HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE
Human right abuse is the infringement on the rights and freedoms of any individual or group by
another individual or group. This means that a person’s rights are abused when he or she is
prevented from enjoying the rights and freedoms given to him or her by the constitution.
Human right abuse is a punishable offense under the law as it makes the victims suffer or be
harmed.
GROUPS OF PEOPLE WHO COMMONLY SUFFER HUMAN ABUSE
These include;
1. Women
2. Children
3. Illiterates or uneducated people
4. Disabled people (blind, deaf and dumb, crippled)
5. Poor people
6. Mad or insane people
7. Foreigners or strangers
8. House helps
9. Prisoners
EXAMPLES OF HUMAN RIGHT ABUSES
Bullying
This involves threatening or harming people who are younger or weaker in the society. This
often makes the victims timid. An example is seniors threatening to beat a junior at school.
Child labour
This is a situation where children below 15 years are made or forced to work for money. This
prevents them from enjoying their right to education as they are forced to beg, work at brick kiln
and in agricultural sectors and others on the street or markets instead of going to school.
Discrimination
This involves treating people unfairly due to their religion, gender or social class (rich or poor).
This does not enable the victim to live a happy or comfortable life.
Child trafficking
This is where children are sold into slavery in other communities by their parents or guardians.
Such children are often maltreated, slaved and made to do hard work without pay.
Rape or defilement
This is when people are forced to engage in sexual activities against their will (desire). Rape is
used for adults and defilement for children who are less than 16 years. They often result in the
destruction of the reproductive organs and abuse the reproductive rights of the victims.
Sex trade
This is where young girls are engaged in sexual activities or prostitution for money. This denies
them of their right to education and also their reproductive rights are often abused.
Domestic slavery
This involves employing young people to work in homes as maid servants, house helps or garden
boys. Such people are often less paid and are treated as slaves.
CAUSES OR REASONS PEOPLE SUFFER FROM HUMAN RIGHT
ABUSES
1. POVERTY
Many people suffer human right abuses because they do not have money to hire the services of
lawyers to defend or protect their rights in court. They hence do nothing when they are abused.
This enables people to continue to abuse their rights.
2. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON RIGHTS
Most Pakistanis are unmindful of their rights towards freedom. They therefore are not aware
when their rights are abused making others to freely abuse them always.
3. FEAR OF INTIMIDATION
People who are abused are often threatened to be killed if they report or tell others about the
abuses. They hence do not report these abusers to the right authorities and that encourages them
to continue to abuse them.
4. EFFECT OF OUTMODED CULTURAL PRACTICES
The practice of certain old cultures such as feudal system abuse people's rights. For example;
interfamilial marriages in tribal areas deprive youngsters from their right to select their spouse
which is wrong with respect to religious scripture and it leads to increased divorced ratio, extra
martial affairs and ultimately disrupts the balance of society and the chain goes on. Feudal lords
who own the lands but do not work and suppress the rights of the labour working. The labours do
not have a share in the profit rather they are given daily or monthly wages which keeps the hard
working poor and lord enjoys the profit without working. It leads to social evils like murder,
snatching and looting.
It is a cultural practice to keep girls away from study and training them for house chores and
granting boys a right to study even if they have to go out of the town. Such discrimination will
never lead to a literate generation because women are a pivot of the house and these things
depend upon her preferences.
5. LACK OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION
Minority groups and the disabled have not got people to represent them in the government.
Therefore, they are defenseless and less protected by the nation’s law making people abuse their
rights easily.
EFFECTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
1. It can lead to the death of the victims.
2. It creates insecurity in the community
3. It makes people lose confidence in the police for not protecting them.
4. It makes people maimed or lose parts of their bodies.
5. It makes people lose their respect or dignity in the community.
6. It makes people become timid.
WAYS OF CONTROLLING OR PREVENTING HUMAN RIGHT ABUSE
REPORTING ABUSERS
Individuals whose rights are abused must report the abusers to police to be arrested. This will
help reduce such cases.
ABOLITION OF OUTMODED CULTURES
Government must ensure that outmoded cultures which have been discussed so far should be
abolished considering census to check whether children are going to school or girls are deprived
of their basic rights. It is a collective effort to eradicate an outmoded culture; one person cannot
bring the change.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
The courts must ensure that human right abusers are given severe punishment. This will help
deter others and thus reduce human right abuses in our community.
EQUIPPING HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS
The government must supply human right institutions with all the things they need to make them
work effectively. This will make people know about them and seek their services.
REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS IN GOVERNMENT
Government must ensure that minority groups such as the disabled are represented in the
government. This will help them to be defended in the nation.
REFERENCES
Jahangir, A. (2000). Human rights in Pakistan: A system in the making.
In Realizing human rights (pp. 167-193). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Chitkara, M. G. (1997). Human rights in Pakistan. APH Publishing.
Meyer, J. W., Bromley, P., & Ramirez, F. O. (2010). Human rights in social
science textbooks: Cross-national analyses, 1970–2008. Sociology of
education, 83(2), 111-134.
Karim, F. (1995). Contemporary forms of slavery in Pakistan. Human
Rights Watch.
