UN asks Pakistan to review laws against women

The head of the UN human rights agency has asked Pakistan to review laws that discriminate against women, particularly those …

The head of the UN human rights agency has asked Pakistan to review laws that discriminate against women, particularly those which make them vulnerable to violent crimes and murder.

Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said he had expressed concern about Islamic laws dating back to the 1980s that activists say make it difficult to prosecute crimes like rape and so-called honor killings.

"It is not just a question of how they (laws) are applied and interpreted," Mr de Mello told a news conference during a three-day visit to Pakistan. "I have urged that these laws be looked at again."

Each year hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan for offences deemed to offend family honor, which can range from adultery to marrying without family consent or failing to bring in an adequate dowry.

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Police generally do not seriously pursue such killings. Hundreds more women die each year in domestic violence and proving a rape case under traditional Sharia law requires the offence to have been witnessed by four adult Muslim males.

President Pervez Musharraf, who vowed economic, political and social reform when he took power in a bloodless coup in October 1999, also promised to look into concerns of rights activists.

However, the powerful religious right in predominantly Muslim Pakistan has always strongly resisted any attempt to change Islamic laws.

"I have expressed my preoccupation with laws that discriminate against women and make it more difficult to prosecute certain types of crimes such as honor killings," Mr de Mello said.

"I also recognize that this needs a huge effort and a long effort, in terms of education, in order to change attitudes, but the prosecution of such crimes in the meantime is a key requirement," he said.

At the same news conference, de Mello reiterated his call for respect for human rights in the campaign against terror that followed the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the United States.