An Analytical Study of the Challenges Facing Religious Minorities: Advocating for Reforms and Empowerment

1. INTRODUCTION

Pakistan is a party to numerous international human rights treaties, including, but not limited to, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The ICCPR, for instance, protects the right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief under Article 18, and the right to freedom of opinion and expression in Article 19.  Furthermore, the CRC prohibits forced religious conversion of children under Articles 12 and 14. Similarly, CEDAW prohibits religious restrictions as grounds for discrimination against women.

Notwithstanding Pakistan’s international human rights commitments, there are no laws that outlaw forced conversion. Consequentially, women from minority faiths are often subjected to forced conversion, typically through coerced marriages. Moreover, under international law, states have positive obligations to protect individuals not only from abuses by state agents but also from violations perpetrated by private individuals or entities. This includes preventing human rights violations within their jurisdiction. In the case of forced conversions, the Pakistani state is required to take proactive measures to protect vulnerable groups, especially minors, from being coerced into changing their religion. Unfortunately, the use of Sharia law and the constitutional framework in Pakistan often directs to the avoidance of these international fundamental and rights obligations.

This gap between Pakistan's international commitments and its domestic legal framework is also evident in the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (Kayaoglu, 2020). While the Cairo Declaration stress that Islam is the "religion of true unspoiled nature" and prohibits any form of pressure to change anyone's religion, it does not provide a positive right to freedom of thought, values, and religion as articulated in the ICCPR. Instead, all rights under the Cairo Declaration are subject to Islamic Sharia law, which is often translated in ways that clash with international human rights standards.

The discrepancy between Pakistan’s international obligations and its domestic practices, particularly in the context of forced conversions, reflects a broader issue of how international human rights norms are implemented—or bypassed—in countries with Islamic legal frameworks. By using Sharia law to justify or overlook forced conversions, Pakistan is in clear violation of the international treaties it has ratified, undermining the fundamental human rights of religious minorities, especially women and children.

In order to conform to international commitments, Pakistan needs convergence and harmonization of its national laws with various international human rights obligations enshrined in treaties such as, the 1966 UN covenant ICCPR, CRC and CEDAW.  Therefore, treaty reservations that weaken the protections, these agreements should be removed and strong legal frameworks should be enacted to prevent forced conversions and protect the rights of all citizens, despite of their religious affiliation.

Literature Review

In Pakistan, minorities including Christians, comprise of less than 1.5 percent and Hindus include of 2 percent of likely 220 million population of Pakistan (Gul, 2023).  These minorities face discrimination in all walks of life and their fundamental rights are violated, with very limited progress in addressing this issue.  Violation of minority rights is a vast area of concern with the forced conversion of religious minorities has emerged as a particularly pressing subtopic, receiving much wider attention in recent years.

Early forced marriages of Christian and Hindu girls make them particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse (United Nations, 2024). It has been reported by local NGOs including the Aurat Foundation and the Movement for Solidarity and Peace (MSP) every year, that approximately 1000 women and girls are victims of forced conversion in Pakistan (Samuel, 2013). Victims of reported forced marriage cases, including Chashman Kanwal, Mehwish Patras, Saba Nadeem and Zarvia Pervaiz, have been as young as 13-year-old (United Nations, 2024). According to UNICEF, 18% of girls are married by the age of 18, with nearly 19 million child brides, and one in six young women is married in childhood (U.S. Department of State, 2023).  

The UN has rightly highlighted the systematic violence against minorities in Pakistan, which has ratified most, if not all, UN treaties such as the 1966 covenant on civil and political rights which addresses this area. Pakistan has also signed and ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In terms of the protection of children and women, Pakistan has ratified to UN Child Rights Convention and UN convention on Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. More specially, Pakistan has also endorsed the declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious, and Linguistic Minorities (United Nations, 1992 ).

Therefore, Pakistan has an erga omnes (positive obligation) to protect all its citizens including minorities. Nonetheless, most women and children from minorities remain vulnerable to discriminatory practices, despite the 1972 constitution of Pakistan condemning such practices.  In particular, Article 36 mandates the protection of minorities, ensuring that their rights and interests are safeguarded by the state. Moreover, the Sindh Child Protection Authority (Amendment) Act, 2021 makes marriage before the age of 18 illegal. However, perpetrators evade punishment by escaping to other provinces (U.S. Department of State, 2023). Despite these persistent issues, in 2021, the Parliamentary Committee for the Protection of Minorities from Forced Conversions rejected a bill designed to protect women and girls from religious minorities against forced conversion and subsequent child or forced marriage (CLAAS-UK).

Additionally, the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) addresses crimes like abduction (section 362) and coercion, often involved in forced conversions (Section 365-B). However, the enforcement of the PPC is influenced by societal and religious dynamics, leading to bias against non-Muslim. Scholars, including Ahmad (2017), highlight that perpetrator of forced conversions rarely face legal consequences. Although, the Council of Islamic Ideology has declared child marriages un-Islamic, yet Judges routinely cite Islamic law to justify child marriages. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that PPC also fails to provide adequate victim protection especially to vulnerable girls from minority communities. According to the National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan (2021), Arzoo Raja Case highlights these gaps in the legal system as a 13-year-old Christian girl was abducted, married to a 44-year-old Muslim man, and forcibly converted to Islam. Sindh High Court ruled in favor of the perpetrators and upheld the conversion and marriage of a minor. Such incidents are common in rural areas, where illiteracy prevails. Additionally, there is publicly available official record of the number of CEFM (Child, Early, and Forced Marriage) cases as the Police crime statistics do not include child marriage in their reports (see Punjab Police - Crime Statistics or Sindh Police - Crime Statistics) (CLAAS-UK).

The lack of comprehensive anti-conversion laws and the influence of Sharia law complicate the legal landscape, leaving many minority victims vulnerable to coercion and exploitation. Socioeconomic factors, including poverty also aggravate this issue as young girls are married off to settle debts by poor parents. According to the report of All Party Parliamentary Group, John et al. (2021) found that approximately 1,000 girls from minority communities, aged 12 to 25, are forcibly converted to Islam and married off to their abductors. (LSE/Qamar Rafiq-2022). This report described the situation as a “human-rights catastrophe” and rightly so because many men glorify Islamic conversion as religious obligation.

Conclusively, it can be seen that the root cause of forced conversion remains unaddressed because of the gaps in implementation. While the problems are documented extensively, there are no efforts made to collect data by government police departments and the judiciary. Such information is crucial in making enforcement effective as Sindh has seen an increase in the incidence of child marriages, especially of girls under 15 (Khilji 2022). In addition to this, cultural practices and socioeconomic norms need to be evaluated properly. Resultantly, policy campaigns should be launched to successfully counter these issues in order to renew the pledge to build a Pakistan that truly embodies the principles of justice, equality, and tolerance.

This study aims to explore the root causes of forced conversion of minorities in Sindh, with a focus on implementation issues. It examines the reasons behind weak legislative frameworks and enforcement issues, while also highlighting the socio-economic factors contributing to these issues. Ultimately, this study seeks to identify key factors that can help in improving policy mechanisms, such as successful campaigns to educate and create awareness about the underlying issues of failure towards minority protection, including practices like child marriages.

The research problem focuses on the forced conversion of minorities and the lack of data collection by government institutions, such as law enforcement agencies. It also delves into the lack of effective identification that can address forced conversion of minorities.

The role of human rights organizations in pressuring the state for legal reforms needs further investigation. Research on local implementation of religious freedom laws, particularly in Sindh, is lacking. Sociocultural factors enabling forced conversions, such as patriarchy and family honor, also remain underexplored.

1. What role can law enforcement agencies play in protecting and improving the fundamental rights of minorities in Pakistan.
2. What is the impact of sociocultural factors on the persistence of forced conversions in rural Sindh, and how can these practices be effectively addressed?

Research Methodology

This study employs qualitative and quantitative techniques to critically analyze the data collected from library research, legal resources, and other sources such as a survey and Graphs. The aim is to uncover previously unexplored aspects of forced conversion, providing a deeper understanding of the issue.  

The qualitative involves extensive reading of books, research articles, newspapers, reports from different organizations and persons, lectures and speeches of judges and jurists, case laws and official documents.  Research Journals and official documents also play a significant role in conducting this research. Additionally, courts decisions and cases regarding the empowerment of women and forced conversion of religion are also included.

The quantitative research methodology involves a research survey. This survey was conducted to identify the trends in forced conversions and track the numbers of conversions between male and females.

The questionnaire included questions specific to the research, which helped clarify the research area.

In short, by adding specific, close ended questions and conducting separate surveys for both males and females, the research was able to produce clear, comparable data on public responses to forced conversions in the specified districts of Sindh. The graphs which were the parts of this research differentiate between the genders and provide valuable insights for the targeted steps.

Each group received the same close-ended questions, like:

1. "Do you know about any legal protection which is provided against forced conversions in Sindh?"
2. "Do you think that the issue of forced conversions is severe in the rural area of Sindh province?"
3. " Do you believe that the current measures are effective in preventing forced conversion?"

In this survey, to obtain consistent and comparable answers, the options provided were “YES”, or “NO” or  “Unsure”. For questions regarding the effectiveness of system, these options “Somewhat effective” or “Not effective at all” were given. These choices allowed for easy comparison of responses and helped in drawing meaningful conclusions through graphs.

Furthermore, in this research, different graphs were created to visually present the data.  The graph illustrates how many people are aware of their rights related to legal protection, including knowledge of the Constitution of Pakistan, the Pakistan Penal Code and various international conventions and agreements that guarantee legal protection of minorities. The second graphs mentioned about the effectiveness of legal system in the protection of minorities rights.

Results and Discussion

The following section synthesize the qualitative and quantitative data gathered, highlighting the socio-economic, legal, and cultural factors that supports these coercive practices.

As mentioned earlier, safeguard against forced conversions is provided, along with other fundamental rights, under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. For instance, Article 9 assures that "no person shall be deprived of life or liberty" without due process of law. Also, Article 20 provides that every citizen has the right to declare, practice, and propagate their religion, subject to law, public order, and morality. Additionally, Article 25A confirms that all citizens are equal before the law and entitled to equal protection, while Article 35 instructs the State to protect marriage, the family, the mother, and the child.  Moreover, Article 36 further compels the State to protect the legitimate rights and interests of minorities.

Rules pertinent to forced conversion are also mentioned in the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The issue of consent is raised under Article 90 and consent is invalidated if given under duress. Moreover, the consent of minor under the age of 12 is not legally acknowledged.  Abduction is defined under Article 362 as an act where any person is forcibly pressured or falsely induced to go from one place to another. Article 365B forbids abduction of any woman with the intent to forcing her into marriage against her will. Furthermore, Article 366A makes it a criminal offense to induce any minor girl under the age of 18 into participating in any act that could lead to her being forced or seduced into illicit intercourse. Additionally, Article 375 defines rape as sexual relations with a woman against her will, without her consent, or with a minor girl under age of 16 years. Articles 498B and 498C specifically address the coercion of women into marriage and the practice of arranging or facilitating marriages of women to the Holy Quran, respectively.

Pakistan's Majority Act 1875 defines the legal age for marriage but does not enforce a consistent standard across different contexts. The Act specifies that a child cannot enter into marriage if below the age of 16 years for females and 18 years for males, and it forbids premarital sexual relations.

The Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act further enhances protections by defining a child as any person under 18 years of age. The Act enforces rigorous imprisonment for those who contract, perform, or facilitate a child marriage.

The child marriage restraint Act, 1929 sets the official age of marriage at 16 for girls and 18 for boys. It illegalized the act of contracting a child marriage, with penalties for those involved.

In Sindh, where various minority communities reside, the Hindu Marriage Act 2017 sets the legal age for marriage at 18 years for both parties. While the objective of this Act is to protect Hindu marriages by requiring legal registration, which helps to prevent forced conversions, it also permits divorce if one party converts to another religion. This provision has been criticized as a potential legal loophole for facilitating forced conversions.

The Compliance with National Laws: Challenges in Implementation Pakistani government asserts that its national laws "strictly forbid forced conversions" and that Islam itself condemns such practices (National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan, 2021). Government officials have claimed that the Supreme Court (SC) has actively pursued cases of forced conversions, ensuring victims can testify in privacy and safety. However, reports from various organizations paint a different picture. The U.S. State Department categorized Pakistan a "country of particular concern" for violations of religious liberty, based on findings by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (U.S. Department of State, 2022). The Commission reported that underage girls from minority Christian, Hindu, and Sikh communities are often kidnapped, forcefully converted to Islam, and sexually assaulted and forced marriages.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (2023) reported that the number of girls in Sindh that were forced to marry older Muslim men and convert reached 1000. At least 195 such cases involved violence, rape, human trafficking, abduction and extortion (The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ)).

Despite the legal framework, enforcement is often insufficient. Police officers frequently reject to register First Information Reports (FIRs) for victims' families. This is a clear breach of Article 25A of the Constitution, requiring equal protection under the law. Often, kidnapped girls are left in the custody of their captors, where they are coerced into claiming that their conversion was voluntary. This not only contravenes Article 36 of the Constitution, which mandates the protection of minority rights but also highlight the state's failure to uphold its constitutional obligations.

According to the International Christian Concern (2021) the Supreme Court refused an appeal by a senior church leader for a constitutional petition to protect religious minority girls from forceful conversions, demonstrating the challenges faced by minority communities in seeking justice. The same year, a parliamentary committee also refused an anti-forced conversion bill, arguing it conflicted with Islamic Sharia law. This rejection, alongside the failure to pass similar legislation in Sindh in 2019 and 2016, highlights rights and freedoms given by the Constitution and international treaties will remain unenforceable to many of Pakistan's most vulnerable citizens.

Furthermore the findings show distinct patterns in the occurrence of forced conversions in Sindh:

In the rural areas of interior Sindh specially girls they are illiterate and economically belongs to poorer families due to these reasons and socio economics crisis they become easy task for exploitation.

Due to negligent legal infrastructure in the rural areas of Sindh, the main areas likewise Ghotki, Tharparkar, Umerkot which is recently declared as a district and mainly the Tharparkar districts which are the witness a different number of cases reported from these districts which effected the young girls and teenagers boys also.

In these areas the violence is exacerbated by influences clergy who perceived their self they are above then the law nor authority here in Sindh to curtail them and they are not responsible of their saying, performance and their acts in any court of law and thus they work openly and through physical force or by compulsion operating the conversion factories.

      In many areas there is the involvement of religious leadership and they are operating different channels of force conversion and because of their political influences they are free from any kind of punishment or legal obligation due to their background and support by the local bodies which is also question mark for the law and order situation.

A survey was conducted for the evaluation or to provide analytical insights into public opinion and the awareness about the forced conversion of male and female in rural districts of Sindh. To ensure accuracy and smooth execution of this survey, a questionnaire was formatted and distributed across different localities and the resulting data is represented in graphs, illustrating how this research contributes to exploring the issue

The study aimed to understand if men and women view forced conversions differently, so separate surveys were conducted for each gender. This approach allowed for gathering insights specific to the perspectives and experiences of both men and women in Sindh.

Below are the key findings represented through Graphs:

Figure 1

How Prevalent Do You Think Forced Conversions are in Your Community?

Figure 2

To What Extent Do You Agree That Socio-Cultural Pressures Contributed to Forced Conversions?

Figure 3

Legal Mechanisms and Judicial Reforms: How Effective are the Current Legal Mechanisms in Preventing Forced Conversions?

Figure 4

What Level of Priority Should Judicial Reforms Have in Addressing Forced Conversions?

Figure 5

Influence of International Human Rights Frameworks: Are You Aware of Any International Human Rights Frameworks That Address Religious Freedom?

Figure 6

To What Extent Do You Believe International Human Rights Frameworks Influence Local Laws?

Figure 7

How Effective Do You Believe the Government is in Protecting Religious Minorities from Forced Conversion?

Figure 8

Are You Aware of Any NGO Effort to Combat Forced Conversion?

Figure 9

How Effective are These NGOs?

Figure 10

Are You Optimistic about the Improvement of Religious Freedom in Sindh in the Next 5 Years?

The findings of this research focus the persistent and alarming trend of forced conversions in Sindh, particularly targeting young girls from Hindu and Christian communities.

Recommendations

Pathways to Change – Advocating for Reform and Empowerment

The question of forced conversions is a legal issue and at the same time it’s a social cultural and the morality-based issue to handle. This problem requires special treatment to be curbed. No doubt different nature of laws are enacted and exist in legal framework of Sindh province for the protection of Sindh minorities, but their implementation and execution are inadequate, which increases  problems of minority communities about their religious performance and use of coercion and violence then involve for force conversion. In this chapter some strategic suggestion and recommendations are given to create effective and immediate improvement for the rights of minorities

To provide meaningful protection for minorities, the Sindh government must pass new laws aimed at safeguarding their rights. At the same time, there should be a focus on creating an anti-conversion law that explicitly bans forced conversions (Firstpost, 2023). These laws should include various penalties for anyone involved in such activities, including perpetrators, facilitators, and those who engage in any type of hate speech and incite the public at large to harm minorities. Additionally, safe housing areas should be established for minorities, and legal, psychological, and moral aid should be provided to victims. No individual who negatively impacts the safety and well-being of minorities should be exempt from legal consequences.

Harmonization and Convergence of national laws with international obligations is imperative for the protection of minorities in Pakistan. Currently, Pakistan has enacted legislation for protection of women and children rights under ICCPR obligations. However, ICCPR’s section 22 (Freedom of Religion) lacks enforcement. Despite the fact that religious freedom is a constitutional right (article 20 of Pakistan’s Constitution), its implementation is lax for instance Sindh Forced Conversion Law of 2016 has a very limited scope. Moreover, efforts such as the legislative proposal 2021 have failed at legislative levels. Thus, Amnesty International (2024) recand the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (2023) have all pressured Pakistan to strengthen protections against forced conversions and safeguard religious minorities. Therefore, Pakistan needs to adapt international laws and formulate of new legislation relating to minorities. This will strengthen the safeguard of religious freedoms and prevent legal flaws that currently empower forced conversions.

It’s a dire need of time to settle down the standardized age for the both genders  in all the provinces of Pakistan which is 18years of ages (UNICEF, 2021), This would close the gaps in existing laws that don’t protect the minors girls and they become easily victimize and force conversion can easily be happen. If these types of legislation happen in near futures which are strictly bound to age limit for marriage or nikkah would be 18years for both male and female will be helpful in protecting the rights of minorities.

Dedicated special judicial tribunals must be established at lower level to curb the cases of forced conversion and other rights of minorities must be ensure by theses tribunals in case of any infringement of minorities right the tribunals should operate for inexpensive and expeditious justice to minorities. These judges must be well aware about the minority’s rights, human rights and also about the religious freedom so that public confidence on these tribunals arise up.

A method is adopted where a case is reported about force conversion no other than that Police officers must be held answerable if a case is reported in police station on conversion of religion. Tin Pakistan the online reporting of cases is still not fallowed and for launching of (FIRs) by the weak family specially for the minorities is a difficult task for providing rapid protection and safety to the minorities the police and other enforcement agencies must fallows the new techniques to overcome these types of sensitive cases.

 In recent era where different techniques are adopted by other countries for the recording of evidence use of different tools under the artificial intelligence the safe environment could be provided through this way to witnesses and the testimonies without any fear. New laws could adopt for the safeguard of minorities.

A campaign must be started at a community level to educate the public at large and teach about the moralities and other customs, values and traditions of over peaceful society regarding the rights of religious minorities (Amnesty International, 2023). and the legal protections available to them. These campaigns or training session should be accompanied in local languages so that people can easily understand and valued them.

For handling public it is necessary to get help from the progressive religious leadership to control the force conversion of religious minorities. Because theses religious pilgrams can build a level of mutual respect for minorities and the tolerance between the public at large and the socities, caste and economically influence may also control to effect both the parties and they remains in their specified limits according to their religious teaching and the sense of peacfull society and happily living in the society prevail whole in the provinces of Sindh and also in allover the Pakistan.

For the smooth performance or function of minorities with in rural areas of Sindh formulating targeted economic programs, to reduce their vulnerability to coercion. In these types of Initiatives must include vocational training programs, micro financial opportunities, and job placement services in all areas, by providing these substitute to communities which reduce the pressured into conversion due to financial hardship.

Those NGOs and societies work for Stabilization and support the public sphere organizations in advocating for the rights of religious minorities must provide them support and finance. So that these groups should be empowered to display cases of forced conversions, and provide them legal aid to the victims of forced conversion, and act as intermediaries between the affected communities and the state for their betterment and protection.

Work with international human rights organizations and the United Nations to apply international fulfillment of rights which Pakistan made commitments to honor religious minorities about religious freedom. Establishing international monitoring bodies and also establish at national level to oversee the situation in Sindh and make sure that violations are brought to light and addressed quickly.

At the national level raise awareness about the issue of forced conversions in Sindh through international media, organization, civil societies, human rights campaigns, and strategic channels. By keeping in view the issue in the global spotlight, there is a greater chance to continual pressure for reform for the minorities at the national level.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is crucial to emphasize that the minority rights must be protected by the constitution and the legislation which are enlightened by United Nation’s standards to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all the citizens of Pakistan. The execution of these rights should be a priority for the government, especially in addressing the issue of forced conversions of young girls, as thousands of Pakistani girls are forcibly converted every year. The statics show that Hindus make up approximately 2 percent and Christians 1.5 percent of Pakistan’s estimated 25 crore population. so, it's not difficult task for all the stake holders to protect their basic and fundamental rights so they can contribute in the betterment of country and over positive image related to minorities, boost up in front of international community as Pakistan is the signatory of universal declaration of human right and the united nation high commissioner for human rights which hold perpetrators accountable. In the above-mentioned circumstances to treat equals equally this principle of administration spirit only fulfills if nee laws and policies are formed for the protection and betterment of minorities which is need of time in current scenario of our beloved country.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors of the manuscript have no financial or non-financial conflict of interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data associated with this study will be provided by the corresponding author upon request.

FUNDING DETAILS

No funding has been received for this research.