ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, in a significant and a long-awaited step, has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture (CAT).

Joining the main international human rights instruments reflects the commitment of the democratic government to promote human rights in Pakistan, including the rights of women, children, minorities and the underprivileged, says an announcement from the Foreign Office.

When a senior official was asked if, after taking this step, Pakistan’s political government would be in a position to fully implement it, he replied, “Nothing, anywhere in the world is perfect. As a nation we can make the best efforts to implement it. This is in itself an evolutionary process and we will gradually reach our goals. By signing and ratifying these conventions, we are indicating that we are sensitive to these issues and wish to implement them. Even in a country like the United States, there is no perfection as far as these conventions are concerned, but Pakistan certainly has the political will to put these in place.”

Pakistan, says the Foreign Office, is already a party to the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and to the core ILO Conventions 29, 87, 98, 100, 105, 111, 138, and 182.

“The ratification of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights commits the government to ensure full realisation of the economic, social and cultural rights of the people of Pakistan enshrined in the covenant, including the elimination of economic injustice and poverty,” said the spokesman at the Foreign Office.

He said that signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Convention against Torture reflected the government’s commitment to promote civil and political rights of its people and to protect them from inhuman and degrading treatment in accordance with internationally-recognised legal standards. “They also demonstrate the resolve of the government to strengthen democracy and to create a just society, which is free of suffering and deprivation,” he added.
Source: The News
Date:4/19/2008