<\/p>\n
<\/span>Human Rights Now, a Tokyo based international human rights organization <\/span>It is apparent that <\/span>HRN states that Norms of international law establish minimum standards protecting the advocacy The UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, Pakistan is also obligated to respect the prohibitions against torture, arbitrary HRN condemns military president General Pervez Musharraf’s repression of the HRN condemns the extra-legal measures being HRN view the Emergency Declaration and subsequent changes to Pakistan law as Background<\/p>\n When military President Musharraf sacked the Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme The repression of lawyers by the Musharraf regime recommenced when a state of HRN joins with other Human Rights Now, a Tokyo based international human rights organization constituted by lawyers, academic, activists and citizens calls for: 1. The immediate release of all lawyers arrested under preventative detention measures, including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Asma Jahangir, United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; Aitzaz Ahsan, President of the Supreme Court Bar; over 50 members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) including Executive Director I.A Rehman, Secretary-General Iqbal Hiader (former attorney general of Pakistan) and Jawed Iqbal Burqi; Muneer A Malik former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association; Imran Qureshi, of the Women’s Rights organization; Ali Ahmed Kurd, former Vice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[157,154,15,102],"countries":[243],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-statement","tag-accountability-for-gross-human-rights-violations","tag-defenders-democratic-space","tag-extrajudicial-killings-war-crime-and-crimes-against-humanity","tag-human-rights-defenders-independence-of-judiciary","countries-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":550,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nconstituted by lawyers, academic, activists and citizens calls for:
\n 1. The immediate release of all lawyers arrested under preventative
\ndetention measures, including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing,
\nAsma Jahangir, United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or
\nbelief; Aitzaz Ahsan, President of the Supreme Court Bar; over 50 members of
\nthe Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) including Executive Director I.A
\nRehman, Secretary-General Iqbal Hiader (former attorney general of Pakistan)
\nand Jawed Iqbal Burqi; Muneer A Malik former president of the Supreme Court Bar
\nAssociation; Imran Qureshi, of the Women’s Rights organization; Ali Ahmed
\nKurd, former Vice Chair of the Pakistan Bar Council; Tariq Mahmood, Ali Ahmed
\nKurd, Abrar Hassan, Ahsan Bhoon and others,
\n2. Strict adherence by the State and state officials to all Pakistan laws
\nand to applicable international standards governing the guarantees, safeguards,
\nrights and freedoms app! licable to the role of lawyer, including those
\nembodied in the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers
\n3. Strict adherence by the State and state officials to all Pakistan laws
\nand to applicable international standards governing the humane treatment of prisoners,
\nincluding the universal non-derogable prohibition against torture;
\n 4. Appropriate civil and criminal remedies for violations of the
\nrights of those detained.
\n 5. Dismissal of the warrant for the arrest of United Nations
\nSpecial Rapporteur in Human Rights Defenders, Hina Jilani.
\n 6. The immediate re-instatement of and adherence to the
\nConstitution of the Republic of Pakistan and rescission of the Emergency
\nDeclaration of November 3, 2007, the Provisional Constitutional Order No. 1 of
\n2007 and the Oath of Offices (Judges) Order, 2007<\/p>\n
\nthe above named and numerous other Pakistan lawyers have been arrested and
\ndetained solely to prevent them from carrying out their professional duty to
\nadvocate vigorously against the arbitrary suspension of the rule of law and
\nviolation of human rights by the Musharraf regime, and for the restoration of
\nlaw in Pakistan. Reports indicate that the lawyers arrested have been
\nsubjected to a number of serious violations of their fundamental rights in
\naddition to arbitrary arrest and detention, including denial of due process,
\ndenial of necessary medical attention, denial of access to legal
\nrepresentatives and visitors and exposure to the possibility of torture and
\nother prohibited inhumane treatment. Recent (November 11, 2007) amendments were
\nmade to the law to allow the trial of lawyers and other civilians by military
\ncourts for a range of acts including making statements ‘conducive to public
\nmischief’.<\/p>\n
\nlawyers in Pakistan are duty bound to uphold the rule of law and to advocate
\nfor justice and against repression.
\nTo do so, they must be willing and free to stand between the state and the citizen
\nand to criticize and call into question the actions of the State when human
\nrights are threatened.<\/p>\n
\nrights of lawyers and these standards have been adopted by Pakistan both as a
\nmember of the United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
\nat Articles 16 and 17, require Pakistan to ensure that lawyers are free to
\n“perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance,
\nharassment or improper interference…” and “where the security of
\nlawyers is threatened as a result of discharging their functions, they shall be
\nadequately safeguarded by the authorities.” Furthermore, Article 23 of the
\nUN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers provides that “Lawyers like
\nother citizens are entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and
\nassembly. In particular, they shall have the right to take part in public
\ndiscussion of matters concerning the law, the administration of justice and the
\npromotion and protection of human rights .”<\/p>\n
\narrest and detention contained in, inter alia, the Universal Declaration of
\nHuman Rights (UDHR). State practice and opinio juris have resulted in
\nthese rights becoming part of customary international law.
\nRegardless of the current status of the Pakistani Constitution, the Islamic
\nRepublic of Pakistan remains obligated to observe these basic tenants of
\ninternational law.<\/p>\n
\npeaceful efforts of members of the Pakistani Bar to uphold the law and to
\nadvocate for the rule of law, the independence of the Pakistan judiciary and
\nadherence by the Musharraf regime, to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic
\nof Pakistan.
\nused to punish the legitimate and lawful exercise of freedom of speech and
\nassembly by lawyers.<\/p>\n
\nbeing illegitimate, prohibited by both the Constitution of the Republic of
\nPakistan and by international law, with a cloak of apparent legality.<\/p>\n
\nCourt on March 9, 2007, hundreds of lawyers rallied and spoke publicly in
\nsupport of the Chief Justice and against proceedings brought against him by
\nMusharraf. Protests by lawyers, judges and others continued up to July
\n20, 2007 when the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered Chaudhry reinstated as
\nChief Justice and dismissed the proceedings against him as illegal.<\/p>\n
\nemergency was declared and the Pakistan Constitution suspended on November 3,
\n2007. The suspension of the constitution resulted in the repeal of fundamental
\nhuman rights, including the right to life and liberty, freedoms of assembly,
\nassociation and speech, equality before and equal protection of the law.
\nCore legal rights related to arrest and detention are also repealed, including
\nthe right to counsel. Since then, thousands of
\nlawyers and human rights activists have been arrested and detained.
\nlawyers and human rights advocates in Pakistan and around the world in calling for
\nthe immediate remedies set out above.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"