Baloch National Movement (BNM) Chairman Dr. Naseem Baloch addressed an international side event titled “Forced Conversions & Minority Women”, held on the margins of the 62nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC 62) at the Geneva Press Club.
Addressing the gathering, Dr. Naseem Baloch said the issue of forced conversions extends far beyond religion.
“This is not only a discussion about religion. It is a discussion about power. It is about the body of a woman being treated as a battlefield. It is about a young girl being taken from her home, her family, her language, her faith, and her future — and then being told to say, ‘I chose this.'”
Expanding the discussion, the BNM Chairman highlighted the situation of Baloch women, stating that they face a different but connected form of oppression.”
“In Balochistan, women are not only suffering because of gender-based violence. They are also suffering because of occupation, militarisation, enforced disappearances, collective punishment, and state control over society.”
He said that for the Baloch nation, the crisis is “not just a human rights crisis” but “a national question,” arguing that Pakistan has subjected Balochistan to a prolonged campaign of political, cultural, and military oppression since its occupation.
Describing the impact of enforced disappearances, Dr. Baloch said Baloch women have become the public face of families searching for forcibly missing relatives.
“When a Baloch man is forcibly disappeared, who stands outside the press club for years holding his photo? His mother. His sister. His wife. His daughter.”
He further said that the authorities use families as instruments of political pressure.
Recalling a personal experience, he stated that only two weeks earlier, his own sister had been compelled to appear at a press conference against him.
“She was made to speak under pressure, in front of cameras, not because she believed those words, but because the state wanted to use her as a weapon against me.”
“When a state uses fear to make a sister speak against her brother, that is not consent. That is coercion.”
Dr. Baloch linked forced conversions, forced statements, enforced silence, and political repression as manifestations of the same system.
“This is the same logic that allows forced conversion. It is the same logic that allows forced statements, forced silence, forced loyalty, and forced obedience. It is the logic of power over freedom.”
He also condemned the life imprisonment sentence imposed on Dr. Mahrang Baloch and other Baloch activists, describing Dr. Mahrang as “a human rights defender” whose only crime was asking, “Where are our people?”
“Instead of answering that question, the state punished her. Instead of ending enforced disappearances, it sentenced those who speak against them. This judgement is not justice. It is an attempt to silence a woman who refused to bow her head.”
The BNM Chairman contrasted the current situation with Balochistan’s historical tradition of coexistence, stating that Hindu and Sikh communities had long lived in the region as respected members of society. He said that during the violence of Partition, Balochistan largely avoided large-scale communal violence because its society was built on “respect, hospitality, and coexistence.”
He argued that religion had gradually become “a tool of state power” in Pakistan, enabling discrimination against religious minorities, women, and oppressed nations.
Calling on the international community to address what he described as interconnected human rights abuses, Dr. Baloch urged governments and international institutions to stop treating individual cases as isolated incidents.
From the UN platform, he called for an end to forced conversions and forced marriages, full protection for minority women and girls, the immediate release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and all Baloch political prisoners, independent investigations into abuses against Baloch women and families, and an end to enforced disappearances, collective punishment, military operations, and the use of families as instruments of pressure.
He also appealed to the United Nations and the international community to recognize Baloch women “not only as victims, but as leaders of resistance, truth, and dignity.”
Calling the incident “one of the cruelest forms of oppression,” he argued that coercing family members into making public statements amounts to collective punishment.
He questioned whether genuine freedom of religion or consent can exist when children live in fear and victims face intimidation, arguing that forced conversion is “a violation of identity, dignity, freedom of conscience, family life, and basic human rights.”
Referring to the situation in state of Pakistan, Dr. Baloch said Hindu and Christian girls have repeatedly been abducted, forcibly converted, and married under coercion, while their families often lack the means to seek justice. He cited incidents in Sindh and attacks against Christian communities in Punjab , including Gojra (2009) , Joseph Colony (2013) , and Jaranwala (2023) , describing them as part of “a wider culture of religious hatred, state failure, and impunity.”
Concluding his address, Dr. Baloch said that fear and coercion can never form the foundation of a just society.
“A free society cannot be built by forcing a girl to change her faith. A peaceful state cannot be built by disappearing young men. A just system cannot be built by threatening women into silence. And dignity cannot exist where fear is used as law.”
He ended by reaffirming the Baloch National Movement’s vision of a future “where every person is respected for their humanity, not judged by their religion, gender, language, or national identity,” and of “a Balochistan where women are free, minorities are safe, faith is personal, and the law protects everyone equally.”
The event was jointly organized by Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) and CAP Liberté de Conscience and brought together parliamentarians, human rights defenders, and representatives of international organizations to discuss the plight of minority women.
