On 2 July 2026, UNPO Secretary-General Mercè Monje Cano joined a panel discussion at the Geneva Press Club on “Forced Conversions and Minority Women in Pakistan: A Human Rights Emergency”. Her intervention carried one central message: in Sindh, child marriage and forced conversion are not two separate problems, but two faces of the same political crisis.
The event was convened by CAP Liberté de Conscience and Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) and moderated by Thierry Valle. Speakers included MEPs Bert-Jan Ruissen and Tomislav Sokol, Dr Naseem Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch National Movement, and Iván Arjona-Pelado of the Foundation for the Improvement of Life, Culture and Society. Speakers examined the intersection of freedom of religion or belief, gender-based violence, and minority rights in Pakistan, with particular attention to Sindh province and to the compounded vulnerabilities faced by Baloch women and girls.
Opening her intervention, the Secretary-General placed on record UNPO’s condemnation of the life sentence handed down last month by an anti-terrorism court against Dr Mahrang Baloch, a physician and one of Pakistan’s most recognised human rights defenders.
“In Sindh, child marriage and forced conversions are not isolated phenomena but two interconnected dimensions of the same structural crisis, one that disproportionately targets young girls. Despite having formal provincial autonomy, Sindh remains constrained by a power system dominated by feudal elites and religious extremists, while Islamabad maintains a politically convenient status quo.
This political marginalization is compounded by the devastating impact of climate change: recurrent floods, droughts and the loss of livelihoods push more and more families toward harmful survival strategies, including early marriage or the forced surrender of their daughters. The result is one of Pakistan’s most severe human rights emergencies, where poverty, environmental vulnerability, and religious extremism intersect, leaving Sindhi girls unprotected and unheard.”
Data from 2025 shows that 75% of women and girls subjected to forced conversion through marriage were Hindu and 25% Christian, with nearly 80% of documented cases occurring in Sindh; predominantly involving girls between 14 and 18 years old, though some were even younger. UN Special Procedures confirmed this pattern as recently as April 2026. But statistics alone do not explain why the crisis persists. As the Academy’s analysis documents, Sindh, a UNPO member since 2002, has formal provincial autonomy, yet real power and control over its resources and governance remain in the hands of the Pakistani State. It is this political exclusion that feeds a wider human rights crisis. Activists, journalists, and human rights defenders face enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, and extrajudicial killing. In districts like Tharparkar, Jacobabad, Dadu, and Kashmore, marrying off a young daughter is treated as normal, not as a violation. This is largely due to Sindh’s institutions being hollowed out from above; Islamabad has found it easier to rule through feudal and religious intermediaries than to build institutions that answer to Sindhis. The treatment of Sindhi girls, the Secretary-General stressed, is not a separate crisis from Sindh’s shrinking political space.
Poverty and environmental collapse compound these political pressures. Projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor have displaced communities with little compensation, while the 2022 floods and ongoing drought have led families to describe early marriage as a survival strategy. Forced conversion is a particular risk to young girls in the province, as it is home to the State’s largest Hindu population and a notable Christian minority. Young women and girls belonging to these religious minorities are at a heightened risk of abduction or coercion, resulting in forced conversion and forced marriage.
As the Academy’s analysis explains, “on paper, Sindh has the strongest legal protections against child marriage in the country. In practice, however, enforcement is systematically weak due to the structure of local power.” Sindh set the minimum marriage age at eighteen in 2014; Islamabad matched that standard only in 2025, and only for the capital. Pakistan’s 1929 federal statute punishes child marriage with one month in prison and a fine of roughly eleven dollars. Islamabad’s proposed federal bill against forced conversion collapsed in 2021, and similar efforts in Sindh have been stalled by pressure from religious and political actors. Without criminalisation, certificates of conversion continue to be issued in madrassas within hours of an abduction.
For UNPO, these violations constitute attacks not only on individual girls but on the cultural survival and self-determination of the communities to which they belong. Real change requires the full implementation of existing laws, economic investment that lifts families out of poverty, and an unwavering commitment to protect minority and unrepresented communities; above all, placing the dignity, safety, and rights of girls at the centre of policy and public life. UNPO will continue to work alongside its members and partners, including the World Sindhi Congress, to document these violations, support human rights defenders, and press for accountability through UN Special Procedures, treaty bodies, and the Human Rights Council.
