Melbourne Law School - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
ItemA critical analysis of Pakistan's blasphemy law( 2013)The thesis critically analyzes Pakistan’s blasphemy law and demonstrates that it is a harsh law that violates the rights of both Muslim and non -Muslim citizens of the state. But the idea that repealing this law, as demanded by human rights organizations, will stop the violations of human rights is a misguided one. The thesis recognizes that there are broader religious, political, and social problems surrounding Pakistan’s blasphemy law that provide a particular context to this issue. For this purpose, it examines examples of various social and political problems and incidents that provide the necessary background for understanding the issue of blasphemy in Pakistan. These include incidents of violent public protests, mob justice and extra judicial killings. The thesis argues that Pakistan’s identity as an Islamic state plays a key role in retaining and implementing the blasphemy law. Pakistan upholds its status as an Islamic state by maintaining various religious laws including the blasphemy law and often disregards human rights standards in the name of protection of the state religion. This presents a useful case study for renowned scholar Abdullahi A. An-Na’im’s theory on Islamic state and religious positivism. According to this theory, when religious laws are converted into positive laws, they become static and rigid and a manifestation of state sponsored policies, which is the case in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The thesis explores Pakistan’s historical journey to achieve its current status of an Islamic state and the resultant promulgation of religious laws, including blasphemy law, using An-Na’im’s theory as the key approach. It analyzes the provisions of this law and the judicial decisions taken under it to demonstrate its effects and legal problems and identify the various legal trends that the courts have followed in dealing with this issue, concluding that this law often results in the violation of human rights such as freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, as well as the right to a fair trial. Finally, the thesis establishes that in Pakistan’s case, international solutions fall short. The ratification and implementation of human rights standards through international treaties cannot provide a solution to Pakistan’s problem of blasphemy law. The thesis uses An-Na’im’s theory of overlapping consensus on the implementation of human rights as the key approach to establish that human rights standards can only be effectively implemented in a state or society when there is an acceptance for such standards from within that society. Pakistan presents an example of such a society that values its purported religious values and laws more than human rights standards. The case of Pakistan and its blasphemy law confirms An-Na’im’s theory that an effective implementation of human rights standards can only take place in a society when that society accepts these standards to be part of their societal and cultural norms. Without such validation from within the society, human rights will continue to be violated in the name of religion.