The EU has in place a mechanism known as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) which offers incentives to developing nations to trade with the bloc. Also in place is GSP+ which allows for significant tariff reductions on imports from such nations.
In return for this, the nations concerned are obliged to implement 27 international conventions on human rights,, labour rights, the environment, and good governance.
One of those beneficiaries, Pakistan, has been repeatedly called out for failing to address serious issues particularly in the area of Human rights.
The European Parliament has repeatedly called on the European Commission to suspend Pakistan’s GSP+ status as a result. The Commission has consistently refused to act on the will of Parliament.
A conference on the matter was held at the Brussels Press Club under the auspices of Human Rights Without Frontiers, a leading NGO founded and directed by Willy Fautré.
The event was introduced by Dutch Member of the European Parliament Peter van Dalen, who sits on the Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, and its Committee on Foreign Affairs, and is a vocal advocate of religious freedom.
He emphasised the importance of GSP+ status to the economy of Pakistan and repeated the call for suspension.
Jonathan de Leyser of Christian Solidarity Worldwide addressed the issue of forced marriage and conversion, particularly affecting young girls from the Christian and Hindu communities, who are taken from their families, raped, and forced to convert to Islam.
He emphasised the fact that this often involves the complicity of religious clerics, and brings threats of violence against the girls and their families. Some of the girls affected have been confirmed as being “under 14 years of age.”
He highlighted one particularly disturbing case:
Pooja Kumari, murdered in cold blood, March 2022.
“A Hindu woman named Pooja Kumari was 18 years old when on March of last year three men entered her home… one of the men is said to have asked Miss Kumari to marry him. When she refused, he and the others attempted to abduct her. After she resisted they shot her.”
Whilst there is legislation in place to protect women from such actions, there is no evidence of any actions being taken, and there is a lack of will from the authorities.
Manel Msalmi, a human rights activist in Brussels, and International affairs Advisor of MEPs of the European Peoples’ Party at the European Parliament, reinforced the message on forced marriages, and also mentioned the so-called “honour killings.”
She suggested that fear of “powerful Islamic institutions” was preventing enforcement of the law in Pakistan.
Italian journalist, essayist, translator, and lecturer Marco Respinti talked about the situation facing the Ahmadi community in Pakistan: he referred to the destruction of mosques, attacks on people’s homes, and even lynchings. Between 1984-2020 269 Ahmadis were killed in Pakistan with thousands more injured.
Akmal Bhatti, a Pakistani lawyer and chairman of the Minorities Alliance of Pakistan, currently based in the U.S., stated that in Pakistan members of minority communities are “facing violent attack, social exclusion and harassment” on a daily basis.
Tabassum Yousaf, a Pakistani High Court lawyer, highlighted the lack of proper education for girls in Pakistan, a factor that will seriously hinder the economic opportunities for future generations of women.
The EU does have a monitoring facility in the form of biennial reports on the progress being made by GSP+ beneficiaries in adhering to the 27 international conventions previously mentioned. However, the term “biennial” appears to be somewhat loose, as the reports appear erratically, with the third report appearing 3 years after the second, and the fourth already more than one year late.
EU Today learnt, in response to a question to the European Commission, that the fourth report is planned to appear sometime over the Summer.
