributed across Pakistan through the rivers and canals. There arehuge political and social tensions surrounding such distribution as155 2011a. No access to safe drinking water in pakistan [Online]. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/683780/no-access-to-safe-drinking-water-in-pakistan [Accessed 7 January 2014].

156 HABIB, A., BUTT, M. T. B., DEEBA, F. & AHMED, I. 2009. A STUDY FOR THE REMOVAL OF BACTERIOLOGICAL CONTMEMINANTION FROM GROUNDWATER OF KASUR Journal of Scientific Research, XXXIX.157 SHAH, S. 2012. THE HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER: ITS PROVISION AND VIOLATION IN PAKISTAN. Policy Brief. Institute for Social Policy & Understanding.158 KHAN, F. J. & JAVED, Y. 2007. Delivering Access to Safe Drinking Water and Adequate Sanitationin Pakistan. Working Paper. Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

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the system suffers from inequitable distribution among and withinprovinces. Farmers in Sindh have been voicing their concerns forunavailability of water for irrigation purposes for many areas.Baluchistan remains highly deprived of irrigation water too.Interprovincial water distribution dispute have acquired space innational level debates. The new water distribution policy has beentermed unjust as well.159

The civil society believes that water is an essential component ofhuman life and a basic need for various domestic, personal andeconomic uses. In this connection the lack of safe water resources isof grave concern. A civil society activist in Baluchistan showedconcerns on unavailability of safe water in the province as comparedto other parts of the Pakistan and said that “If we talk aboutBaluchistan the areas near the Afghan border city of Chaman, the watercontains large quantity of minerals that at times causes kidney stone.Water systems in District Jafferabad and the adjoining areas aremostly dependent on rain water. People and animals use water fromponds created by rain water. These ponds are one of the causes ofdiseases. Water from wells is mostly hard water which is not suitablefor drinking and cleaning purpose”. Similarly, another civil societyactivist from Baluchistan showed concern on lack of availability ofirrigation water. He stated that “In Baluchistan, the main source ofwater is tube-well. But for the same we need electricity; the erraticsupply of electricity makes it impossible to irrigate our lands”. Hefurther added that “on average people need about 12 hours ofelectricity supply to properly irrigate their lands; but theelectricity supply in many areas is only 1-2 hours”. Again thisreflects upon the discrimination and disparity in distribution ofresources and, and thus a violation of ESCR.

With respect to riverine water, the civil society in Sindh raisedconcerns about shortage of quantity of water in River Indus. Theshortage not only affects the agriculture sector in Sindh but it alsocauses sea erosion in coastal areas. The sea erosion affectslivelihoods and other social aspects as people are day by day forcedto displace. Civil society members in the consultation at Hyderabad

159 Leghari submits notice in Senate for water rights [Online]. Daily The News. Available: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-25408-Leghari-submits-notice-in-Senate-for-water-rights [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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demanded that sufficient quantity of water be ensured for Indus riverso that it also helps stop sea erosion.

The civil society believes that the state has to take positive stepsto make safe water available to all in all parts of the countrywithout any discrimination. The civil society has also made demandsfor making irrigation water available to all and making thedistribution mechanism for the water more equitable with respect toirrigation water. Moreover, the civil society also stressed the needfor taking stronger measures to protect river waters fromcontamination by various industries.

Recommendations

Recognize the right to water in the constitution. Provincesshould follow suits by enacting primary legislation, rules andallocate adequate budgets.

Safe water should be made available to all people of Pakistanacross all regions.

There is need to improve quality of water by making it more safe.This should be done by 1) by making water sources safe 2) whereneed be raise awareness raising on making water safe throughcleaning procedures.

Increase the water sources with particular attention to the aridzones across the country.

Equitable system of distribution of water should be devised forboth domestic, personal and irrigation use.

Relevant stakeholders and communities should be consulted forimproving the water sector.

Sufficient quantity of water is maintained in River Indus to stopsea erosion in coastal area.

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8. Right to Social Security Social Security is an important aspect in any society. Article 9 ofthe ICESCR recognizes this as a basic economic and social right ofevery citizen. The article says, ‘the States Parties to the presentCovenant recognize the right of everyone to social security, includingsocial insurance’. This article makes it quite clear that states partyto the covenant should make arrangements both for social security andsocial insurance.

The comments of the Committee on ICESCR further elaborate the measuresnecessary for realization of this right. These measures, according tothe general comment on social security can include:160

Contributory or insurance-based schemes such as social insuranceas explicitly mentioned in article 9 itself. It may involve“compulsory contributions from beneficiaries, employers and,sometimes, the State, in conjunction with the payment of benefitsand administrative expenses from a common fund”.

Non-contributory schemes can be universal or targeted schemes.Universal schemes provide benefit in principle to everyone atrisk or contingency. The targeted schemes are focusedparticularly on the groups most in need. The committee considersthat states should have non-contributory schemes as it may not bepossible that everyone could be covered through contributoryschemes.

Though this article consists of a single sentence but it is very broadin scope and application. Thus the committee on ESCSR has furtherprovided guidelines for implementation of social security mechanism.Again while defining the content of the right, the committee considersfollowing important aspects:

160 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 19: The right to social security (Art. 9 of the Covenant), 4 February 2008, E/C.12/GC/19 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/47b17b5b39c.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

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Availability: The social security services, in form of single ormultiple schemes should be available and implemented for benefitthe benefit of people facing relevant social risk or contingency.The system should be available on sustainable basis for presentand future generations.

Social Risk and Contingency: The Committee considers that socialsecurity system be based on the following nine principles:161

1. Health care 2. Sickness benefits for those who have long term ailments and

thus cannot work. 3. Old age benefits for older people as may be defined by the

national laws and local conditions. 4. Unemployment benefits to support those who lose their work

or are unable to sustain their work. 5. Employment injury benefits in case people get injured during

work. 6. Family and child support 7. Maternity leave and support8. Disability support9. Support for Survivors and orphans

Adequacy: The committee considers that all social securityservices should be adequate and sufficient as they may covernecessities or help meet the adequate standards of life.

Accessibility: On the issue of right to social security,accessibility includes:

o Coverage: All persons should be covered by the social securitysystem, especially individuals belonging to the mostdisadvantaged and marginalized groups

o Eligibility: Qualifying conditions for benefits must bereasonable, proportionate and transparent

o Affordability: If a social security scheme requirescontributions, those contributions should be stipulated inadvance

161 ibid.

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o Participation and information: Beneficiaries of socialsecurity schemes must be able to participate in theadministration of the social security system

o Physical access: Benefits should be provided in a timelymanner and beneficiaries should have physical access to thesocial security services in order to access benefits andinformation, and make contributions where relevant

o Workers inadequately protected by social security : Thecommittee also urges the states parties to the covenant thatthey should take steps to the maximum of their availableresources to ensure that the social security systems coverworkers inadequately protected by social security, includingpart-time workers, casual workers, the self-employed andhomeworkers.

In addition to these broader categories, the committee also includesfollowing in the social security right

Indigenous Peoples and Minority Groups

Non-nationals (including migrant workers, refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons)

Internally displaced persons and internal migrants

The article and its various explanations and interpretations make itquite clear that the scope of this right is very vast and is notlimited to some fixed categories.

The right to social security has been recognized in the Constitutionof Pakistan under article 38 which actually deals with promotion ofsocial and economic well-being of the people. Thus the article reads;

“The State shall- (c) provide for all persons employed in the service of Pakistan orotherwise, social security by compulsory social insurance or othermeans;”

However, this article is not comprehensive enough to cover all aspectsof social security as stipulated in the article 9 of the ICESR.

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However, this clause of the constitution is the basis of socialsecurity schemes in the country.

With mounting international pressure, Pakistan has adopted theNational Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) to express its commitmentsocial security. However, a research study states that historicallyPakistan has addressed social security on adhoc basis catering to someaspects of the social security rather than adopting full fledgepackage of social security schemes.162 There are multiple long-standingprogrammes available in the country. There are programs and schemesthat entirely provide benefits to existing or former members of theformal labour force such as the Workers Welfare Fund or the EmployeesOld-Age Benefits Institutions (EOBI). Other schemes include the Zakatand Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) interventions and the newly introducedflagship cash transfer intervention, Benazir Income Support Programme(BISP).163

According to a study named, A Profile of Social Protection in Pakistan, allexisting social security schemes are in the formal sector of theeconomy and designed for employed labour force and retirees. Theseschemes generally provide benefits regarding contingencies ofsickness, invalidity, maternity, old age, and work related injury.164

In addition to these programs, there are number of micro financeprograms which provide loans with easy instalments.

However, according to the paper the empirical studies on socialprotection in Pakistan emphasize the following weaknesses:

• Lack of coordination among execution authorities• Design fault in various schemes• Corruption and embezzlement• Inadequate cash or in-kind assistance• Low coverage• High administrative costs• Program overlap and duplication• Poor or no targeting mechanism• Political interference and bureaucratic malfeasance

162 JAMAL, H. 2010. A PROFILE OF SOCIAL PROTECTION IN PAKISTAN: AN APPRAISAL OF EMPIRICAL LITERATURE. Research Paper. Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC).

163 Ibid.164 Ibid.

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• Lack of monitoring and supervision165

The same paper points out that the benefits of second categories(purely designed for the poor) have not been as encouraging. Thereport says that most studies point to significant gaps when answeringthis question.

The regulation of the existing social security services can be judgedfrom the fact that 1.5 million workers in Pakistan have access tosocial security out of a 59 million strong labour force, as perPakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).166 According to the report, thereare 54,668 firms registered in Punjab and 834,240 employees receivecontributions for social security benefits for such firms i.e. only15.26 employees per firm. Likewise, out of total 25,667 registeredfirms in Sindh, 628,137 employees receive contributions. This is about24.27 per firm. This is shocking as according to the PBS the estimatelabour force in formal sector is about 15.163 million but only handfulare receiving contributions from the employees. Similarly, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the average estimate for employees receivingcontributions is 14.12 employees per firm for the 4,412 firms, meaningonly 65,415 employees receive contributions. For Baluchistan, 8579employees are receiving contributions from 291 registered firms. Thenational average per firm is 18.18 employees receiving contributionsfrom their employing firms.167

This is the state of the formal sector. With respect to informalsector, it would not be an exaggeration to state that there is hardlyany social security system.

Coming to the state run social security systems, like BISP, variouscivil society reports point out the short comings and issues withinthe process through which the beneficiaries are identified. Theprocess is marred by favouritism on the basis of politicalaffiliation. This indicates that discrimination may be widespread in165 ibid.

166 The Study use data from Labour force survey 2010-11, as per which the labour participationrate is 32.1%, which means that based on estimated population of 185 million, 59.3 million areactive in the job market. AHMAD, M. 2013. Only 1.56 million workers have access to social security [Online]. TheNews. Available: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-194177-Only-156-million-workers-have-access-to-social-security [Accessed 7 January 2014].

167 Ibid.

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such processes. The non-discrimination principle of ICESCR requiresthat such programs to be grounded on merit and need.

The civil society believes that the state not only has to increase theoptions for the social security system but it also needs to reform theexisting systems to make them more equitable and non-discriminatory.There is a need to establish transparent and accountable mechanismsaiming to end corruption and embezzlements in such schemes. Thegovernment also needs to improve the regulation in the formal/privatesector for implementation of the social security system. The coverageshould reach to the maximum number of people working in the system.

Recommendations

Recognize social security as a fundamental right in theconstitution

Conduct proper assessment of social security situation toestablish clear needs.

Introduce insurance schemes for vulnerable groups

Introduce regulations and programs to provide social security topersons working in informal sector similar to formal sector.

Introduce schemes to provide social security schemes tounemployed, disabled, older persons and to women headedhouseholds

Take progressive measures to enhance social security andinsurance to all citizens.

9. Right to Culture Article 15 of the ICESCR recognizes the right to take part in culturallife (15.1.a). It also entitles everyone to enjoy benefits from“scientific progress and its applications” (15.1.b) and guaranteesbenefits from any “moral and material interest” as result of“scientific, literary or artistic production” (15.1.c). The article15.2 obligates states to take necessary steps for full realization ofthe right and such steps may include “those necessary for the

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conservation, the development and the diffusion of science andculture”.

The right to culture also includes freedom to take part in culturallife. So it involves both negative and positive obligations on thestate. By the way of the negative obligations, the state has toabstain from “interference with the exercise of cultural practices andwith access to cultural goods and services”. Through positiveobligations, the state has to ensure “preconditions for participation,facilitation and promotion of cultural life, and access to andpreservation of cultural goods”.168

While defining the culture, the UN CESCR has interpreted it not“hermetic” but flexible; it defines culture as encompassing:

“ways of life, language, oral and written literature, music andsong, non-verbal communication, religion or belief systems, ritesand ceremonies, sport and games, methods of production ortechnology, natural and man-made environments, food, clothing andshelter and the arts, customs and traditions through whichindividuals, groups of individuals and communities express theirhumanity and the meaning they give to their existence, and buildtheir world view representing their encounter with the externalforces affecting their lives. Culture shapes and mirrors the valuesof well-being and the economic, social and political life ofindividuals, groups of individuals and communities”169

Clarifying the underpinnings of the words “right to participate” or“take part” in cultural life, the committee considers that it includesfollowing aspects of participation or taking part:

Participation: This implies that people, as individuals or groupor community, can freely choose an identity or change it, engagein cultural practices and express in language of choice. It alsomeans that individuals and/or groups/communities are entitled tothe right to “seek and develop cultural knowledge and expressionsand to share them with others, as well as to act creatively andtake part in creative activity”.

168 Paragraph 6 of UN-CESCR. General comment no. 21, Right of everyone to take part in cultural life (art. 15, para. 1a of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), 21 December 2009, E/C.12/GC/21 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4ed35bae2.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

169 Ibid.para 13

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Access: Individuals, groups or communities, are entitled to “knowand understand his or her own culture and that of others througheducation and information, and to receive quality education andtraining with due regard for cultural identity”. This furtherentails that everyone has right to learn about “forms ofexpression and dissemination” and it may involve any medium. Theentitlement further includes that individuals, groups orcommunities are free to “follow a way of life associated with theuse of cultural goods and resources such as land, water,biodiversity, language or specific institutions, and to benefitfrom the cultural heritage and the creation of other individualsand communities”.

Contribution to cultural development: This means that everyone isfree to contribute to cultural development, either alone or asgroup, this may involve creation for “spiritual, material,intellectual and emotional expressions of the community” and alsoin “the definition, elaboration and implementation of policiesand decisions that have an impact on the exercise of a person’scultural rights”.

Furthermore, the committee has also defined the elements of thecultural life as a normative framework for the right to cultureinclude availability, accessibility, acceptability, adaptability and appropriateness.These elements of cultural life, as part of the right to culture aredefined as under:

Availability means that cultural goods and services are open toeveryone and they may enjoy and take benefit from such (cultural)services. Of all the cultural goods, one of special value is theproductive intercultural kinship that arises where diversegroups, minorities and communities can freely share the sameterritory. These services and goods may include “libraries,museums, theatres, cinemas and sports stadiums; literature,including folklore, and the arts in all forms; the shared openspaces essential to cultural interaction, such as parks, squares,avenues and streets; nature’s gifts, such as seas, lakes, rivers,mountains, forests and nature reserves, including the flora andfauna found there, which give nations their character andbiodiversity; intangible cultural goods, such as languages,customs, traditions, beliefs, knowledge and history, as well as

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values, which make up identity and contribute to the culturaldiversity of individuals and communities”

Accessibility means “effective and concrete” facilities areaccessible physically and financially to individuals andcommunities in both rural and urban areas without anydiscrimination of any kind. The accessibility of older personsand persons with disabilities is given a particular focus alongwith others, like those living in poverty. Such groups should befacilitated in accessing cultural facilities. It also entailsthat “the right of everyone to seek, receive and shareinformation on all manifestations of culture in the language ofthe person’s choice”. Access also means expression anddissemination.

Acceptability means that “laws, policies, strategies, programmesand measures adopted by the State party for the enjoyment ofcultural rights” as formulated and implemented by state areacceptable to everyone. For such matters consultations should beheld with concerned groups.

Adaptability means that cultural diversity of individuals andcommunities must be respected by the states and in this regards,“strategies, policies, programmes and measures adopted by theState party in any area of cultural life” must be flexible andrelevant.

Appropriateness to culture is part of many other rights aselaborated in the committee and also discussed in this paper.This “refers to the realization of a specific human right in away that is pertinent and suitable to a given cultural modalityor context, that is, respectful of the culture and culturalrights of individuals and communities, including minorities andindigenous peoples”.

While the committee has elaborated in detail such important elementsof the right to culture, the committee is also of the view that rightto culture is subject to reasonable limitations under the law. Suchlimitations may be related to negative practices across cultures whichinfringe upon realization and exercise of other human rights.170

170 General Comment 21, para 19

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Again the scope of the right to culture, like many other rights ofICESCR, is too broad. The lack of data limits analysis on each andevery part of the right to culture with respect to situation inPakistan. However, some key trends and issues are discussed. Such lackof data, nonetheless, highlights the need for stakeholders to pay moreattention to right to culture in Pakistan.

The right to culture, based on ICESCR, is partly recognized underarticle 28 of the Constitution of Pakistan. It reads:

“Subject to Article 251 any section of citizens having a distinctlanguage, script or culture shall have the right to preserve andpromote the same and subject to law, establish institutions forthat purpose.”171

The situation in Pakistan with regards to right to take part incultural life is worsening day by day. Two factors are very muchpertinent in such situation. First and foremost the historic role ofstate in not respecting the cultural diversity and secondly thereligious extremism and terrorism have put serious limitations on thefreedom to exercise and take part in cultural life.

Historically, the state of Pakistan since its creation has not beenopen to cultural diversity. This is evident from the fact that thoughthe federal units were very much diverse in cultural practices andlanguages, Urdu and English were imposed upon them as national andofficial languages. Except for Sindhi language, no other language ofpresent day Pakistan is even officially declared a provincial officiallanguage. Such narrow policies with regards to language have resultedin many social and political conflicts within Pakistan. One of theprecursors of Bangladesh’s movement of separation was denial by stateto accept Bengali as one of the official languages. Even today, theethnic and language diversity is not very well accepted in Pakistan.According to UNESCO, 28 languages in Pakistan are in danger of dyingout soon.172 One of the causes of such situation is that the state hasnot allowed any other medium of instruction apart from Urdu or English

171 Article 28, Fundamental Rights, Constitution of Pakistan 1973.

172 ALI, M. 2012a. Battle of survival: Watching the tongues slip into extinction [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/339414/battle-of-survival-watching-the-tongues-slip-into-extinction/ [Accessed 7 January 2014]. See Also: UNESCO. Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger [Online].UNESCO. Available: http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php?hl=en&page=atlasmap&cc2=MD [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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in most parts of the country despite the demands from various culturalgroups to respect their languages and promote them through education.

As the terrorism supported by religious extremists became widespreadin Pakistan, it also consequently has had an impact on the freedom toexercise the right to culture. There have been attacks on shrines,mosques, Imam Bargahs, churches and religious places of other groups.A report by The Friday times indicates that about 25 shrines wereattacked across the country during 2005 and 2012.173 Bomb blasts onshrines of famous Sufi saints like, Daata Darbar in Lahore and BabaFareed in Punjab are few of such cases in point. Similarly, there havebeen attacks on the shrine of Rahman Baba in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.Shrines of Sufi saints Sheikh Nisa Baba and Sheikh Bahadur Baba werealso attacked in Khyber agency. The terrorists also murdered BaisiBaba, the caretaker of a shrine in Khyber Agency.174 Similarly, inLahore, terrorists attacked the worship place of Ahmedia community inMay 2010. This involved killing of 86 persons and another 150,including children, were injured.175 In a similar event, some terroristsdesecrated graves of the Ahmedia communities. All these incidentshighlight that attacks have also impacted cultural practices ofvarious cultural groups of Pakistan, basically limiting their freedomto exercise their right to culture.

Religious extremism and terrorism has also impacted on various formsof arts in Pakistan. Music and theatre have particularly beenaffected. Musical concerts have been reduced and mostly are conductedwith selected and limited audience. Popular folk singers have beentargeted by the terrorists, particularly in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Afamous Pashto singer Ghazala Javed was murdered in Peshawar in June2008. Also in 2008, four bombs were blasted near Al-Hamara ArtsComplex when the World Performing Arts Festival was in progress.176

The rising wave of terrorism is also believed to have promotednegative stereotypes, and hatred, towards certain groups in Pakistan.For example, a participant in an interview commented that “people with

173 REHMAN, Z. U. Attacks on Sufi shrines signify new conflict in Pashtun lands [Online]. The Friday Times. Available: http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120203&page=3 [Accessed 7 January 2014].

174 Ibid.175 JAJJA, S. 2013. Three years on, no justice for 86 dead Ahmadis [Online]. Daily Dawn. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/1014484/three-years-on-no-justice-for-86-dead-ahmadis [Accessed 7 January 2014].176 2010a. Infocus: Paradise lost [Online]. Daily Dawn. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/859733/infocus-paradise-lost [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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beard or traditional clothes are often seen in cities as terrorists”.So the manifestation or expression of culture through attire also getsaffected.

Similarly, upper Sindh has been home to tribal conflicts since aboutearly 1980s. The perpetual cycles of tribal conflicts have impactedthe life of the affected communities in at least 8 districts of theSindh. Not only education, health and other rights are affected, butpeople have been unable to openly and freely practice their culture. Astudy found out that even the marriage and funeral ceremonies are doneas low key affairs.177

Commenting on the situation, the civil society expresses its deepestconcerns on the way various cultural communities and activities inPakistan are being treated and the impacts from the terrorist waves. Acivil society organization member said that “almost all local musicindustry in Swat and other parts of the area has vanished as localmusicians and artists have been targeted systematically by extremists,many have been killed and some have moved to other safer areas”. So itis not just culture or music which suffers but livelihood and hencethe right to work suffers also. Another civil society member remarked,“it is very unfortunate because when art and music are non-existent ina society then society can become more radicalized”. Similarly,another cultural critic and academic in Lahore shared that “thetargets on Sufi Shrines and religious minorities has impacted theirright to exercise their culture and religion”. He added that “thiswill shrink the space for cultural diversity in Pakistan”.

A participant from Baluchistan commented that power politics givingrise to competition between provinces has led to hatred towards eachother’s culture. He expressed that “Pakistan being a multiculturalstate is inhabited by people belonging to different races anddiversified cultures. Political instability has triggered a powerstruggle among provinces and within the provinces as well. This powerstruggle has led to hatred among masses of different cultures. Heemphasized that state and society at large have to play a role topromote respect of each culture irrespective of political andreligious leanings.

With regards to its position on the right to culture, the civilsociety has opined that the state has to first of all open itself to177 See MIRBAHAR, H. N. 2012. Tribal Trouble: Economic, Social and Cultural Impact of conflicts innorth Sindh Research Studies. Bhittai Social Watch and Advocacy / Oxfam Novib.

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cultural diversity and then also make positive policies for promotingthis cultural diversity in Pakistan. A woman human rights activist inKhyber-Pakhtunkhwa said that “the state must stop the repression oncultures and embrace all cultures in true spirit of democraticculture”. She stressed the need to recognize all languages as officiallanguages and also promote them. The civil society also believes thatall languages should be taught in the regions where they are spoken atleast. Likewise, the civil society has also stressed the need forstate to protect cultural and religious places like shrines, mosques,temples and churches etc from attacks by the terrorists. The artistsfrom various fields should also be protected from threats.

Recommendations The civil society has made following recommendations with regards toright to culture:

State must recognize, promote and protect cultural diversity inPakistan. State should promote respect for various culturesprevailing in Pakistan through education and increasinginteraction among the people.

All languages in Pakistan should be protected and promoted. Allmajor Pakistani languages must be made official and nationallanguages. The Pakistani languages should be taught in schoolswithin their respective areas.

Cultural places such as Shrines, mosques, temples, heritagessites and other such places should be provided adequateprotection by the states.

State should take positive measures for promoting arts of variouskinds and reviving a culture of theatre, concerts and so on.Artist from various fields should be provided security.

10. ESC Rights of Vulnerable Groups Article 2 of the ICESCR articulates the principle for non-discrimination and obligates states to ensure that all individualsirrespective of their sex, colour, race or any other social status areable to exercise rights enshrined in ICESCR without anydiscrimination. The UN CESCR has stressed the need for non-discrimination and paying attention to vulnerable/marginalized groupsin its various general comments, including on right to food, right tohealth, right to water etc, as discussed in various precedingchapters. In this connection, this chapter specifically highlights therights of vulnerable groups with special focus on persons with

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disabilities, women and girls, religious minorities and transgendergroups.

10.1. ESC Rights of Persons with Disabilities The legal framework for the ESC rights of the persons withdisabilities could be drawn from UDHR, ICESCR and Convention on theRights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).178 ICESCR does not specifypersons with disability but the non-discrimination articles requirethat no discrimination is done regardless of the status of theindividual. Furthermore, the Committee through its general comment 5has elaborated on obligations pertaining to persons with disabilitiesunder ICESCR.179 As Pakistan has ratified the CRPD as well, theobligations stem both from the ICESCR and CRPD. Therefore, theanalysis and discussion here is presented in light of both theconvention; as they are interrelated and indivisible. The committeehas interpreted all the rights of ICESCR have having obligations totake special positive measures to focus on inclusion of the personswith disabilities on equal basis, without any discrimination.

Although in late 1970s, Pakistan was quite progressive in promotionand protection of rights of persons with disabilities, it ratified theConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities only in July2011.180 The country had its first legislation for protection of therights of persons with disabilities in form of Disabled Persons'(Employment and Rehabilitation) Ordinance 1981.181 The act was mainly topromote rehabilitation and employment for the persons withdisabilities.

While the CRPD recognizes persons with disabilities as having the samehuman rights as declared in the Universal Declaration of Human

178 ASSEMBLY, U. G. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly, 24 January 2007, A/RES/61/106 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/45f973632.html [Accessed7 January 2014].

179 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 5: Persons with Disabilities, 9 December 1994, E/1995/22 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838f0.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].180 2011c. Pakistan ratifies the CRPD [Online]. International Disability Alliance. Available: http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/en/article/pakistan-ratifies-crpd [Accessed 25/01 2011].181 Thanks to Dictator General Zia who had a daughter with some kind of disability

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Rights,182 the ordinance183 discriminately defines disability as “aperson who, on account of injury, disease or congenital deformity, ishandicapped for undertaking any gainful profession or employment in order to earnhis/her livelihood, and includes a person who is blind, deaf, physicallyhandicapped or mentally retarded.”184 The National Disability policy185

also defines disability discriminately: “Disability” means the lack ofability to perform an activity in a manner that is considered to be normal”.186

All disability rights debate is done around the “social theory” aspectof disability which considers that human beings have impairments butthey are disabled when society does not give them adequateopportunities to perform the so called normal life.187 Such definitionsare completely against this theory and the entire disability rightsmovement which was instrumental in recognition of rights of personswith disability and of course the provisions of the CRPD which havenon-discrimination at its core.

In 2002, Pakistan formulated the National Policy for Persons withDisabilities. This is first proper comprehensive policy in the countrywhich covers varying issues related to education, employment, and thewelfare of people with disabilities. A National Commission has beensetup to look after the needs of the persons with disabilities. Thepolicy does a great deal in terms of addressing some of the issuesrelated to persons with disabilities.

However, under the article 4 of CRPD, the state governments haveresponsibilities to ensure that provisions of the CRPD are promotedthrough all the policies and legislations of the country. In thisregard, though Pakistan has special legislation and policies forpersons with disabilities, the policies and legislations in general,such as Women Protection Bill, Youth Policy and so on and so forth,182 KAYESS, R. & FRENCH, P. 2008. Out of Darkness into Light? Introducing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Human Rights Law Review, 8, 1-34.

183 1981. DISABLED PERSONS' (EMPLOYMENTAND REHABILITATION) ORDINANCE1981.

184 Emphasis ours

185 PAKISTAN 2002. NATIONAL POLICY FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES. In: EDUCATION, M. O. S. W. A. S. (ed.). Islamabad: Islamabad.

186 Emphasis ours

187 Kayess & French 2008

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lack inclusiveness with regards to needs of the persons withdisabilities. The CRPD, further says in article 4.3, that persons withdisability would be made part of all the legislation and policy makingwork, whether related to implementation of CRPD or otherwise. However,in recent policy making process, like the National Women CommissionBill, the members of the committee did not include persons withdisabilities as its members. Nor did the committee hold anyconsultations with the persons with disabilities. The NationalCommission on the Status of Women, which is strengthened under thisBill, does not include any persons with disabilities on its board oras consultative members.188

However, in order to facilitate greater employment of the persons withdisabilities, 2.5% job quota has been created in all the governmentjobs in Pakistan under the Employment and Rehabilitation Ordinance.While it may be beneficial to promote such quotas, the disabled rightsactivists in Pakistan do not consider it equal treatment as specifiedunder CRPD and ICESCR. CRDPD and ICESCR both require equality and non-discrimination in all affairs. As one of leading activist on thedisability puts it “we don’t talk about quota for the persons withdisabilities, we want equality”.

Currently, disabled persons not only face stigma and discrimination inthe society, but there are issues of accessibility to education,employment, social and cultural spheres of the life. There are only 16buildings, mostly in the capital city of Islamabad, which areaccessible for disabled persons.189 Therefore, the government needs tocreate and promote a barrier-free society for the persons withdisabilities.

The current data, mainly provided by the Census of 1998, coverslimited disabilities. The census showed only 2.5% persons withdisability whereas a WHO survey had showed 10% population withdisabilities. This was probably because a wider definition ofdisability was used by WHO. Therefore there is a need to for a surveywhich covers broader range of disabilities to inform the planning andpolicy development work. This would also help guide the resourcesharing and utilization plans developed by the government for the188 STEP 2009. Pakistan Disability Framework. Special Talent Exchange Program.

189 Ibid.

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disabled. For example, as per 1998 census, persons with disabilitiesaccount for about 2.5% of the total population; keeping this in view,the government established 2.5% quota in jobs. However, if the WHOsurvey had been used the quota would/should have been 10%.

So far in Pakistan, we have separate education for persons withdisabilities. This is deemed against the equal treatment and non-discrimination recommendation of ICESCR and CRPD. Therefore, for theirproper mainstreaming it is important that government promotesinclusive education and equips the existing educational facilitieswith assistive devices and make them accessible for the persons withdisabilities as well.

Currently, there is no specific ministry or department that deals withthe disability sector. The issues of persons with disability are dealtby Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education. Therefore, thereis need to create a separate ministry which is run by and for thepersons with disabilities.

There are very few rehabilitation and physiotherapy services availablein Pakistan. This is a severe issue especially in rural and remoteareas where around 60% of disabled population lives.190 Most disabledpersons also live under poverty; therefore there are issues ofaffordability with regards to accessing these facilities. Therefore,government needs to increase the rehabilitation and physiotherapyfacilities for the persons with disabilities.

Generally in Pakistan, disabled persons are stigmatized and there iswide-spread discrimination against them in many ways. This is not justa societal issue but even at family level they are discriminated. Somediscrimination is also systematic; this emanates from theunavailability of facilities for their proper education, health care,and employment. So there is a need for raising awareness on rights ofpersons with disabilities and shifting focus from charity to rightsbased approach.

Women with disability face multiple forms of discrimination; firstlybecause they are women and secondly because they have a disability.Such forms of discrimination often become apparent when the questions190 ibid.

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of marriage and education emerge. Therefore, there is a huge need toincrease awareness specifically on women with disabilities and theirrights.

With respect to disabled persons in disasters, Pakistan is performingrelatively well. During recent natural and complex (operation againstmilitant groups) emergencies, needs of disabled displaced persons weretaken into account, in most cases, from day one. Since country isprone to multiple disasters, there is a need for including personswith disabilities in all aspects of disaster management and riskreduction, from search and rescue to rehabilitation.

Although a national policy has been developed, there is need forgeographical and sector-based planning. For example, a high number ofcases in physical disability are of Cerebral Palsy and hence thegovernment needs to have special planning on this particulardisability. On other hand the number of persons with disability hasincreased in the war hit areas of northern parts of the country.Similarly, some districts have higher population of persons withdisabilities. E.g. 7% of the population in Chakwal, a district inPunjab province, has disabilities, which according to the governmentstatistics, is the highest for any district. So there is a need forseparate planning as per needs of the people in such geographic areas.

The civil society believes that it is important that disabled personsshould be recognized as equal citizens and all forms of latent andapparent discriminations should be eliminated against disabledpersons. Some groups of disabled persons suggested that they don’twant quotas but equal opportunities and disability should not beconsidered as a hindrance or negative trait in them. Similarly, somecivil society activist working for the rights of disabled urged thatdisabled persons should be consulted for any national or internationalpolicy process which is for the rights of disabled so that they cangive their suggestions and comment on it too.

Recommendations

Recognize rights of persons with disabilities as fundamentalrights within constitution.

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Legislate and make policies for a barrier free society should bepromoted; all buildings, roads and other infrastructure andpublic facilities should meet the universal accessibilitystandards

Include disability sector information in all governmentstatistics and surveys; the data and information on the personswith disabilities should be collected based on CRPD and otherinternationally accepted definitions of disability

Secure legal basis for making education inclusive for all;existing schools should meet the universal accessibilitystandards to make them accessible for persons with disabilities.

The rehabilitation and physiotherapy facilities for persons withdisabilities should be increased

Awareness-raising on rights of persons with disabilities shouldbe done to promote their inclusion.

Special attention is required to eliminate multiplediscriminations faced by women with disabilities.

Persons with disabilities should be made part of the all theplanning and implementation work keeping in line with CRPD andICESCR.

10.2. ESC Rights of Women and GirlsUnder article 3 of ICESCR, states are obligated to ensure rightsenshrined in the covenant without discrimination on the basis of race,sex or another status. Building upon this the CESCR has issued generalcomment 16 elaborating on equal enjoyment of ESC rights for both menand women.191 Further, the committee has taken into considerationspecial measures for women in its general comments on right toeducation, right to health, right to water and so on. In addition tothis, Pakistan has also ratified Convention against all forms ofDiscrimination against Women (CEDAW) which reaffirms all human rights,including those in ICESCR, as women’s rights as well and obligatesstates to make progress plans for promoting gender equality across allspheres of life. 191 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 16: The Equal Right of Men and Women to the Enjoyment of All Economic, Social and CulturalRights (Art. 3 of the Covenant), 11 August 2005, E/C.12/2005/4 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/43f3067ae.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

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In the general comment 16, the committee affirms that for promotingwomen’s ESC rights, the state has to promote equality, non-discrimination and take special temporary measures. It clarifies thatthere should not only be de facto but de jure equality:

“Guarantees of non-discrimination and equality in international human rights treatiesmandate both de facto and de jure equality. De jure (or formal) equality and de facto(or substantive) equality are different but interconnected concepts. Formal equalityassumes that equality is achieved if a law or policy treats men and women in a neutralmanner. Substantive equality is concerned, in addition, with the effects of laws, policiesand practices and with ensuring that they do not maintain, but rather alleviate, theinherent disadvantage that particular groups experience”192

The committee also recognizes that states will have to take specialtemporary measures to promote equal status among men and women, orother disadvantaged groups, with respect to realization of the rightsarticulated in the covenant.

With respect to Pakistan, the condition of women is not veryencouraging due to various socio-cultural factors, and women aregenerally considered as inferior to men. This general socio-culturalpattern of behaviour puts women in adisadvantaged position where they arenot fully able to exercise their rightsequally. As stated in previous chaptersthe human rights situation for women isgenerally not very encouraging andparticularly with regards to the rightsenshrined in ICESCR. It is evident frommany studies and research reports that even across various sectorslike education, health and economy, gender disparity is very high.

Gender disparity is much evident in the education sector. Out of, the49.5 million illiterate adults, two-thirds are women. Similarly, whilethe primary net enrollment has increased from 58% to 74% (from 1990 to2010), ratio for girls is 14 percentage points lower as compared to boys – there are eight girls to every ten boys in the primary school.193 UNESCO indicates that girls from poorest families are most disadvantaged in education sector, as over half of them have never

192 Ibid. para 7

193 UNESCO 2012. Fact Sheet: Education in Pakistan. Education for All Global Monitoring Report.

Violence against women is a serious public health issues, but at health facilities the staff lack sensitivity,

capacity and commitment to provide effective health services to the

survivors the violence

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been to school.194 At the primary school level, the population of school-going-age girls is estimated at 10 million, out of these 3.78 million girls are out of school.195 Gender Parity Index (GPI) for primary education is 0.86 for the country. It is higher in Islamabad Capital Territories at 1.06 and in AJ&K at one 1. FATA has lowest GPI at primary level at 0.52. However, Baluchistan’s GPI is 0.78. For Secondary level (grades 9-10), GPI is extremely low in FATA (0.16). Overall, GPI for Pakistan is 0.78 at the secondary level.196 In terms ofsurvival rate, government statistics indicate that only 27% of the girls enrolled in class one reached class 10, in the public sector schools.197 In terms of the education facilities, Pakistan has some 231,149 educational institutions (all types and levels). Of these, institutions catering to girls account for 67371 as compared to 106,740 for boys; rest are providing co-education. At primary level, there are 154,145 institutions, of these there only 50626 schools for girls as compared to 87111 schools for boys; remaining schools of themprovide co-education.198 Gender inequality is highlighted from the number of the educational facilities as well. Not just this but the educational facilities for girls suffer from absence of basic facilities like water and sanitation. Various studies show that absence of such facilities affects girls’ abilities to seek education.Many girls’ schools also remain non-functional either due to improper buildings or unavailability of the teachers. While at primary level the situation is somewhat better in terms of educational facilities, at secondary and higher secondary level the educational facilities forgirls are far and few. The factor of extremism and terrorism has also affected women in a number of ways. For example, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwaand FATA areas girls schools have been blown up by terrorists thus reducing facilities for girls to get education that were few to begin with.

194 Ibid.

195 TRAINING, M. O. E. 2013. Country Report of Pakistan Regarding: Accelerating Millennium Development Goals 2013-15. Ministry of Education & Training, Government of Pakistan.

196 Ibid.

197 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2013b. PAKISTAN EDUCATION STATISTICS 2011-12. NATIONAL EDUCATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM, ACADEMY OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, TRAININGS & STANDARDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION, GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN.

198 Ibid.

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In the recently concluded periodic review, the CEDAW Committee hasshown its concerns on prevailing inequality in the education sector inPakistan:199

“The Committee is concerned at the pervasive gender inequality inthe field of education, which is characterized by a highilliteracy rate among women, the low enrolment of girls,particularly at the secondary level, and their high dropout rate,especially in the rural areas. It is further concerned about thenegative impact on girls of prioritization of boys’ educationover that of girls, the lack of qualified female teachers andschool infrastructure, and the long distances to school, all ofwhich have a negative impact on girls’ education. It is alsoconcerned at the lack of measures to readmit girls to schoolafter pregnancy and the high number of child marriages in theState party. It expresses its deep concern at reports of ongoingviolent attacks and public threats against female students,teachers and professors by various non-State actors, as well asthe escalating number of attacks on educational institutions, inparticular a large number of girls-only schools, which hasdisproportionately affected the access of women and girls toeducation. The Committee expresses its deep concern at recentattacks on school buses targeting children, including girls.”

In this purview, the committee has recommended the state of Pakistanto ensure coordinated and consistent efforts at national andprovincial levels to:

“(a) Improve the literacy rate of women and girls, reduce andprevent dropouts among girls, especially at the secondary level,formulate re-entry policies enabling young women to return toschool after pregnancy, and organize programmes for girlsaffected by conflict who leave school/university prematurely;

(b) Improve the quality of education by providing all teacherswith systematic and gender-sensitive training and by conducting arevision of the curriculum and textbooks to remove genderstereotypes;

199 Para 27 of CEDAW. Concluding Comments, Pakistan [Online]. UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Available: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/cedaws54.htm [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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(c) Take the necessary measures to prevent the occurrence ofattacks and threats against educational institutions whichundermine the fundamental rights of women and girls, inparticular, the right to education, and to ensure thatperpetrators of such acts of violence are promptly investigated,prosecuted and punished;

(d) Consider the establishment of a rapid response systemwhenever there are attacks on educational institutions, in orderto promptly repair and rebuild them and replace educationalmaterials so that women and girls can be reintegrated intoschools/universities as soon as possible.”

Women also face discrimination in their quest to exercise their rightto health. Pakistan’s maternal mortality is 260 per 100000 and remainsvery high considering global and regional statistic. Only 45% birthsare attended by the skilled health personnel whereas in 28% cases itis reported that pregnant women had ante-natal visits.200 This islargely due to lack of health facilities. There are only 5.6 nursesand mid-wives available per 10000 persons. Women face issues inrealization of their right to health due to lack of access oravailability of “antenatal and postnatal care, safe abortions, safedeliveries through skilled birth attendants and contraception”. Ruraland urban disparities are also evident.201 Moreover, as the right tohealth also includes freedom to decide about their health,particularly in matters of sexual and reproductive health, many womenlack decisions making powers. As a civil society activist shared that“women do not have much decision making power in birth spacing or useof contraceptives and such lack of the power affects their livesbadly”.

CEDAW committee has also shown concerns on the state of healthfacilities for the girls and women. It remarked:202

“The Committee is concerned about the high maternal mortalityrate in the State party, women’s lack of adequate access to

200 ORGANIZATION, W. H. Pakistan: Country Profile [Online]. Available: http://www.who.int/gho/countries/pak.pdf?ua=1 [Accessed 7 January 2014].

201 Discrimination: For women in rural areas, healthcare not a basic right [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/573754/discrimination-for-women-in-rural-areas-healthcare-not-a-basic-right/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].202 Para 31, CEDAW Concluding Comments, Pakistan

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family planning services, including contraceptives, restrictiveabortion laws and the large number of women resorting to unsafeabortions, as well as the lack of adequate post-abortion careservices. It is further concerned at the wide privatization ofthe health system and the inadequate budget allocated to thehealth sector, in particular with regard to sexual andreproductive health-care services, especially in rural remoteareas”

With this, the Committee has recommended the state of the Pakistan tomake following efforts in line with its general recommendation no 24:203

“(a) To expedite the adoption of the pending Reproductive HealthCare Bill;

(b) To improve women’s access to health-care facilities andmedical assistance by trained personnel, especially in rural andremote areas, and ensure adequate allocation of human andfinancial resources to the health sector in all provinces;

(c) To strengthen its efforts to reduce the high rate of maternalmortality, and ensure access to affordable contraceptive methodsthroughout the country;

(d) To review its abortion legislation with a view to expandingthe grounds under which abortion is permitted, for example, casesof rape and incest, and prepare guidelines on post-abortion careto ensure that women have access to this type of service;

(e) To ensure that the privatization of the health sector and thedevolution to the provinces of the main health competence do notreduce further the already limited health services accessible towomen.”

With regards to women’s economic rights, the gender disparity anddiscrimination could again be observed. As already mention in labourrights section, female labour participation rate remains very low at15.6%, as compare 49.3% for male.204 However, one issue with thesefigures is that these are largely based on women’s participation in203 Para 32, CEDAW Concluding Comments, Pakistan

204 Crude Labour participation figures in PAKISTAN, G. O. 2014. Labour Force Survey 2012-13 [Online]. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan. Available: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/labour-force-survey-2012-13-annual-report [Accessed 20 January 2014].

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cash economy or paid work. This is discrimination in itself, becausewomen do a lot work for which they are not paid but they contributeto, like: family agricultural lands, family business, domestic worketc. So there is need for recognizing this. As was already discussed,there is discrimination in women’s wage. Women earn 61.3% of what menearn, clearly a violation of equal wages. Over 71% women work ininformal sector and without any protection of their rights. As alsoalready discussed, women’s unemployment rate is 9% compared to 5.4%for the men.205 Labour rights of home-based women workers are notguaranteed. As per government estimates there are millions of home-based workers in Pakistan and over 71% are women.206 Yet there are nolaws for protecting home-based workers. The proposed law has beenpending for approval in national parliament. The government is yet toadopt a national policy on home based worker. It has also not ratifiedILO convention 177 on home-based workers.

With respect to economy, women face a lot of problems in their rightto inheritance in property and land. Although, this right is notdirectly recognized in the ICESCR, but more so in InternationalConvent against elimination of all forms of racial discrimination(ICECRD), it is derived from the principle of non-discrimination asarticulated in ICESCR. Legally, women’s share in inheritance ofproperty is much less than the male siblings or members of the family.In addition, in Pakistan, access to land and property impacts theempowerment of women and such discrimination affects women’s overallability of attaining equal status in the society.207

The government has taken a positive step by reserving a quota forwomen in government sector jobs as 10% women are to be appointed inall government departments. But the quota remains highlyunderutilized. While this is a good step to alleviate genderinequality at work in government departments, there is a need toimplement it properly. Moreover, a lot of women face issue of sexualharassment in public and work places. This impacts their ability toexercise their right to work. So there is a need to make theenvironment more conducive for women.

205 See Labour Force Survey 2012-13

206 PAKISTAN, G. O. 2013a. Draft National Policy on Home-Based Workers (October 2013). In: MINISTRYOF LAW, J. H. R., GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN (ed.).207 MUMTAZ, K. & NOSHIRWANI, M. M. Women’s Access and Rights to Land and Property in Pakistan. Shirkat Gah.

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On women’s employment, the CEDAW committee has expressed its concernsin following words in the period review in March 2013:208

“The Committee is concerned about the low participation of womenin the formal sector, the job segregation and concentration ofwomen in low-paid and low-skilled jobs, and the widening pay gapand lack of legal provisions guaranteeing the principle of equalpay for work of equal value. It is concerned at the situation ofwomen working in the informal sector (agriculture, domestic andhome-based work), in particular the fact that they are notrecognized in the existing labour legislation as workers, and assuch are unprotected and do not have access to social securityand benefits.”

The committee has recommended following actions to address thesituation:209

“(a) Adopt effective measures in the formal labour market,including temporary special measures, to increase femaleparticipation and eliminate both horizontal and verticaloccupational segregation, to narrow and close the wage gapbetween women and men, and to ensure the application of theprinciple of equal remuneration for equal work and work of equalvalue, as well as equal opportunities at work;

(b) Prepare a plan of action for the protection of women workingin other areas of the informal sector, such as agriculture anddomestic work, in line with the Convention;

(c) Prioritize the adoption of the National Policy on Home BasedWorkers and ensure its proper implementation so as to guaranteethat women have adequate access to social security benefits; andtake measures to ensure that the corresponding policy is adoptedby all provinces in the State party;

(d) Ratify International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No.177 (1996) concerning Home Work, as well as ILO Convention No.189 (2011) concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers, and amendthe relevant domestic legislation accordingly.”

208 Para 29, CEDAW Concluding Comments, Pakistan

209 Para 30 ibid

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Though this is a general situation of women rights in terms of ESCrights across all Pakistan, however, there are regional disparitieswhich are more gruesome. These disparities are observed at two levels.One is urban-rural disparity and the other is disparities inprovincial situations. For example, the women of rural areas aregenerally more deprived than the women of urban areas. Similarly, atprovincial level the situation of women in Baluchistan, FATA and ruralSind needs more focus and attention. In this vein, the CEDAWcommittee has also shown its attention to the rural women. It hasrecommended following specific actions to address the disparitiesconcerning rural women:210

“(a) Review and amend the relevant legislation and policies torecognize women as farmers, so they can own land and property;

(b) Abolish traditional practices and customs that prevent ruralwomen from participating in development projects as decisionmakers and beneficiaries and from fully enjoying their rights;

(c) Strengthen its efforts to address the needs of rural womenand provide them with better access to health, education, cleanwater and sanitation services, fertile land and income-generatingprojects.”

The civil society believes that gender equality should be a toppriority for the state. The state has to ensure that women areguaranteed rights. Women should be included in all planning andimplementation work so as their voices are properly included. Thecivil society also considers that CEDAW committee has made veryspecific recommendations in its concluding remarks on Pakistan’speriodic review in March 2013. These recommendations address many ofthe crucial issues related to ESC rights of women and girls inPakistan. The state should take cue from these recommendations andimplement them. The civil society particularly stressed for thegovernment to enact laws on informal sector, including the home-basedworkers.

Recommendations

210 Para 34, CEDAW Concluding Comments, Pakistan

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Follow up and implement recommendations given by the CEDAWcommittee to address the ESC rights of women.

Raise awareness on equality of rights for women in the society Increase economic empowerment and livelihood opportunities by

providing enabling environment for women Focus more on education of girls particularly in rural areas and

underdeveloped pockets in all the provinces Government should work to reduce and eliminate social, economic

and cultural discrimination against women present on regionallines across Pakistan.

Enact laws to protect home-based workers. Adopt and implementmuch need policy on home-based workers. Ratify the ILO conventionon home-based workers (C-177).

10.3. ESC Rights of MinoritiesThe principle of Non-discrimination described in article 2 of theCovenant is the basis on which rights of certain groups are to becovered in ICESCR. The principle of Non-discrimination in article 2para 2 in the following words;

“2. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to guarantee that the rightsenunciated in the present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kindas to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or socialorigin, property, birth or other status”.

The general comment to article 2 further explains the principle ofnon- discrimination in the following words;

“Discrimination undermines the fulfillment of economic, social and cultural rights for asignificant proportion of the world’s population. Economic growth has not, in itself, ledto sustainable development, and individuals and groups of individuals continue to facesocio-economic inequality, often because of entrenched historical and contemporaryforms of discrimination”.

The general comments further discuss various forms of discriminationincluding systematic discrimination. The comment 12 deals with this infollowing words;

“The Committee has regularly found that discrimination against some groups ispervasive and persistent and deeply entrenched in social behaviour and organization,

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often involving unchallenged or indirect discrimination. Such systemic discriminationcan be understood as legal rules, policies, practices or predominant cultural attitudes ineither the public or private sector which create relative disadvantages for some groups,and privileges for other groups”.

In the same comments the committee deals with the issue of religiousdiscrimination and it explains it in the comment 22;

“This prohibited ground of discrimination covers the profession of religion or belief ofone’s choice (including the non-profession of any religion or belief), that may be publiclyor privately manifested in worship, observance, practice and teaching. For instance,discrimination arises when persons belonging to a religious minority are denied equalaccess to universities, employment, or health services on the basis of their religion”.

The constitution of Pakistan mentions the minorities at two places:one in Preamble and then in article 36.

“Preamble Wherein adequate provision shall be made for the minorities freely to profess andpractise their religions and develop their cultures;Wherein adequate provision shall be made to safeguard the legitimate interests ofminorities and backward and depressed classes;Protection of Minorities. The State shall safeguard the legitimate rights and interestsof minorities, including their due representation in the Federal and Provincial services”.

According to the 1998 census the population of minorities has beenrecorded thus: Christians- approx. 1.6% (2,800,000) ,Hindus- approx.1.6% (2,800,000), Sikhs-20,000, Kalash-3,000 and Ahmadi-approx. 1.42%approx (2,000,000). In this way these make up around 4.5 % of thetotal population of Pakistan. Some recent estimates show that thereare more than “8 million people belonging to minorities, out of whichHindus are the biggest minority, numbering up to 4.2 million followedby Christians with 3.9 million”.211

Being an ideologically religious state there have been inherent issueswith the minorities in Pakistan. However, under the constitutionminorities are protected from various forms of discriminations andthey have representation in the assemblies as well. But at the sametime in reality they have been facing some overt and covert forms ofdiscrimination at societal and state level in one way or the other.

211 KASHIF, H. 2011. Discrimination against minorities has become routine in Pakistan [Online]. Daily Times. [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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According to a recent report (Annual Report 2012) by United StatesCommission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), "Thegovernment of Pakistan continues to engage in and tolerate systematic,ongoing, and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.212

Much has been said regarding the general human rights condition of theminorities but if the ICESCR lens were to be applied a far graversituation emerges. For example, there is systematic discriminationwith regard to Education, Health, Housing and rights related to workas described in the covenant. The particular targeted groups ofminorities are Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis. It is becoming evidentwith every passing day that even the fundamental and basic right oflife of these minorities is at stake as there is systematic targetingof these communities by the extremists and the terrorists in thecountry. Besides the threat from the religious extremists, the overallstatus of minorities and their living conditions are far from ideal.Due to heavy discrimination the livelihood options of personsbelonging to the minority groups are limited making it hard for themto earn a decent living. They are considered only for low status jobssuch as sweepers or sanitary workers and this was also formallyannounced by the new chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.213 Suchincidents happen on a daily basis with individuals from variousminorities. For example, there was a case reported in newspapers abouta graduate Christian who applied for a post of clerk in somegovernment department in Sindh but when the list came out he had beenappointed as a sanitary worker instead.214 This in fact shows thegeneral attitude and mind-set of the society and state and evenvarious political groups and leaders who consider minorities as secondrate citizens.

The situation of Education for minorities is also not much different.Children from minority groups enrolled in schools face other forms ofdiscrimination in the classroom by fellows and through the content of

212 Annual Report 2012 [Online]. U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Available: http://www.aina.org/reports/uscirf2012.pdf [Accessed 7 January 2014].

213 PCC condemn Chief Minister Pervez Khatak statement on cleaning jobs for minorities [Online]. Pakistan Christian Post. Available: http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/headlinenewsd.php?hnewsid=4376 [Accessed 24February 2014].

214 ALI, R. 2012b. Minorities’ share of jobs equals sanitary work only? [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/405518/five-per-cent-quota-minorities-share-of-jobs-equals-sanitary-work-only/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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the curriculum as described by renowned Educationist and Human rightsactivist A.H. Nayyar in various reports on the subject.215 Similarfindings were presented by the United States Commission onInternational Religious Freedom report on the public schools andMadrassas in Pakistan. The study concluded;

“Public school textbooks used by all children often had a strongIslamic orientation, and Pakistan's religious minorities werereferenced derogatorily or omitted altogether;

Hindus were depicted in especially negative terms, and referencesto Christians were often inaccurate and offensive;

Public school and madrassa teachers had limited awareness orunderstanding of religious minorities and their beliefs, and weredivided on whether religious minorities were citizens;

Teachers often expressed very negative views about Ahmadis,Christians, and Jews, and successfully transmitted these biasesto their students;

Interviewees' expressions of tolerance often were intermixed withneutral and intolerant comments, leaving some room forimprovement”216

Those who are fortunate enough to be well off among the minorities areunder threat of kidnapping and extortion as has been happening forprevious few years with Hindu business community in Sindh and Quetta.Due to these and other similar threats many Hindu communities havemigrated to India in recent years.217

215 HUSSAIN, A., SALIM, A. & NAVEED, A. 2011. Connecting the Dots: Education and Religious Discrimination in Pakistan: A Study of Public Schools and Madrassas [Online]. United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Available: https://www.sdpi.org/research_programme/uploads/Connecting%20the%20Dots-Education%20and%20Religious%20Discriminations%20in%20Pakistan.pdf [Accessed 7 January 2014].

216 Ibid. See 2011d. Pakistan’s-educational-system-fuels-religious-discrimination [Online]. USCIRF Available: http://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases/3661-pakistans-educational-system-fuels-religious-discrimination.html [Accessed 7 January 2014].

217 Persecution forces 60 Hindu families to migrate to India [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/419691/persecution-forces-60-hindu-families-to-migrate-to-india/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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The situation of women of minority communities is a matter of graveconcern. The general discrimination against minorities has put thewomen of these minorities at other risks as well. For example, most ofthe women from Christian minority community are domestic workers whotry to earn their livelihoods by working in other homes. However, theyhave to face harassment at work by household members.218 The women andyoung girls from Hindu minority community in Sindh are under permanentthreat of forced conversions for marriages.219

These trends show that when a particular group in a society is notconsidered equal economically and socially it gives rise to all formsof violations. These issues fall under the scope of general humanrights laws as well as in the realm of the ESC and it are importantthat the state realize the gravity of the matter and take appropriateactions to mitigate these ever worsening conditions for minorities.

Another important factor for the rights of minorities after the 18th

Amendment in the constitution is devolution of this Ministry ofMinorities to Provinces. On this issue, various minority groups haveraised their concerns.220 They justifiably feel that if the situation ofthe minorities has remained grim under federal ministry where theywere represented by a minister of their own, the situation for themwould be even more challenging at provincial level where they arealready invisible at policy and planning level.

Civil society groups particularly those working on the rights ofminorities and religious harmony are of the opinion that it has becomeimperative for the state and society as a whole to take someaffirmative action to not only end various discriminations prevalentagainst minorities but also to work toward considering minorities asequal and respectable citizens of this country.

Recommendations

218 2012a. 74pc minority women faced sexual harassment [Online]. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/702809/74pc-minority-women-faced-sexual-harassment [Accessed 7 January 2014].

219 HUSSAIN, S. 2013. Institutional discrimination against minorities increasing [Online]. The News. Available: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-174946-Institutional-discrimination-against-minorities-increasing [Accessed 7 January 2014].

220 2013a. Concern over merger of ministries [Online]. Daily Dawn. Available: http://www.dawn.com/news/1020392/concern-over-merger-of-ministries [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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The minorities should be accorded equal rights and they should beconsidered equal citizens of the country

There is a need to work toward elimination of all forms ofdiscriminations against minorities particularly in the domain ofESC rights in Pakistan.

The role of minorities in the overall development of the countryshould be recognized and highlighted at national, provincial andgrass root levels.

10.4. ESC Rights of the TransgenderAnother vulnerable group with reference to ICESCR is of Transgenderpersons. Transgender persons are usually referred to in South Asia askhwaja seras in polite company, and hijras or khusras otherwise. Khwaja serasare biological males who take on female identities, choosing topublicly dress and behave like women or sometimes are intersex withboth male and female traits at the time of birth.

The principle of Non-discrimination described in article 2 of theCovenant is the basis on which rights of certain groups are to becovered in ICESCR. The principle of Non-discrimination thus describesin the following words:

“The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to guarantee that the rightsenunciated in the present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kindas to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or socialorigin, property, birth or other status”.

The general comment No. 32 explains further the recognition of sexualorientation in the following words: “Other status” as recognized inarticle 2, paragraph 2, includes sexual orientation.221

States parties should ensure that a person’s sexual orientation is nota barrier to realizing Covenant rights, for example, in accessingsurvivor’s pension rights. In addition, gender identity is recognizedas among the prohibited grounds of discrimination; for example,persons who are transgender, transsexual or intersex often face

221 UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 15: The Right to Water (Arts. 11 and 12 of the Covenant), 20 January 2003, E/C.12/2002/1 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838d11.html [Accessed 7 February 2014], UN-CESCR. General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12 of the Covenant), 11 August 2000, E/C.12/2000/4 [Online]. Available: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838d0.html [Accessed 7 February 2014].

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serious human rights violations, such as harassment in schools or inthe workplace.

Under the constitution of Pakistan transgender are not recognized as aseparate gender. However, according to a recent Supreme Court rulingthey have been accorded a distinct right of identity and now they arerecognized as a separate gender in National Identity card at least222

and have voting rights.

Though there are no official statistics available about the exactpopulation of transgender in the country, however, according to someestimates there are at least 50,000 openly transgender peoplescattered across Pakistan.223 The discriminatory attitude is even shownin statistical divisions as reported in population reports with themention of 51% females and 49% males and no mention of transgender orintersex people.

Transgender persons are treated with disrespect and are denied many oftheir basic human rights. They face discrimination and harassment andeven violence in the workplace and are often involved in risky sexbehaviour as they work as prostitutes.

As transgender persons work in close knit groups and are usuallyconsidered as outcast they are not entitled to any formal or informaleducation system. This lack of education pushes them further towarddeprivation and destitution. Most transgender person earn their livingthrough dancing and singing in parties. However, many are alsoinvolved in begging and sex work to earn their livelihoods.

The transgender people are considered amongst the riskiest groups inHIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. However, theylack both proper health education and awareness and decent healthfacilities as well.

There are no mechanisms in place at present to incorporate transgenderin formal employment sector as they lack both education and thenecessary skills to do so. However, in its recent decision the Supreme222 2012b. Transgenders have equal rights in Pakistan: Supreme Court [Online]. Express Tribune. Available: http://tribune.com.pk/story/442151/transgenders-have-equal-rights-in-pakistan-supreme-court/ [Accessed 7 January 2014].

223 2011b. Pakistan's transgender people fight for equal rights [Online]. Public Radio International (PRI). Available: http://www.pri.org/stories/2011-08-30/pakistans-transgender-people-fight-equal-rights [Accessed 7 January 2014].

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Court ordered the government to support transgender people financiallythrough social welfare programmes such as the Benazir Income SupportProgramme and the Bait-ul-Mal. The court also ordered the socialwelfare departments of the country’s four provinces to carry out anationwide survey and find out the exact number of transgender inPakistan. However, this has yet to materialize.

The real problem for transgender people starts when they begin to age.In old age they are unable to pursue their profession of singing anddancing and suffer on various counts like deteriorating health andincome. Since they don’t have any social security arrangements, thelack of resources becomes a critical problem.

The civil society groups are of the view that transgender peopleshould be recognized as equal citizens of the country. The civilsociety groups also consider it important that the state should takeaffirmative action to change the lives of transgender who arecurrently living as outcasts.

Recommendations

Transgender persons should be recognized as separate gender inthe official documents according to the ruling of the SupremeCourt

Efforts should be made to eliminate all forms of discriminationsagainst transgender individuals; this may include among otherthings lessons in the curriculum on equality of the transgenderindividuals.

Special measures should be taken to ensure educational andvocational trainings to the transgender population

Skill enhancement programs should be initiated for transgenderindividuals so that they are able to earn respectable livelihoods

Efforts should be made to enhance health services to transgenderindividuals as they are at high risk for certain type ofdiseases.

Employment opportunities should be provided to the transgenderindividuals on the basis of principle of equal opportunity

Special measures should be taken to include the transgenderindividuals in social security schemes

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11. ConclusionEconomic, social and cultural rights hold a central place in humansurvival and also in the full realization of all human rights for all.While it is appreciable that Pakistan has ratified important humanrights instruments, the civil society believes that ratification shallonly provide a starting point because it is not an end in itself; itis the beginning and the first step towards realization of humanrights in Pakistan. It is also the beginning for resetting thedirections of the state laws and policies based on new obligationsarising out of the assent to these important treaties. Even thepolicies and laws are not enough if they are not accompanied byappropriate budgetary and resource allocations. There is also need forestablishing a mechanism for monitoring and reporting on theimplementation of the ESC rights. In addition, for proper and smoothimplementation of these important rights, the state of Pakistan shouldensure coherence and coordination within relevant governmentinstitutions such as health, education and labour. Needless to say,inclusion and participation of the concerned groups and civil societyin decision making forums is a must.

Hence, the state of Pakistan has to start reviewing local laws,policies and make necessary budget adjustments. Implementation of lawsand policies along with a smooth monitoring mechanism is the need ofthe hour. The state needs to be proactive in ensuring implementationthrough adequate, necessary, effective and efficient systems.

Ensuring the realization of ESC rights is mandatory for the survivalof the nation and the state.

Annexures

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List of Key Informant Interviews1. Zahid Farroq, Joint Director in Urban Resource Center

2. Rizwan Jaffar, TV anchor and the president of youth Parliament

3. Avinash Hari, President and director program in Upgraded minorityintegrated development (UMID).

4. Muhammad Jibran Nasir, Lawyer, Politician and Activist and alsocontested as an Independent candidate from NA 250 and PS 113Karachi in 2013 elections

5. Zehra Khan, General Secretary of Home Based Women WorkersFederation (HBWWF)

6. Najma Sadeque

7. Salma Nazir, Lecturer in Hamdard University and Education expert

8. Nadir Ali Khan, Academic Coordinator of Anjaz Pakistan Program byAman Foundation

9. Imtiaz Ahmed, Coordinator at Omair Sana Foundation working forThalassemia eradication Pakistan

10. Zahid Khan, Deputy Attorney General Pakistan

11. Nasir Mehmood, General Secretary of the National Trade UnionFederation Pakistan

12. Saleem Baloch, Program Officer in Action Aid Karachi

13. Sarim Burney, Head of Sarim Burney Welfare TrustInternational

14. Aijaz Qureshi, Legal Advisor in Jawed Umer Law Associate

15. Salma Bahader , Umeed Gah President of Umeed Gah

16. Karamat Ali, PILER

17. Sharafat Ali, PILER

18. Shakeel Abro, AHAN Karachi

19. Dr H-Nayyar Human Rights and Education Expert20. Dr Arshad Waheed…Institute of Social Policy21. Javed Malik-Education Expert22. Saleem Malik-Bedari -women rights organization23. M Atif-step- organization for disables24. M Fayyaz Raja-Journalist Union Islamabad Press club

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25. Raza shah Khan SPADO Islamabad26. Irfan Mufti-SAP-PK27. Mehr Safdar-Bonded Labor Front(BLLF)28. Tariq Awan Provincial Coordinator PILER Punjab29. Nadeem Fazil-Advocate…Asian Resource Center30. Deep Syed- Institute for Peace and Secularism …. Lahore31. Syed Anwar Shah Manager FM- 100 Lahore

32. Imdad Hussain Urban Resource Center Lahore—Expert oncultural and water Rights issues

33. Cecil Junior-CNJP34. Fozia Viqar Shirkat Gah

35. Jahanzeb Khan, Regional Manager, SPARC Peshawar

36. Imran Takker Program Manager, SPARC Pehsawar

37. Khalid Usman Executive Director, Khwendo Kor

38. Gullalai Director Operations, Khwendo Kor

39. Sardaruddin, Coordinator, IDEA Peshawar

40. Ijaz Ahmed, Coordinat, IDEA Peshawar

41. Rubina Masih, Executive Director, Integrated CommunityDevelopment Initiatives (ICDI)

42. Gul Rehman, President, Mutahida Labour Federation

43. Javed Akhtar, General Secretary, Taxi Association PakJhamoria Colony, Karachi

44. Zahid Achakzai, Program Manager, GRHO Quetta

45. Syed Ehsan Shah Bukhari Program Director, Peace Quetta

46. Rashid Tareen, Programe Manager, Peace Quetta

47. Rehman Durrani, Program Manager, Participatory IntengratedDevelopment Society (PIDS) Quetta

48. Anil Shahid, Distability Organization, Quetta

49. Nidbab James, Consultant FAO

50. Dr. Kamalan Gichki, Additional Secretary Health Department

51. Abdul Rahim Mirdad Khel, Labour Rights activist, Quetta

52. Amanullah Khan, Labour rights activist, Quetta

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53. Adil, Program Manager, PIDS

List of Abbreviations

ASER Annual Status of Education ReportBISP Benazir Income Support ProgramCEDAW Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination

against WomenCRC Child Rights ConventionCRPD Convention on Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesEFA Education for AllEOBI Employees' Old-Age Benefits InstitutionESC Rights Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

FATA Federally Administrated Tribal AreasFESCO Faisalabad Electric Supply Company GER Gross Enrollment RateHEC High Education CommissionHESCO Hyderabad Electric Supply Company HIES House Integrated Economic SurveyICCPR International Covenant on Civil & Political RightsICERD International Convention on the Elimination of All

Forms of Racial DiscriminationICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and

Cultural RightsICT Islamabad Capital TerritoriesLFS Labour Force SurveyMDGs Millennium Development GoalsNDMA National Disaster Management AuthorityNER Net Enrollment RateNNS National Nutrition SurveyPBS Pakistan Bureau of StatisticsPIA Pakistan International Airline

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PIDE Pakistan Institute of Development EconomicsPILER Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & ResearchPSLM Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measures SurveySDPI Sustainable Development Policy InstituteUN CESCR United Nation Committee on Economic, Social and

Cultural RightsUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

OrganizationUSCIRF United States Commission on International Religious

FreedomWAPDA Water and Power Development AuthorityWFP World Food ProgramWHO World Health Organization

Bibliography