Category: Major Stories

Boko Haram’s War on Human Rights in Africa – 10,000 Killed in Past Year, 16 Towns Burned, 2,000 Killed or Missing in Past Week

The Global Terror Organization Boko Haram has been mounting an increasing war on the human rights and security of African people in multiple nations. Within the past week, this has included burning down 16 Nigerian towns and villages, killing many at a multinational military base, and international terrorist murders in Cameroon, as well as threatening Cameroon’s democracy. In the past year, Boko Haram-linked violence has resulted in over 10,000 violent deaths, based on studies developed by the by the Council for Foreign Relations (CFR). The terrorist group Boko Haram’s goals were previously focused on establishing “an Islamic state” in northeast Nigeria. It is now clear the Boko Haram has greater, international aims.

Update: On January 9, 2015, CNN has published this update that “[m]ore than 2,000 people were killed in attacks on 16 villages, said Musa Bukar, chairman of Kukawa local government, where Baga is located…. At least 30,000 people were displaced, authorities said.”

In October 2014, it was reported by the Director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese, Rev. Gideon Obasogie, that Boko Haram had burned 185 churches, during Boko Haram’s attack and capture of 11 towns in Borno and Adamawa. He stated that over 190,000 people had been displaced.

In addition, Boko Haram has been holding over 200 schoolgirls that it kidnapped from schools in Chibok in the Nigerian Borno state in April 2014. News reports stated that the kidnapped (predominantly Christian) girls were “converted to Islam” and married to members of the Boko Haram terrorist organization for a “bride price” of $12.50. (This kidnapping has led to the social media campaign for their safe return, on Twitter at #BringBackOurGirls.) The London Times has reported that “more than 600 girls” have been kidnapped by the Boko Haram terror group. The name of the Boko Haram terror group translates into “Western education is sinful.”

The most recent wave of attacks began after a Boko Haram attack on January 3, 2015, where the global terrorist group overran a multinational military base for Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon in Baga in Nigeria’s Borno state. In addition to military killed in the attack, civilians fleeing the Boko Haram were also killed while trying to flee across nearby Lake Chad.

Earlier that week before the attack on the Baga base, Boko Haram had kidnapped about 40 young men from surrounding villages. Boko Haram reportedly ordered villages to “attend a sermon,” then kidnapped young men aged 10 to 23 years old from the villages.

Over the past five days, the global terrorist organization Boko Haram has declared a war on towns across Nigeria, especially in the Nigerian Borno state.

This has been an ongoing war by Boko Haram on civilians, which has been escalating for months. In September 2014, the Nigerian Daily Post reported that “the streets of the Bama [town] in Maiduguri have been taken over by littered corpses two days after the militants claimed authority over the second largest Borno town.”

Nigeria: Borno State - Corpses Line Streets in Bama Town - Boko Haram Claims Victory (Source: Nigerian Daily Post). Daily Post also stated "Boko Haram fighters are currently patrolling the streets of Bama, stopping residents from burying littered corpses."

In the past week, the Nigerian News reported the Boko Haram had destroyed at least 16 towns and villages in Nigeria. On January 8, 2015, some Nigeria media and NBC reported that included the Boko Haram capture of Baga, which was the last Nigerian-government controlled town in Northern Borno.

The AFP has reported such violence throughout Nigeria’s Borno state, from a local government and a union official. AFP reports: “‘They burnt to the ground all the 16 towns and villages including Baga, Dorn-Baga, Mile 4, Mile 3, Kauyen Kuros and Bunduram,’ said Musa Bukar, head of the Kukawa local government in Borno state.”

NBC reports that “more than 2,000 people are unaccounted for” after the Boko Haram torching of the Borno state towns and villages. Ahmed Zanna, a senator for Borno state where the attack happened, told NBC that “these towns are just gone, burned down… the whole area is covered in bodies.”

NBC also reports that Nigerians expect the Boko Haram to attempt to disrupt Nigerian national elections planned for February 14, 2015.

The terrorist group Boko Haram has demonstrated that it is more than a Nigerian-based terror threat with killings in Cameroon and further threats of violent attacks on Cameroon if it did not submit to Boko Haram. Since the beginning of the New Year, Boko Haram has been attacking Cameroon, and Boko Haram terrorists have reportedly killed 15 people in Cameroon.

As reported in numerous media, on January 7, 2015, a Boko Haram leader also issued a YouTube video to call for Cameroon to denounce democracy and to embrace Boko Haram’s religious views.

The UK Independent has reported that Boko Haram made the following threat and demands by video to the nation of Cameroon: “I advise you to desist from following your constitution and democracy, which is un-Islamic… The only language of peace is to repent and follow Allah, but if you do not then we will communicate it to you through the language of violence.”

Boko Haram Leader Threatens Cameroon in YouTube Video (Source: YouTube, The Independent)

Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has other reports on the attacks against Christian churches and Nigerian citizens. R.E.A.L. posted a report on May 2014 attacks where 50 churches were burned and 500 Christians killed. R.E.A.L. posted a report on October 2014 attacks where 185 churches were burned and over 190,00 displaced.

In November 2013, the U.S. Department of State designated Boko Haram as a Global Terrorist Organization (GTO), which Boko Haram is increasingly demonstrating by its international terrorist activities. Boko Haram has been linked to other global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, all of which seek to deny universal human rights to our fellow human beings.

Our support for the Universal Human Rights of all people must be for all nations, all continents, and every place on Earth. We seek to be responsible for equality and liberty for the oppressed people in Africa and every part of our shared world. We must call upon the nations of the world to take action to stop the growing violence and threat from the international terrorist organization Boko Haram, their kidnapping of children, their efforts to deny freedom of conscience, and their rejection of our shared universal human rights of equality, liberty, dignity, and security. We call for the President of the United States to also make a statement and offer his support to Nigeria and the African nations affected by this global terror groups actions, and to end their reign of terror over children and the people of Africa.

Law Enforcement and Our Responsibility

The mission for Responsible for Equality and Liberty has been to work in promoting a culture where mutual respect for our common universal human rights is part of our lives around the world. These include our universal human rights of life, security, safety, dignity, equality, and freedom as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

One of the most fundamental aspects of promoting human rights is being actively involved in defending these rights. That defense requires multiple methods: education, activism, defying oppressors, and defending those whose rights are being denied. Defense of human rights also includes the mission of law enforcement.

Local laws in free nations reflect such universal human rights. Where such laws do not reflect such universal human rights, it is our responsibility in democracies to get such laws changed. When it is not understood that the mission of law enforcement is in defending such human rights, history shows this is where nations get into trouble.

We cannot tell the world that we stand for human rights of oppressed people, but also say that when our brothers and sisters are being attacked by human rights violators and law breakers that we will just wait only for government law enforcement professionals to act.

If we think we have no role in law enforcement, then we are human rights hypocrites.

Some would think that speaking or acting when our brothers and sisters are attacked would be too brave, and perhaps that we should “mind our own business.” Being responsible is not “brave” at all. Our culture must work to make it clear that such responsibility is a basic part of being a citizen anywhere our world.

How could human rights activists not defy those criminals threatening human rights and associated laws? If we choose not to act with every little human rights abuser, how can we ever hope to have effective activism when confronting major human rights abusers? Our responsibility for human rights never comes from fear, but must always come from real courage. Every day. Everywhere. With no exceptions. If we need an army to protect the rights and law in our world, we are that army.

In the 21st century, we have also vividly been shown that the public cannot “outsource” the mission of law enforcement only to those government professionals.

If law enforcement is necessary to protect human rights, than support for law enforcement is not just the responsibility of government professionals. Law enforcement is also OUR responsibility. We have gotten away from this thinking. We have come not only to be dependent on government professionals, but also to believe we have no right to have a say in the enforcement of our own laws designed to respect our human rights. We have come to believe that this is someone else’s responsibility.

This misguided view has become so pervasive that even our government professionals within the police and courts have come to believe that indeed they are the only ones who can speak and act on law enforcement matters.

How can we surrender our role in law enforcement to only a limited number of government professionals versus a potential sea of human rights abusers and criminals? How? But this is the view of too many today.

Such government professionals cannot and will not be there all of the time when rights are abused and laws are broken. Building an ever larger army of such professionals in the delusional belief that will really ensure the protection of our rights and law is deceptive.

Who should stop a thug beating an elderly woman in the street?
Who should help protect a child being sexually abused, a woman being raped, or any of us being violently attacked?
Who should tell a thief to stop their actions, and take efforts to stop them or photograph them?
Why would this not be OUR responsibility as citizens?

Do we really think we should surrender our role in law enforcement in these areas?
Is this really just “someone else’s problem”?
Is this really only a problem for when the government professionals are available to act?

Thankfully for me as a child, such a “regular person” understood that we are all responsible for law enforcement. Mrs. O was an elderly black American woman in the public housing project where I grew up in Pennsylvania. I was a young boy delivering papers when I was knocked off my bicycle in the night by a criminal with a knife. The white criminal man came from behind me with a knife to my throat. He wanted my “collections” – a whole ten dollars.

Let me tell you, we almost never saw the police when I lived in the housing projects, and when we did, God love them, they were always too late. I understand many frustrated people on that topic. I know – I lived it too, and it in that case, it didn’t matter what your race was, we just were simply viewed as a “different class” of people. That is simply the way it was. Years, later, we eventually moved out of the project housing, and we still loved the police so much that my mother worked as a local policewoman, and I went to work at the FBI. We have loved the police. But we always understood that law enforcement is the responsibility for every citizen.

Mrs. O looked at the window in her house in the projects where I was being held at knife point. She could have done anything, and most would not blame her for looking away. She could have called the police, who everyone in “the projects” knew would show up when they felt like it. She could have let two white guys settle it out. She could have let some other, younger, neighbor deal with it. She could have rightly been afraid that the man with knife might do something to her, if not then, he could retaliate later. When we choose fear and indecision, we have so many options and choices.

But it was a dark winter night, and Mrs. O didn’t do any of those. She stepped outside in the cold dark unafraid, and with the sternest voice she could muster, she told that man to drop that knife and leave me alone. And he did and fled. So Mrs. O is always going to be my personal hero. But she wouldn’t view it that way at all. Not at all. It was simply the responsible thing to do. If she hadn’t been responsible, everything I have done to try to help in human rights or anything in my life might not have never happened. That’s how essential it is for us to be responsible for the law enforcement and human rights of our fellow human beings.

We don’t have to surrender to those violating our human rights and laws. We don’t have to depend on government professionals to solve all our problems in human rights and law enforcement. But this is more than just being responsible, we really need to rethink if we are taking the right approach to law enforcement in general.

Over the past decade or more, in the United States of America, we have come to think that we need to supersize our law enforcement agencies and their resources, mostly due to terrorist threats. The downside to this type of thinking is the idea that we can somehow “outsource” our individual responsibility for law enforcement. I can tell you from personal experience, and I am sure many of you could too, there is no way that we can do that. We need to all be responsible for law enforcement.

When considering law enforcement, the only “them” versus “us” that there should be are those who respect human rights and the law, and those who do not. It really must be that simple. That begins with the view that we are not waiting for someone with a badge to protect the rights and safety of our fellow human beings.

The other problem with the idea of a “standing army” of law enforcement government professionals is how to keep them effectively employed. We cannot have any such domestic law enforcement armies who become beholden to arrest rates and statistical averages to justify their professional employment.

The New York Post recently reported with horror that the NYPD will “only make arrests when they have to,” as if this was something bad. If we have so many idle police professionals who think that they need to be making arrests when they DON’T have to, we have a real problem there. Perhaps we need more citizens willing to stand up to criminals and less of a “standing army” looking for something to do to justify budgets and salaries.

In the local Washington DC area, especially over the past several years, I have witnessed excessive use of police activity for questionable productivity. Last week, I saw traffic stopped for miles as a 40 motorcycle police force delivered a police officer dressed as Santa Claus to some event. I am sure it was worthy, and I am certainly I am big fan of Santa Claus (!), but we really need to have some degree of balance in the use of our government resources. A “standing army” looking for something to do is going to increasingly do less to protect human rights and the law, and get more in the way of such human rights and disrupt public order. Our police should be busy enough that they do only arrest those they need to arrest. When we think that balance is a problem, we need to reconsider our professional resource allocations in law enforcement. But the fundamental answer has to be more involvement by the public in law enforcement. Professional law enforcement cannot and will not be everywhere.

The same city in Pennsylvania, where Mrs. O stood up against a knife-wielding attacker to save my life, has changed a great deal in the past decade. No doubt much of this is economic pressures. But there is something else, the growing view over time that law enforcement is someone else’s job. The street I moved to after leaving the housing projects has become a war zone, with gun fights in the street, and shooting in front of churches. In this city, the ice cream stands have become a haven for drug dealers and criminals. Elderly women are being robbed, beaten, raped, and killed for a handful of dollars – in broad daylight. Children are being regularly sexually abused by predators, starved to death by their parents, and thrown in the trunks of cars and abused by “upright parents.” Even a nun is raped in broad daylight. This is where I grew up. It makes me sick to my stomach. That is what happens when you abandon respect for human rights and law, and you surrender your law enforcement responsibility to the “professionals.”

The government professional police in this city? Well, they learned the lesson our nation is going to learn. There aren’t enough police, and there can’t ever be enough police. More badges wasn’t and isn’t the answer for effective large-scale law enforcement. The local area simply can’t afford it, and even if they could afford it, there wouldn’t be enough. Until more of the people have a zero tolerance attitude towards criminals, there couldn’t be enough police.

When you surrender your responsibility for law enforcement, you surrender an important part of being the citizen of a community. We in human rights need to be a part of that. Criminals are enemies of human rights. Criminal are enemies of the human rights of security, safety, dignity, liberty, and equality. Criminals have rejected those shared human rights priorities for their own rules and their own selfish priorities.

It is our responsibility to defy and stand up to such criminals, whether they are a thug on the street or they are Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir. A criminal is a criminal. A human rights violator is a human rights violator. They don’t need to just fear the enforcement by government law enforcement professionals. These criminals need to expect the rejection, the contempt, the disgust, and the active defiance by the citizens of the world. The answer to law enforcement is seen by looking in your mirror. They are our responsibility.

The answer to protecting human rights and stopping criminals is not simply more arrests, but more public rejection, contempt, and defiance to criminals. I wouldn’t be writing this, if Mrs. O hadn’t come out her door on that winter night. This type of story is repeated many times around the nation and the world. These stories of public law enforcement don’t make the headlines or the professional statistics, but without a public responsibility for law enforcement, we can’t possibly have enough police professionals to do their job.

Work in professional law enforcement is grim and demanding. When I worked in the FBI, every day was about murder, rape, sometimes finding out information on body parts of mutilated people to help find their bodies. It was about every amoral thief and psychopathic killers. That is very grim stuff. But with all due respect to those brave men and women in law enforcement, I disagree with the politicians who say that professional law enforcement is the “toughest job in the world.” We have people in every profession with the “toughest jobs,” including medical personnel dealing with the terminally ill, soldiers literally facing life and death situations, those trying to teach the disabled, those saving lives in our hospitals and clinics, and men and women working their hearts out every day to provide a basis for this nation and for this world to survive. They all have very “tough jobs.”

Our politicians need to stop denigrating every other profession, and politically positioning government professionals in law enforcement as the only exceptional position as the answer to crime. That is not true, and does no good for law enforcement and law and order. It perpetuates this misguided “blue” versus everyone else thinking.

Most dangerously, it perpetuates the misguided myth that without government professionals there would be no law enforcement. Wrong. If we are not sharing the “toughest job” of law enforcement, our social responsibility for one another needs to change.

Human rights and law enforcement are the responsibility for all of us. Everywhere. All the time.

We are all responsible for equality and liberty.

America’s Police Must Not Declare War on Americans

As a good friend to law enforcement, who has worked for many years to support law and order and criminal justice, I am reaching out to the police community. We have seen terrible travesties of justice over the past several months in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City (NYC), and Cleveland, Ohio. People have been understandably disturbed and distressed by the events, and the view in the minds that some in police that they are “above” the very law that they are paid to enforce.

To those outside the law enforcement community, you cannot imagine how grim and dark their world can sometimes be. They see the worst of the worst every day. Their lives are not just dotted with reports and deadlines, they are strewn with human body parts, murdered children, and every disgusting travesty you can imagine. Even a desk job in law enforcement requires a strong stomach, and often the patience of Job.

But recently, we have also seen too many embarrassing police individuals using excessive force on minor issues or crimes, as well as on protesters. We have seen police individuals pulling guns on protesting individuals, and gassing children. We have seen individuals who should, at most, have been given a ticket for a minor crime, treated with excessive police force resulting in their deaths. To anyone who loves the police, and who loves law enforcement, we must all know that this is wrong. Last Saturday, I joined my brothers and sisters in a march on Washington DC to call for improved police training, and a rigorous defense of the civil and Constitutional rights for black Americans and all Americans.

Police Threat Against Reporter - Oakland, California (Source: Michael Short)

Today, in New York City, there was a tragic murder of two police officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, from a disturbed individual, who was a career criminal, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, with a long history of criminal offenses. Mr. Brinsley’s criminal actions were heinous, despicable, cowardly, and any such criminal would deserve the fullest punishment of the law, had he not killed himself.

As we do for all Americans, our hearts and prayers must go out to the families of these slain police officers, and God only knows, how tragic to be murdered especially during this holiday season. We pray for them, we pray for peace for them, and we pray for justice to ensure their loved one’s murder is fully prosecuted according to the law. This is the point – our call for actions must be according to the law. That is what patriotic Americans do in defense of their Constitution.

This is also a vow that all NYC police officers make in their oath of duties – to support the Constitution of the United States. This is not a choice when it is convenient; it is a mandate. So we must also find the actions to promote conflict morally and ethically repugnant by those individuals within police organizations calling for actions in defiance of law enforcement, in defiance of our Constitution, and seeking to promote conflict with the American people. We find such actions to be a slur against law enforcement and everything it represents.

Too often, we have seen firebrands within police unions, and we have seen police faced with masses of protesters using extreme force or calling for extreme actions. In Ferguson, Missouri, the nation and the world was shocked and dismayed to see military-style over-reaction by police officers against protesters, including shooting a Christian pastor trying to keep the peace in the stomach with rubber bullets causing serious physical damage. In Oakland, California, we have seen photographs of an undercover police officer pulling a gun on a reporter and on a protester on a bicycle.

Police Threat Against Protester - Oakland, California (Source: Michael Short)

Today, after the tragic murder of the two New York City Police Department (NYPD) police officers, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) of the NYPD have used this tragic murders of these police officers to attack the Mayor of NYC, Bill de Blasio.  On Twitter, the NYPD SBA states that “The blood of 2 executed police officers is on the hands of Mayor de Blasio.”  The NYPD needs to understand that Mayor de Blasio is not a career criminal.  The NYPD needs to understand Mayor de Blasio is not a murderer, who must be prosecuted.

NYPD SBA Notice Blaming Mayor for Criminal's Actions (Source: NYPD SBA Twitter)

Furthermore, the NYPD and police departments across this great nation must understand that their mission of law enforcement is respected by the people of this nation, as well as their sacrifices. This mission and respect does not give the right of extremists and firebrands within police departments the power to believe they can declare “war” on the American people, and act with impunity to do as they will, rather than as the law demands. The New York Times, various news media, and Twitter, are reporting that a NYPD Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) has been issuing troubling statements likely to incite more trouble.

Americans have seen too many troubling firebrand comments from the NYPD PBA’s president Patrick Lynch, including vulgar comments about the Mayor on Thursday, and veiled threats in directing police to be less responsive. Patrick Lynch has a penchant for holding confrontational press conferences, where instead of calling for law enforcement, he is focused on bitter anger against Mayor de Blasio and states the mayor has been “throwing New York City police officers under the bus.”

We don’t need more out of control anger; we need deliberate respect for the law and public safety. I have seen Patrick Lynch repeatedly on television, and his cringe-worthy comments should embarrass and shame anyone who loves law enforcement.  He needs to understand the message he is sending that law enforcement needs to have a different standard of “law” than the rest of us. That is troubling and it is wrong.

NYPD BPA Press Conference Attacking Mayor (Source: NYPD PBA Web Site)

Double-standards are the very cancer which undermines the equality and liberty, which are the basis for both of our American and our universal rights. I have also seen, directly on the NYPD PBA web site, the circulated comments by this same NYPD PBA calling for the New York City Mayor to be denied to have a right to present at the funerals of these police officers. Under the circumstances, with too frequent excessive actions and threats by police figures and by even armed police in crowds, Americans are becoming increasingly troubled by the idea that some extremists within the police believe they have the right to declare a “war” on Americans.

As one who has dedicated many years of my professional life and who respects law enforcement, I can only urge all those in law enforcement to remember their mission, their duty, and responsibility. I can also remind those extremists who shame the mission of the police – to remember that if there ever was a war between the police and the American people, we all know who will win that war.

Such frequent firebrand and threatening language by police figures is not in the interest of law enforcement, public safety, and common sense. I would urge all those in police organizations to get those inciting such violence to be removed from office as quickly as possible; they are not looking out for the interests of either the police or the American people. We need police organizations and police leaders to make positive, constructive statement regarding law enforcement, law and order, and maintaining public safety. In this sad and combustible environment, we have seen the New York Times report tonight that someone has obtained a copy of a NYPD PBA memorandum with even more extreme comments.

I can only believe and pray that this is a hoax and is in no way representative of the actual views of the NYPD BPA. However, numerous New York City media organizations are reporting on this alleged memo.

Whether it is true or not, the idea that so many will readily BELIEVE it is true – demonstrates the real issue for too many police organization in regaining the trust and confidence of the American people.

This is unfair to hard-working police officers who sacrifice their careers, and as we saw tonight even their lives, to enforce the law. Responsible police leaders must challenge firebrands and extremists within police organizations. They cannot stay silent[ while such incitement is done. Tonight’s New York Times reports that a NYPD BPA memorandum is calling for two units for every call, based on an expectation of police being “executed on a regular basis.” The alleged memorandum concludes that “[the] mayors hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words actions and polices and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a ‘wartime’ police department. We will act accordingly.”

Twitter from NYC Journalist: Reporting that NYPD BPA Seeks "Wartime" Practices Against Americans (Source: Twitter)

Again, I believe and pray that this alleged NYPD PBA memo repeatedly reported by NYC media will turn out to be a hoax, although this was published by a journalist who claims he has police sources to prove this is genuine. Police officers around the nation must be concerned about such counterproductive messages with the perception that our police are planning a “war” against the American people, and do not care about Constitutional and civil rights. Police should also denounce the extremist comments by other police and political organizations which seek to attack political views and protests which call for equal protection under the law. In fact, such equal protection under the law is very goal of law enforcement individuals everywhere and in every capacity. We all share the responsibility for public safety, for respect for the law, and to work to ensure the law in our nation and our world is enforced through proper and responsible means.

This responsibility begins first with a consistent respect for all of our human rights, including the equality and liberty of our citizens, in the United States of America and around the world.

Update: The NYPD PBA has told the press that “P.B.A. spokesman Al O’Leary said in an email his union did not send the memo,” and that is thus far the extent of their denial of such extremist remarks, which are minimal and deeply troubling.   Sadly, we have also seen former NY Governor Pataki blame the NYC Mayor for the murders by this criminal, with Mr. Pataki ignoring his vow to support the U.S. Constitution, which is the real basis behind such objections in abusive behavior against American citizens.

Shameful public message by former Governor Pataki blaming NYC's Mayor for the murder of police officers (Source: Twitter)


December 10: Human Rights Protest Outside DC Pakistan Embassy

On December 10, Human Rights Day, members of human rights groups, Hindu groups, Christian groups, joined together outside the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, DC calling for an end to the abuse of human rights of religious minorities.

Pakistan Embassy – Washington DC; R.E.A.L.’s Imm Prepares for Protest

Human rights campaigners included: Pakistan Human Rights Collective, Hindu American Foundation (HAF),  and Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), among others. The protest took place on the 66th anniversary of the United Nations’ signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10, 1948.

The protesters called for the release of 12 year old Pakistan Hindu girl Kajal Bheel, whose forced abduction and forced religious conversion has drawn world-wide outrage. The protesters called for Pakistan courts to allow the release of Kajal Bheel from her forced abduction, and urged support for the legal efforts to defend Kajal Bheel by the Global Human Rights Defence organization (GHRD).

GHRD is planning for the next court case to defend her on December 19 in Pakistan, and they are calling for people to support her human rights by signing their petition at:
http://ghrd.org/get-involved/petitions/save-kajal/savekajal/
and on Twitter at #savekajal

Protesters also pointed out the recent of abduction and forced conversaion of other Pakistan Hindu girls, including Neelam Kohli (11 years old), Anjali Menghwar (12 years old), Kiran Kumari (14 years old), Parsa Kolhi, and Wali Kolhi. Protesters displayed signs condemning the practice of such child abduction and forced religious conversion to Islam.

The oppression and attack on Pakistan Hindu religious minorities was also demonstrated by protesters who pointed out that Hindus went from a 24 percent minority in 1948 to about 1.6 percent of the Pakistan population in 1998.

R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm also pointed out how such human rights abuse of Hindu girls was a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including articles 3, 16, and 18. Jeffrey Imm also denounced a pattern of attacks in Pakistan against Hindu temples.

R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm Calls for End to Pakistan Religious Minority Oppression

The protesters also decried the abuse of Pakistan Christians and other minorities, noting the recent mob attack on a Pakistan Christian couple (burning them to death), and called for an end to oppressive Pakistan blasphemy law used to give a death sentence to Christian Asia Bibi, which was used in the arrest of Christian Zafar Bhatti (who was shot to death), and oppression of other religious minorities. Protesters held signs condemning the Pakistan blasphemy law and calling for its change. Protesters called for the release of such Pakistan political prisoners as Christian Asia Bibi, who have been imprisoned on spurious “blasphemy” charges.

R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm called for the Pakistan government and the Pakistan people to end their oppression of all religious minorities (Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Ahmadiyaa, and Shiites) and called for Pakistan to show human reason and conscience to extend such basic human rights and human dignity to Pakistan religious minorities and all Pakistan citizens. Imm stated such oppression needed to end in all parts of Pakistan.

The protesters sought to inform the public of these conditions, while challenging the failure of the Pakistan government to protect the human rights of such citizens. Protesters also sought to demonstrate solidarity with other religious minorities in Pakistan who have protested their oppression.

R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm stated that while this protest was in Washington DC at this event, that protesters will seek to provide solidarity in human rights campaigns in Pakistan. He stated: “the day will come when we and others will have such calls for universal human rights and dignity in Islamabad, and throughout every part of Pakistan, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and every territorial area. To those protesting there for human rights now, please know that we stand with you, and know that the day will come when we are standing side by side with you in Pakistan to call for human rights for all.”

R.E.A.L. Calls for Pakistan to Support Universal Human Rights and Dignity for All

This past year has been a sobering and troubling year in terms of the state of human rights in Pakistan. In Pakistan, we are seeing a continuing trend of oppression of religious minorities, with continuing attacks against Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadiyaa, and Shiites.

On this day, Human Rights Day, December 10, we call upon the Pakistan government and calling upon the Pakistan people to respect the human rights and human dignity of Pakistan religious minorities, their families, their houses of worship, and especially their children in Pakistan.

The oppressive Pakistan blasphemy law has been used by those to target, attack, and even kill religious minorities. This law must end, so that Pakistan people are no longer oppressed by those who use this to deny their basic human rights.

We remind the world that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls for equality in freedom, liberty, safety, and freedom of conscience for all people around the world. We remember the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10, 1948, over 60 years ago today. These are not new ideas or new suggestions. These universal human rights are what the assembled United Nations agreed to for all nations of the world. Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) condemns and rejects all violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Some of the major passages of the universal declaration of human rights include:
— Article 18 of the UDHR states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
— Article 3 of the UDHR states: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”
— Article 16 of the UDHR calls for men and women of “FULL AGE” to marriage and a family, and specifically points out that “[m]arriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.”

Yet throughout the past year, we have seen attacks on Hindu temples and we have seen the abduction of Hindu girls who have been forcibly converted from their religion. This has included 12 year old Hindu girl Kajal Bheel, as well as similar abductions of other Pakistan Hindu girls: Neelam Kohli (11 years old), Anjali Menghwar (12 years old), Kiran Kumari (14 years old), Parsa Kolhi, and Wali Kolhi. They have been denied their human rights to freedom of conscience, freedom of security, and even freedom of marriage.

We have seen barbarous attacks on religious minorities in Pakistan. We have seen a mob of 1200 attack and burn to death a Pakistan Christian couple. We have seen a Sikh physician Sardar Bagwan Singh gunned down in broad daylight. We have seen a Christian women and her crippled husband sentenced to death on blasphemy. We have seen a Pakistani court confirm a sentence of blasphemy for Christian Asia Bibi. We have seen Christian Zafar Bhatti arrested for blasphemy, and gunned down by an employee of the police force, while he was in jail.

Article 15 of the UDHR states “Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.” Yet the disgraceful oppression of the people of Balochistan continues daily. This oppression and violence in Balochistan is a rejection of our universal human rights.

We were also sad to see this year, that this has included the murder of Balochistan Assembly member Hendery Masih, who had called for security measures for Christians but was killed.

But perhaps the most important clause of the UDHR is:

Article 1 of the UDHR which states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

When we use our reason and conscience, and act in a spirit of brotherhood, we really don’t have to discuss any of the other articles of the declaration of human rights.

We wouldn’t have to ask Pakistanis to stop kidnapping little Hindu girls and forcing them to deny their religion.

We wouldn’t have to ask the Pakistan government to stop oppressing religious minorities and using a “blasphemy law” to trump up charges to silence any religious minority someone wants to target or get rid of, let alone shooting them in jail.

We wouldn’t have to call for the end to broad daylight murder of religious minorities in Pakistan.

We wouldn’t have to demand that Pakistan stop such mob violence, as the mob of 1,200 who attacked a Christian coupled and burned them to death.

We wouldn’t have to call for an end to the oppression of the people in Balochistan who seek to have their rightful identity.

Let us be clear.

We are not here with the arrogant belief that we need to need to educate the Pakistan government and the Pakistan people on human rights laws. Nor do we need to educate them on the difference between right and wrong.

The Pakistan government and the Pakistan people already KNOW the difference between right and wrong. They already understand the basic human dignity that we all deserve to have respect as human beings.

We are not here to educate. We are here to call for action and change. We are here to call for the Pakistan government and the Pakistan people, not only to abide by universal human rights, but also to use their reason and conscience to extend compassion, human rights, dignity, and justice to others, because it is the right thing, the human thing, to do.

As always, R.E.A.L. offers an outstretched hand, not an upraised fist, even in these darkest of days. We have faith and confidence that we can reach the hearts and decency of our brothers and sisters in humanity.

Today, we give this message in Washington D.C. The day will come when we and others will have such calls for universal human rights and dignity in Islamabad, and throughout every part of Pakistan, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and every territorial area. To those protesting there for human rights now, please know that we stand with you, and know that the day will come when we are standing side by side with you in Pakistan to call for human rights for all.

We urge them all to remember: every day is a good day – to be Responsible for Equality and Liberty.

Pakistan: Young Hindu Girl Abducted, Denied Freedom of Conscience

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) identifies freedom of conscience as one of our most valued human rights, as specifically outlined in Article 18 of the UDHR.

We have been contacted on the case of Kajal Bheel. Kajal is a 12 year old Hindu girl, who was abducted, forcefully married and religiously converted. We have been contacted by a human rights campaign working for her freedom. On October 24, Kajal Bheel, daughter of Mohan Laal Bheel was abducted from her home at Udero Laal town in the district of Halla in Sindh, Pakistan

The Global Human Rights Defence organization is a human rights organization based in The Hague, Netherlands. Their work mainly focuses on the rights of religious minorities and marginalized groups in South Asia.

The Global Human Rights Defence has eight lawyers working on the case in Pakistan. Her oppressors are now claiming she is an adult and that there is no case. Her next court hearing has been postponed until December 19th. On December 19th, the court will also bring up two similar cases on forced conversions of minor girls.

By then, the human rights group is hoping to have collected 5000 signatures in order to put pressure on the national government.

They asking human rights activists to sign the following petition
http://ghrd.org/get-involved/petitions/save-kajal/savekajal/

The Global Human Rights Defence report provides the following background:
“On October 21 Kajal Bheel, a 12-year old Hindu girl from Sindh, Pakistan, was abducted, forcefully converted and married to one of her abductors. With the police refusing to start an investigation, insisting that there is no case to solve, and the court neglecting the birth certificate as proof of age, Kajal was subjected to a humiliating medical examination to prove she is a child. Despite the medical results proving she is indeed a minor, 17 years old , the court has chosen to apply Sharia Law, according to which a girl becomes a women upon reaching puberty. Kajal’s family is now required to prove that Kajal is a minor according to Hindu Family Law during the next hearing on December 4th. For the time being, Kajal has not been allowed to stay with her family. She has been taken by her abductor, and consequently suffers constant psychological abuse. Kajal Bheel is a prisoner of the system, which is supposed to protect little girls like her, but is instead robbing her of her childhood. Help us save Kajal and bring her back to her parents!”

Global Human Rights Defence also has an Internet campaign on Twitter at: #SaveKajal – show your support.

The constitution and laws in Pakistan do not allow child marriage before the age of 18. We are advised that Anjali’s school leaving and birth certificates confirms that she was born in 2002 and therefore her marriage is illegal.

This sad case of Hindu child abduction and denial of human rights of freedom of conscience has been too common. In November, reports have been provided of similar child abductions of Hindu girls: Neelam Kohli (11 years old), Anjali Menghwar (12 years old), Kiran Kumari (14 years old), Parsa Kolhi, and Wali Kolhi.

Our Vow to Defend the Law for All

The paper I was given read “Rape of White Woman.” I just couldn’t believe my eyes and I reached for the telephone. I was furious as I dialed to call… the police who wrote this down. From that day on, I knew we as a nation had to ensure that our law enforcement never got turned against us as a force to oppress identity groups and to promote racism.

This all started when I came to Washington, DC; my first career was with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Around the nation and the world, the FBI’s headquarters had a hub for law enforcement in different states and different nations to communicate. It stated as the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The idea was that if someone committed a serious crime in one state, they could not avoid arrest by simply driving across the border into another state. This would ensure we had a true national law enforcement to protect our citizens. I also coordinated such information with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) regarding wanted international criminals. Most of these criminals were those who were the worst abusers of our daily human rights to safety and life, certainly vital human rights for all of us. For the most part, while this was hectic, most of states and nations readily worked together, and were grateful for the FBI’s coordinating role.

That was me, Jeffrey Imm, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the course of coordinating records on such criminal histories, we at the FBI were developing an interstate index of criminal histories of violent and dangerous criminals abusing the safety and human rights of our citizen. I was pulling records together for this index, when one day, I received a criminal record on a piece of paper from the Georgia State Police.

The Georgia criminal record read “Rape of White Woman.” The point of the criminal record was that there was a different criminal charge for raping a woman who was white than there was in raping a woman of another race.

Before you think that was someone else’s problem, change the words out with your own identity group. Imagine somewhere in the world where your identity group is a minority, and imagine there was a different charge (meaning lesser) charge when someone of your identity group was violently attacked by a criminal. This type of thinking isn’t just wrong in America. This type of thinking is wrong everywhere and for everyone.

I picked up the telephone and I called the Georgia police. They were indignant over that matter, and tried to rationalize the charge on this criminal record. This is problem when we allow law enforcement to become law corruption. The corrupt always have an argument, an explanation, a rationale for even the most unacceptable and shameful behavior. They get used to having their authority accepted without question; the idea that someone telling them they are wrong is impossible to accept. They lose the idea that they are enforcing the law for the public, and start to believe that their own beliefs are the law.

In addition to our Universal Human Rights, in the United States of America, we have the Constitution of the United States, which was the first “law” and remains the primary LAW of this nation. Our Constitution does not allow this type of disgraceful and discriminatory practices by law enforcement, not in Georgia, not in New York City, not in Ferguson, not in Cleveland. Not anywhere in this nation.

Such discriminatory practices against the American people are not just an injustice, not just an embarrassment, no they are a lot more than that. They are AGAINST THE LAW – of the Constitution of the United States of America.

When I first came to Washington DC and I reported to work on Pennsylvania Avenue, the first thing I had to do was swear a vow. I had to hold my right hand in the air and swear to “defend the Constitution of the United States…. so help me God.” It was the proudest day of my young life. I remember it like it was yesterday.

So when I received this discriminatory criminal record from Georgia, there was not question what I had to do on this. I didn’t have to ask my supervisor. I didn’t have to worry about creating a confrontation. I didn’t have to worry about the Georgia police’s reaction. I had a job to do, and that was to make sure the Georgia police understood what THE LAW was. I did just that. They didn’t like it. I didn’t care. The criminal record got changed. I swore a vow to defend the Constitution of the United States – so help me God.

As we face the difficult times with law enforcement across the nation today, we need less defensiveness, less denial, and we don’t need any type of a blue wall. We are one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Anyone who doesn’t understand that has no place in law enforcement.

Now I am not only one who has made this vow. There about 6 million federal government employees and members of the U.S. armed services who have made this VOW. Furthermore, a lot of the state and local government employees have to have a similar statement vowing to support the Constitution, including the New York Police Department. We didn’t make a vow to defend the Constitution just for some people of one race, one ethnic group, one religion, one gender, or just people we like. We didn’t make a vow to defend the Constitution once in a while, or when it happened to be convenient, or if we had nothing else to do. We did not. We vowed to DEFEND the Constitution of the United States – against ALL enemies.

Those who think they can oppress, harass, beat, and even kill without consequences, and make a mockery of the Constitution of the United States, you picked the wrong battle.

These people who have swore a VOW to defend this nation’s Constitution, are watching as young people across the nation are protesting about the killings of black Americans by police officers in the United States. They are watching as these young people are standing without fear to make their voices heard and to call for change in police departments, where too much racial attitudes still prevail, and where intimidation, bullying, and violence is too often the first answer to every problem.

Let me tell you, those who of you who have stood and swore this vow. If you think this is the fight just for these young kids, you are wrong. You swore to defend the Constitution. This is your fight, this if your obligation. To any of you who swore to defend the Constitution, YOU are in law enforcement. This is YOUR responsibility.

We shouldn’t have hundreds or thousands of protesters regarding these police abuses. We should have millions and millions. Remember your vow, before God almighty. Every member of the New York Police Department, this is your fight too. You swore to support the Constitution. It is time to DO your job. You may think your job is only the details of your specific job responsibility. But if you can’t defend the Constitution of the United States, you have no business in law enforcement: New York, Ferguson, Cleveland, Albuquerque, etc., etc.

America has had enough talking heads from “police unions” defending the indefensible. With great power comes great responsibility, and with great authority comes great accountability.

We need people from LAW ENFORCEMENT who have a passion about actually enforcing the law. That law begins with the Constitution of the United States and the Constitutional and civil rights of ALL AMERICANS. To those of you who believe in the international code of human rights, this is your fight too. The struggle for all human rights is preserving the equality, the liberty, the dignity, and the safety of our fellow human beings. This is the law we try to enforce to protect all people around the world.

The law is the law – for everyone, especially those in law enforcement. We the people need to make it clear that those breaking the law, oppressing our fellow human beings, and denying their Constitutional and human rights will have to face accountability for their actions.

America's First Law: The Constitution of the United States of America

Myanmar State Security Involved in Human Trafficking of Rohingya Muslims

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has become aware of a new human rights report on the ongoing human rights crisis of Rohingya Muslims, which indicates that the Myanmar state security forces are “complicit in and profiting from” human trafficking of Rohingya Muslims refugees, seeking to flee from violence and persecution.

On November 7, 2014 the Fortify Rights group reported, “Myanmar state security forces are complicit in and profiting from the increasingly lucrative maritime human trafficking and smuggling of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine State, Fortify Rights revealed in a briefing released today. Since 2012, Myanmar state security forces in Rakhine State have collected payments from Rohingya asylum seekers fleeing Myanmar by ships operated by transnational criminal syndicates, according to information obtained by Fortify Rights. In some cases, the Myanmar Navy escorted boats operated by criminal gangs out to international waters.”

“Local Rohingya brokers mostly deliver payments to members of the Lon Thein riot police, Myanmar Police Department, Navy, and Army in amounts ranging from 500,000 kyat ($500 USD) to 600,000 kyat ($600 USD) per shipload of Rohingya asylum seekers in exchange for passage out to sea. In one case documented by Fortify Rights, the Myanmar Navy demanded 7-million kyat ($7,000 USD) from a criminal gang operating a ship filled with Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia. In other cases, members of the Myanmar Police Department took up to 15,000 kyat ($15 USD) per person directly from individual Rohingya passengers.”

“From September 2013 to October 2014, Fortify Rights interviewed more than 90 Rohingya men and women in Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia, many of whom fled the country between 2012 and 2014. Thousands more have fled in recent weeks.”

“Tens of thousands of Rohingya in Rakhine State are now preparing to board 50-to-100-person occupancy boats on the western coast of Myanmar. These boats transport Rohingya asylum seekers to larger ships in the Bay of Bengal that hold as many as 1,000 people. The vast majority of Rohingya who depart by sea soon find themselves in the custody of abusive human trafficking and smuggling gangs, who detain them in conditions of enslavement and exploitation.”

“Most Rohingya are fleeing persecution in Myanmar. Before boarding ships, they are generally not fully informed and, in many cases, are deceived about the treatment they will endure, additional costs, and other aspects of the journey to Malaysia. Many are sold multiple times and for a myriad of reasons, including for labor and sexual exploitation. Nearly all endure or witness torture, deprivation of food and water, confinement in extremely close quarters, and other abuses throughout their journey.”

“In 2012, civilians and state security forces razed Muslim villages in 13 of 17 townships in Rakhine State. More than 300,000 people — predominantly Rohingya Muslims — are now in need of humanitarian aid in the state, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid. That includes 70,000 ‘food insecure’ people, 50,000 living in isolated villages, 50,000 in ‘host communities,’ and approximately 140,000 Rohingya and non-Rohingya Muslims living in more than 80 internally displaced person (IDP) camps. More than 100,000 Rohingya reportedly fled the country by sea in the last two years. Rakhine Buddhists also endured casualties and displacement in Rakhine State in 2012 on a lesser scale.”

“Scores of Rohingya who were displaced in Rakhine State told Fortify Rights that inadequate food, health care, and livelihood opportunities in the IDP camps as well as restrictions on movement and fear of future persecution contributed to their decision to flee Myanmar.”

“Moreover, more than 1 million Rohingya continue to be directly affected by persecutory state policies restricting their movement, marriage, childbirth, and other aspects of everyday life in Rakhine State. Rohingya who were not displaced by attacks in 2012 but still face persecution told Fortify Rights that they fled the country due to restrictions imposed by the state, including restrictions on freedom of movement, threats of violence, and ongoing pressure to abandon their ethnic identity.”

Fortify Rights’ report calls for action on Myanmar for the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report by the U.S. Department of State.

“Trafficking in persons is prohibited under international law, and states have a duty to take action to combat trafficking. Human trafficking includes elements of deceit, exploitation, and abuse. Human smuggling, on the other hand, involves a ‘client’ consenting and paying to be transported across an international border.”

“In June 2014, Myanmar maintained its place on the United States Department of State’s tier-two watch list in the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. Myanmar has remained on the tier-two watch list through a system of waivers. Unless demonstrable changes take place in the next year, the country could be downgraded to tier-three status — the lowest designation reserved for countries failing to adequately combat human trafficking.”

A Rohingya Muslim man who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape religious violence, cries after he and others were intercepted in Taknaf, Bangladesh. (PHOTO AP)
A Rohingya Muslim man who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape religious violence, cries after he and others were intercepted in Taknaf, Bangladesh. (PHOTO AP)

Nigeria: 185 Churches Burned by Boko Haram

In Nigeria, the Nigeria news is reporting that “185 churches have been razed and 190,545 people displaced.” This was after the global terror organization Boko Haram’s attack on Nigerian towns in Borno and Adamawa states.

This was announced by the Director of Communications of the Diocese, Fr. Gideon Obasogie, who stated these crimes against our fellow human beings, against houses of worship, and against our universal human rights were perpetrated by Boko Haram. Fr. Gideon Obasogie indicated that these 185 churches were burned (torched) in the Maiduguri Diocese. The territory of the Maiduguri Diocese includes the states of northern Nigeria: Borno, Yobe, and some areas of Adamawa.

Fr. Gideon Obasogie issued a signed press statement tagged “state of captured towns;” and made available to newsmen in Maiduguri, the state capital.

On October 6, 2014, the Nigerian “The Vanguard” newspaper and other news media reported on this. The Vanguard stated: “185 churches in the diocese were torched and 190, 545 people displaced.” It also reported: “According to the statement, the “ransacking and torching” of churches in the captured towns and villages, have already displaced many priests, and are taking refuge in either Yola or Maiduguri metropolises for the last one or two months.”

“He said the capturing of towns along with the torching of about 185 places of worship is, ‘sad, heart arching and potentially dangerous to the territorial integrity and common good of Nigeria.’

Fr. Gideon Obasogie reportedly stated: “It is over 30 days now that our Church communities in Gulak, Shuwa, Michika, Bazza…. were sacked by the callous attacks of the Boko Haram terrorists. While Gwoza and Magadali had been under the tyrannical and despotic control of the terrorists and this is almost the sixtieth day. Our Priests are displaced, while citizens, who were supposed to celebrate their independence as a free Nation, were rather counting their losses and regrets as they had been reduced to the status of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs. Where is the freedom? Life is really terribly difficult. We are waiting eagerly to go back home, even as it is obvious that we are going to reconstruct our looted and burnt houses and ecclesiastical structures. We have been sacked for months, sleeping in uncompleted buildings, camps and school premises.”

“We have been absorbed into houses of relations and friends in sixties and seventies. Meals time is always difficult and shameful. We have counted weeks rolling into months, must we also count years? We are waiting to go back home! Nigerians are waiting to go back to their ancestral homes!!! Our minds are greatly troubled, do we think about our status, Or about our family members yet to be connected with ever since we fled our homes?”

“Do we worry about our aged parents who were not so strong to run, they always fed us with words of encouragement and wisdom. Do we worry about our sick members, women and infants who had been trapped? Most of whom we heard had been rape and killed. Or worry about the health, education and future of our children? We have got a lot of questions yet to be answered.”

“Talking about resumption, our children have not been fed and well clothed so resumption to schools is practically out of our calculation. In our opinion if thousand of Nigerian children can’t go to school then in the long run boko is really haram.”

“While our people perish inaction, or rather slow action is what we get. Political activities in neighboring communities were on-going as though nothing were a stake.”

Pakistan: Christian Sisters in Hiding After Kidnap and Forced Religious Conversion Attempts

Responsible for Equality and Liberty has received a report of the human rights violations of two women in Lahore, Pakistan. International human rights sources have advised that Christian sisters, “Hina” and “Marina” from Lahore have gone into hiding, after attempts by extremist to kidnap them, to force marriage on them, and to forcefully convert them to deny their Christian religion.

The sources state that Hina and Marina are from Lahore city near the Nishter police station area. The reports state that Hina and Marina have been followed and harassed by extremists, including one individual with a “green turban.” The reports state that extremists have sought to abduct the two sisters, force the sisters into marriage, and to force the sisters to reject their Christian religion and convert them to Islam. The reports state that according to police sources, Mulan’a Abdul Attiq took his son and nephew Hafiz Nasir and Abid Attri to arrange a forced wedding to both Christian sisters. The forced wedding attempts have been rejected by the Christian sisters and their families.

As a result of the sisters rejecting such attempts at forced marriage and forced religious conversion, reports indicate that the Punjab police in Lahore have stated that those two sisters and family have committed blasphemy when Muslim clerics sought to talk about the wedding attempts. The report states that police have filed FIR (under Pakistan law 295-C) against the family.

In accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Responsible for Equality And Liberty continues to support the universal human rights, religious liberty, and freedom for all people, including religious minorities oppressed in Pakistan. We urge the Pakistan authorities to drop any charges against minority Christians being oppressed, harassed, and threatened, including these two Christian sisters, who have reportedly been threatened by attempts at abduction, forced marriage, and forced religious conversion. Responsible for Equality And Liberty also calls for the Pakistan government to end the oppressive blasphemy law used to oppress and harass religious minorities and so many other individuals. Responsible for Equality And Liberty also calls upon on our colleagues in human rights organizations to share this story and call for human rights protection for these sisters.