Pakistan: Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 80th Session, 2-13 November 2026

Summary

Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the universal declaration of human rights and other international human rights standards. INTRODUCTION Amnesty International submits the following briefing to the 80 th Session of UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) regarding Pakistan's compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in advance of the review of its second periodic report. JUSTICIABILITY OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (ARTICLE 2(1)) Pakistan has not taken substantive steps to incorporate economic, social and cultural rights into its domestic legislation as binding rights, and they remain part of the Principles of Policy within Pakistan’s constitutional and legal framework.

The Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan face systematic discrimination at the hands of the authorities through discriminatory laws criminalizing their freedom of expression and freedom of belief and religion. Religious discrimination is enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan which declares Ahmadis to be non-Muslims through the second constitutional amendment and explicitly bars non-Muslims from becoming heads of state, President nor Prime Minister.

Amnesty International has documented unlawful arrests, detentions, evictions and deportations of Afghan nationals from Pakistan,34 accompanied by increased harassment and hostility. On 1 September 2026, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), recalling “prevailing policy directions” regarding the return of Afghan nationals enrolled in medical or dental programs in Pakistan to Afghanistan, requested the educational institutions to proceed with “all necessary administrative formalities” regarding Afghan students, including the issuance of No Objection Certificates (NOCs). Firstly, despite the permanent nature of sanitation work, government bodies across Pakistan have increasingly avoided regularizing sanitation workers by putting them on temporary contracts, thereby denying them job security, benefits and legal protections.44 Workers were regularly paid below minimum wage, particularly daily wage workers because employers are able to sidestep legal obligations due to the lack of regularization.

Amnesty International’s report on garment sector workers in South Asia found that these workers in Pakistan are paid poverty wages, face long working hours, precarious working arrangements 44 Amnesty International, Pakistan: “Cut us open and see that we bleed like them ” (preciously cited), pp. 44. Labourers whose work required them to be outdoors for long periods, such as agricultural workers, labourers in brick kiln factories, delivery riders, police officers, and sanitation workers, experienced heat-related stresses.81 Pakistan has committed to adopt a Pakistan Cooling Action Plan (PCAP) by 2026, though at the time of making this submission no plan has been finalized nor made public.

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