The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

: تنظیم حقوق انسانی پاکستان), or HRCP, is an independent, non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

, founded in 1987, which is not associated or affiliated with the government or any political party. It is committed to act with impartiality and objectivity in all matters. Among its main aims are spreading awareness of human rights among the people, mobilising public opinion, collecting information and disseminating knowledge about human rights abuses, and to monitor and defend human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

.

It describes its aims as:

* to work for the ratification and implementation by Pakistan of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

 and of other related Charters, Covenants, Protocols, Resolutions, Recommendations and internationally adopted norms;

• to promote studies in the field of human rights and mobilise public opinion in favour of accepted norms through all available media and forums, and to carry out every category of activity to further the cause;
• to cooperate with and aid national and international groups, organisations and individuals engaged in the promotion of human rights and to participate in meetings and congresses on human rights at home and abroad;
• to take appropriate action to prevent violations of human rights and to provide legal aid and other assistance to victims of those violations and to individuals and groups striving to protect human rights.

Among issues it has covered are women's rights, including the rights of women accused of rape under the Hudood Ordinance

Hudood Ordinance

The Hudood Ordinance was a law in Pakistan that was enacted in 1979 as part of then-military ruler Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization and replaced or revised in 2006 by the Women's Protection Bill....

s and honor killing

Honor killing

An honor killing or honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community...

s, use of bonded labour, restrictions on press freedom, freedom of religion

Freedom of religion

Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...

, freedom of movement

Freedom of movement

Freedom of movement, mobility rights or the right to travel is a human right concept that the constitutions of numerous states respect...

, police excesses, religiously-inspired violence and Canada's false labelling of 24 students as terrorists

Project Thread

Project Thread was a Canadian police operation that resulted in the arrest of 24 immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area in 2003 amidst incorrect allegations they formed a threat to national security, and maintained "suspected ties to al-Qaeda"...

.

The commission is a member organization of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development is a membership-based human rights organization "committed to the promotion and protection of all human rights including the right to development". They were founded in 1991 in Manila, and are now based in Geneva, Switzerland. Their Secretariat...

 (FORUM-ASIA).

See also

• Amnesty International
  Amnesty International
  Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
  
  
• Human Rights Campaign
  Human Rights Campaign
  The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
  
  
• Human Rights Watch
  Human Rights Watch
  Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...