The human rights violations in Pakistan have reached such an alarming rate that the organization Genocide Watch has called for genocide monitoring in Pakistan.
Genocide Watch issued a report on May 8, which stated that Pakistan is now at stage 3 of genocide (discrimination), stage 5 (organization), stage 6 (polarization), and stage 9 (persecution) in terms of abuses against women, religious minorities, and other vulnerable groups. Persecution is the final stage before extermination.
According to the organization, the perpetrators include the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, the State Police, and extremist groups (Pakistani Taliban/TTP, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi/LeJ), amongst others.
Targeted groups are religious minorities (Shia, Ahmadiyya, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus), political opposition, women, and gays.
Genocide Watch reported:
Because discrimination against women and minorities is deeply embedded in society, and violence against them is both widespread and tolerated, Genocide Watch considers Pakistan to be at Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 5: Organization. Deepening divisions along religious, gender, and political lines, reinforced by restrictive laws, censorship, and weak protections, place the country at Stage 6: Polarization. The continued targeting of vulnerable groups through violence, persecution, and displacement further reflects elements of Stage 9: Persecution.
Gregory H Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, developed the 10 stages of genocide, which explain the process that leads to genocide. They are classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, persecution, extermination, and denial.
These stages refer to the developments or circumstances that cause, incite, or bring about the deliberate destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
Women remain the most severely abused group in the country, according to the report:
Women face the most severe consequences of Pakistan’s structural inequalities in the form of a growing femicide crisis. Gender-based violence remains widespread and includes acid attacks, forced and child marriage, rape, trafficking, forced conversion, and domestic abuse. Hundreds of women are killed annually in so-called “honor killings,” often by relatives, over perceived family shame. At least 405 cases were recorded in 2024, but the real figures are likely higher, due to low reporting and weak, inconsistent enforcement. Also in 2024, over 2,000 domestic violence cases and 5,000 accounts of rape were recorded, reinforcing Pakistan’s status as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women.
Additionally, in September 2025, the Lahore High Court ruled that marriages after puberty are valid under Islamic law, as girl marriage remains widespread in Pakistan, with millions married before 18.
Pakistan also ranked last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, and it faces a massive education crisis, with more than 21 million children reportedly out of school due to poverty, social pressures, child labor, and discrimination.
Religious minorities also remain deeply vulnerable. Blasphemy laws, combined with weak enforcement, expose Ahmadis, Christians, and Hindus to discrimination, violence, and social exclusion.
Non-Muslims in Pakistan survive in a tyrannical environment. Christians comprise just 1.8% of the population and are particularly marginalized. 96% of the population is Muslim, of which the majority follow the Sunni tradition.
As a minority in Pakistan, Christians are exposed to many challenges, which range from everyday discrimination to threats of deadly violence.
On May 27, EWTN News reported that the son of a Pakistani Christian man was murdered by a mob over blasphemy allegations. His family says that they have received neither compensation nor justice:
As Muslims across Pakistan celebrate Eid al-Adha, Sultan Gill is quietly preparing for the death anniversary of his father, who died after a violent mob attack over allegations of blasphemy in 2024.
"Nearly 2,000 people attacked Gillʼs family in Sargodha, in northern Punjab province, on May 25, 2024, after allegations emerged that his father, Nazir (Lazar) Masih, had desecrated pages of the Quran. EWTN News covered the attack at the time.
The mob ransacked the familyʼs home and shoe factory in Mujahid Colony and later set the business on fire after a mosque announcement reportedly amplified the accusations.
Police managed to evacuate nine members of the family, but Masih was caught by the crowd and beaten with stones, bricks, and sticks. The 74-year-old succumbed to his injuries on the night of June 2–3, 2024.
Nearly two years later, the family says it is still waiting for justice and compensation for the destruction of their property, which remains abandoned after they fled Sargodha.
'Our wounds became fresh during Eid. The cruelty cannot be described in words,' Gill told EWTN News.
'The confidence is gone. We cannot move around or talk freely. Two of my children had to discontinue their education and start working to support the family in a new city and help pay house rent,' he said.
Masih and his family are not the only victims. Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are increasingly used to intimidate Christians and other religious minorities. The laws are often exploited to target Christians during unrelated feuds (such as land disputes). Even an accusation can provoke mob violence against victims, their families, and the wider Christian community – just like what happened to Masih's family in 2024.
Religious freedom in the country further deteriorated in 2025 for minority groups, with Hindus, Shi’a and Ahmadi Muslims continuing to experience prosecutions for blasphemy whilst also suffering violence at the hands of mobs as well as the police.
At the same time, journalists, activists, and academics face censorship, violence, threats, arrests, and murder, all perpetrated by the Pakistani government and contributing to growing self-censorship and restricted public discourse, reports Genocide Watch.
Security challenges further complicate Pakistan’s human rights, as deadly attacks were carried out by militant groups in 2025 and 2026, including Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province, Al-Qaeda, and the Balochistan Liberation Army.
Regional instability leads to the worsening of human rights conditions… Escalating fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan has caused serious human rights violations. In 2024, Pakistan deported 315,100 undocumented Afghan refugees, with thousands arrested amid harassment and coercion.
The report added that homosexual individuals and transgender individuals are also at a heightened risk of police abuse, discrimination, and violence.
"Genocide never just happens," says Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT). "There is always a set of circumstances which occur or which are created to build the climate in which genocide can take place."
The circumstances under which women, religious minorities, political dissidents and other vulnerable communities demonstrate that a genocide is likely to occur in Pakistan if precautions are not taken by the international community.
In its report, Genocide Watch shares recommendations for preventing the plight of these communities from worsening.
The organization recommends that the European Union should use GSP+ review procedures to press Pakistan on narrowly implemented reforms in freedom of expression, religious freedom, and women’s rights. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights should campaign to consider Pakistan a country of special concern because of the country’s concerning record of human rights abuses against ethnic and religious minorities. The United States, China, and the United Kingdom should urge and incentivize the country to combat honor killings and implement structural and systemic changes that would protect the lives and futures of women.
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) adds: "At each of the earlier stages there is an opportunity for members of the community or the International Community to halt the stages and stop genocide before it happens."
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