Human Rights Voices

While the UN devotes its human rights operations to the demonization of the democratic state of Israel above all others and condemns the United States more often than the vast majority of non-democracies around the world, the voices of real victims around the world must be heard.

Pakistan, February 12, 2007

Nearly 600 women killed in Pakistan ‘Honour Killings’ in 2006

Original source

Irish Examiner

"At least 565 women and girls in Pakistan died in so-called honour killings in 2006, the country's main rights organisation said today, nearly double the number it recorded the year before.

However, it said many more cases may have gone unreported and has estimated in the past that the annual total may be about 1,000.

Many men in deeply conservative rural areas of Pakistan consider it an insult to family honour if female relatives have an affair outside of wedlock or even if they marry without their consent. Some view attacking or killing the women or their partners as a way to restore family honour.

In the report released today, the commission said at least 475 of last year's honour killings followed accusations of "illicit relations". Sixty of the dead were minors.

Arrests were made in only 128 cases, it said."