Pakistan and Human Rights consists of a series of innovative and carefully chosen chapters by leading experts and specialists in the field of human rights law. With contributions from young emerging scholars, many of whom live and work in Pakistan, this volume takes a critical look at the legal ordering of human rights issues in Pakistan today.

Religion plays a pivotal role in the way women are treated around the world, socially and legally. This book discusses three Islamic human rights approaches: secular, non-compatible, reconciliatory (compatible), and proposes a contextual interpretive approach. It is argued that the current gender discriminatory statutory Islamic laws in Islamic jurisdictions, based on the decontextualised interpretation of the Koran, can be reformed through "Ijtihad": independent individual reasoning. It is claimed that the original intention of the Koran was to protect the rights of women and raise their status in society, not to relegate them to subordination. This Koranic intention and spirit may be recaptured through the proposed contextual interpretation which in fact means using an Islamic (or insider) strategy to achieve gender equality in Muslim states and greater compatibility with international human rights law. It discusses the negative impact of the so-called statutory Islamic laws of Pakistan on the enjoyment of women's human rights and robustly challenges their Koranic foundation. While supporting the international human rights regime, this book highlights the challenges to its universality: feminism and cultural relativism. To achieve universal application, genuine voices from different cultures and groups must be accommodated. It is argued that the women's human rights regime does not cover all issues of concern to women and has a weak implementation mechanism. The book argues for effective implementation procedures to turn women's human rights into reality.

What this study argues, using the example of child labour in Pakistan, is that a distinction has to be made between the notions of human rights as they are expressed within Islam, and the objective socio-economic and political conditions of each specificMuslim country.

"This book is a guide for every young person who believes in a better world for all"—Malala Yousafzai Adults are aware of their universal human rights of freedom and equality, but children often are ignorant of the rights they possess before reaching the age of majority. Enter Know Your Rights and Claim Them, written in partnership with Amnesty International, Angelina Jolie, and Geraldine Van Bueren. Know Your Rights and Claim Them details the rights promised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, starting with the history of child rights, and providing a clear description of the types of child rights, the young activists from around the world who fought to defend them, and how readers can stand up for their own rights. "This is the perfect book for young people who care about the world and want to make a difference"—Greta Thunberg

NATURE OF THE WORK

The book is a comprehensive study on human rights in Kashmir in relation to the dynamics of Indo-Pakistani policies, providing a structured and interdisciplinary approach to the subject. Whilst surveying some of the most appalling case studies of human rights abuses, the book offers a methodical analysis of the structural and structured human rights violations in the divided Kashmir and placing them in a much broader context of South Asian politics. The book examines root causes responsible for a human rights violations-prone environment and climate of impunity in which the actors perpetrate their crimes unpunished, unwrapping legal and extralegal nexus behind the crimes. Human Rights Violations in Kashmir will appeal to students and scholars of peace and conflict studies, international relations, human rights studies and South Asian studies.