Pakistan rejects US human rights report terming it ‘biased and politicised’

Pakistan has rejected the recently released US human rights report terming it ‘biased and politicised’.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the foreign office outrightly dismissed the 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices recently released by the United States State Department.

“The contents of the report are unjust, relying on inaccurate information and are disconnected from the realities on the ground,” stated the foreign office.

“If the US must engage in this exercise, then we expect the US State Department to at least exercise due diligence when conducting an assessment of complex issues, demonstrate objectivity, impartiality and responsibility in finalising such reports,” according to an official statement issued by the FO.

“It should demonstrate the requisite moral courage to speak the truth about all situations and play a constructive role in supporting international efforts for bringing an end to atrocities in the most urgent hotpots of gross human rights violations,” it concluded.

On the other hand, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in a statement on Thursday said,“The US State Department’s annual exercises of preparing such unsolicited reports lack objectivity and remain inherently flawed in their methodology,”

“These reports use a domestic social lens to judge human rights in other countries in a politically biased manner. This year’s report is once again conspicuous by its lack of objectivity and politicisation of the international human rights agenda,” she said, adding that the report demonstrates double standards thus undermining the international human rights discourse.

Pointing out the US “double standards” on grave humanitarian issues, the FO spokesperson said: “It is deeply concerning that a report purported to highlight human rights situations around the world ignores or downplays the most urgent hotspots of gross human rights violations such as in Gaza and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).”

Only a politically motivated report, she said, could ignore the alarming situation in Gaza, the weaponisation of humanitarian assistance and the massacre of over 33,000 civilians. “Silence of the United States on the continuing genocide in Gaza runs counter to the stated objectives behind the so-called country reports on human rights.”

FO spokesperson reiterated that Pakistan remains steadfast in its commitment to strengthening its own human rights framework, constructively engaging to promote the international human rights agenda and uphold fairness and objectivity in the international human rights discourse.

The 2023 Human Rights Report from the US State Department, released earlier this week, accused Pakistan and India of intimidating or seeking reprisals against individuals beyond their borders, including activists, defenders, and journalists.

As per the report, both nations were indicted for significant human rights violations such as arbitrary and extrajudicial killings, torture, inhumane treatment, and arbitrary arrests, with a lack of accountability contributing to widespread impunity.

Furthermore, the report also alleged that successive Pakistani governments tacitly endorsed enforced disappearances, citing figures from the government’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. It noted that out of 9,967 reported missing-person cases since 2011, 7,714 were resolved while 2,253 remained pending.