PAKISTAN: The systemic abuse of minority girls undermined by law and a retrograde educational curriculum
HRWF (28.03.2025) – On 26 March 2025, three NGOs – CAP/ Liberté de conscience, Human Rights Without Frontiers and Global Human Rights Defence – organized a side-event at the UN in Geneva in the framework of the 58th Session of the Human Rights Council.
The keynote speaker was Mr Jan Figel, former EU Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief (Slovakia)
The other speakers were
Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers (Belgium)
Bert-Jan Ruissen, Member of the European Parliament (EU/ Netherlands)
Anwar Mehmood Rehman, Swiss Ahmaddiyya politician (Switzerland)
Inna Chevranova, Executive Director of European Facilitation Platform (Belgium)
The moderator was: Christine Mirre, Director of CAP/ Liberté de conscience (France)
Here is the text of Inna Chevranova’s presentation:
Undermined by law and education, the systemic abuse of minority girls in Pakistan
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak at this important side event.
I would like to draw your attention to a pressing human rights concern: the forced conversions and marriages of girls from religious minority communities in Pakistan.
This issue cannot be viewed in isolation.
It is deeply linked to systemic discrimination embedded in the country’s legal framework, social structures, and crucially, its education system.
Pakistan’s Constitution, in Article 22, clearly states that no individual attending an educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction or participate in religious activities not related to their own faith.
Yet, this principle is routinely violated. The introduction of the Single National Curriculum was presented by the government as a means of reducing educational disparities.
In practice, however, it has embedded a singular religious ideology throughout the education system, marginalising non-Muslim students and reinforcing a hierarchy of faith that directly undermines the rights of religious minorities.
These curricular changes do not remain confined to classrooms—they shape public attitudes and normalise exclusion.
Within this environment, young Hindu and Christian girls are particularly vulnerable.
Many are abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to men sometimes decades older than them.
This is not a phenomenon occurring in the shadows; it happens in full view of institutions that are either unwilling or unable to intervene.
Only last year, in Faisalabad, a ten-year-old Christian girl named Laiba was abducted by a man in his forties and forced into marriage after conversion.
Her family’s search for justice was met not with legal support, but with indifference. In another case, Arzoo Raja, a 13-year-old Christian girl, was forcibly married to a much older man. The court initially upheld the marriage on the grounds of her religious conversion, ignoring her age and the circumstances of her disappearance.
These are not exceptional events; they are the product of a broader culture that accepts the subjugation of minority girls as an unfortunate norm.
This culture is reinforced from an early age through education.
Curricula and textbooks frequently promote religious superiority and gender stereotypes.
Girls are routinely depicted in limited domestic roles, and non-Muslim identities are either ignored or portrayed with suspicion.
This erasure of diversity in educational content not only undermines critical thinking and equality but helps create an environment where forced conversions can be rationalised or ignored.
Where discrimination is taught, persecution often follows. This is not merely a domestic issue.
The European Union has, since 2014, granted Pakistan preferential access to its market under the GSP+ trade arrangement, conditional on the country’s adherence to international human rights conventions.
Yet serious concerns remain as to whether Pakistan intends to meet its obligations.
While trade has grown, progress on human rights—particularly in protecting religious minorities and women—remains minimal.
A rights-based approach to trade must mean more than the signing of conventions. It must translate into institutional reform, accountability, and protection for those most at risk.
The international community, and particularly the European Union as a key trade partner, should not turn away from these issues.
The GSP+ mechanism includes a monitoring process, but monitoring without consequence cannot protect vulnerable communities.
If the EU is serious about its human rights commitments, it must ensure that economic partnerships are not maintained at the expense of human dignity.
What we are witnessing is not only the violation of individual rights, but the failure of a system to uphold the values it claims to represent. Minority girls in Pakistan face threats to their identity, freedom, and security, not only from those who perpetrate these acts directly, but from the structures that allow them to continue unchecked.
Their education, their protection under the law, and their right to live free from coercion are all under threat.
We cannot speak of inclusive development or international partnership if these realities are ignored.
The issue of forced conversions and marriages is emblematic of deeper failures in Pakistan’s education system and legal enforcement.
These are challenges that require more than statements—they require coordinated pressure, transparent evaluation, and the political will to insist on reform.
Palais des nations United Nations Geneva Credit: CAPLC