The Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) has formally submitted a detailed report documenting human rights violations in Balochistan between 2016 and 2025 to the European Union’s GSP+ Committee. The organisation has requested that Pakistan’s beneficiary status under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) be revoked, citing non-compliance with international obligations.
According to the HRCB, the report outlines a consistent pattern of abuses that it says amount to crimes against humanity.
Key findings of the HRCB report include:
At least 6,744 individuals subjected to enforced disappearance, reportedly taken from their homes in the presence of family members by security forces.
At least 2,559 persons reported released after severe torture in military custody.
At least 215 previously disappeared individuals later found dead, many showing signs of torture; 173 others killed in staged encounters; and 231 killed during military operations and other incidents.
Reports of bodies being buried without identification.
The discovery of mass graves containing hundreds of human remains, some identified as victims of enforced disappearance, while many others remain unidentified.
Schools and community spaces reportedly converted into military camps, disrupting civilian life.
Forced evacuation, burning, and looting of villages during military operations, particularly along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route, displacing tens of thousands.
Attacks on political and human rights gatherings, activists have been shot, killed, detained on fabricated charges, and that female human rights defenders have been physically assaulted.
Human rights defenders arrested and held without trial.
Reports of racial profiling, harassment, enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings of Baloch students in Punjab, Islamabad, and Sindh.
Police refusing to register cases against security forces, with courts ignoring such cases and supporting military policies.
The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances described as ineffective, with no military or intelligence official held accountable.
UN Special Rapporteurs and international investigators have been denied access.
The HRCB has urged the EU to launch a compliance investigation under Article 15(1)(a) of the GSP Regulation, suspend or revoke Pakistan’s GSP+ status until “verifiable human rights milestones” are met, and establish independent EU monitoring mechanisms in consultation with civil society and victims in Balochistan.
Other recommendations include requiring environmental and social impact assessments for major projects, pressing Pakistan to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and prioritising benchmarks on enforced disappearances, accountability for extrajudicial killings, prevention of gender-based violence, and restoration of public services such as education and healthcare.
Pakistan has not yet publicly responded to the HRCB’s submission.