COMPARATIVE HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION UNDER UN FRAMEWORKS: INDIA VS. PAKISTAN

Abstract

The research examines the role of the UN in protecting human rights in India and Pakistan. It focuses on analyzing the impact of UN human rights frameworks on comprehensive human rights practices and examines how both states addressed issues of fundamental rights and accountability over time. This research explores UN involvement as a global advocate of human rights standards through key monitoring instruments, like the universal periodic review (UPR), treaty bodies, specialized procedures, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). However, within the South Asian context, several challenges constrained the effectiveness of these functions. These included the absence of binding enforcement powers, state non-compliance, institutional weakness in domestic human rights bodies, shrinking civic space limiting independent civil society action, and the absence of particular execution initiatives with legislative supervision to operationalize international human rights commitments and ensure accountability. India and Pakistan, as significant regional actors, demonstrated the UN's influence in advancing human rights processes. Employing a qualitative methodology, the research showed the significant role in shaping the protection of human rights in South Asia. It adopted an analytical framework to examine political narratives concerning sovereignty and human rights, as well as to evaluate state responses to UN human rights mechanisms. This research showed the significant role in protecting human rights. The cracks of these findings were that the research recommended strengthening UN field presence and monitoring approaches, developing regional human rights functions in South Asia, and implementing necessary domestic reforms to empower state institutions with effective enforcement authority, thereby reducing impunity.