UN Deplores Continued Human Rights Violations in Pakistan

Posted August 19th, 2011 at 1:05 pm (UTC-5)
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The United Nations is urging Pakistan to investigate human rights violations, including several recent attacks on journalists.

A spokesman for the U.N. human rights commissioner, Rupert Colville, said Friday the U.N. agency has recently received reports on the killing of a journalist in Baluchistan province and the disappearance of another in the North Waziristan tribal region .

Colville said the attacks are the latest in a series of reported abductions, disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Pakistan since 2007.

Speaking to VOA, Colville said media rights groups name Pakistan as one of the most dangerous places, if not the most dangerous place, for journalists.

He cited the Committee to Protect Journalists as saying that at least 16 reporters were killed last year, while nine others have been killed this year. Colville said Pakistani authorities have failed to fully investigate any of the cases.

The U.N. human rights spokesman said that in Baluchistan alone, there were reports that 25 people — including journalists, writers, students and human rights defenders — had been extrajudicially killed during the first four months of this year.

In June, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that 140 people, including journalists, were found dead between July 2010 and May 2011 after initially being reported missing.