Global Human Rights Defence delivered an oral statement during the Human Rights Council’s Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), held under agenda Item 3 on September 14th 2026, as part of the Council’s 63rd regular session.
The dialogue was based on the Working Group’s annual report (A/HRC/63/28), covering activities between May 3rd, 2025, and May 8th 2026, and was chaired by WGEID Chair-Rapporteur Gabriella Citroni (Italy).
In its statement, GHRD drew the Council’s urgent attention to the human rights crisis in Occupied Balochistan, where Baloch human rights defenders, students and families of the disappeared continue to face enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and reprisals by Pakistani authorities. GHRD noted that UN Special Procedures have already raised concerns over the detention of Mahrang Baloch, Beebow Baloch, Gulzadi Baloch, Sibghatullah Shahjee and Bebarg Baloch, as well as reprisals against their families. On June 22nd, 2026, Mahrang Baloch and Sibghat Ullah Shah Jee were sentenced to life imprisonment following an expedited, secret prison trial in which no direct evidence was presented linking them to violence.
GHRD also told the Council that families are being subjected to collective punishment: relatives of the disappeared and of those accused of militancy are being forced to submit declarations disowning their family members and face anti-terrorism proceedings and property confiscation if they refuse to comply. As GHRD stressed to the Council, responsibility must be individual. Families cannot be punished for their relatives’ alleged actions.
GHRD called on the Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to demand that Pakistan immediately end enforced disappearances and collective punishment, disclose the fate of all disappeared persons, guarantee fair trials in line with international due process standards, and release Baloch human rights defenders detained for peaceful advocacy, including Mahrang Baloch, Beebow Baloch, Gulzadi Baloch, Sibghatullah Shahjee, and Bebarg Baloch.