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Baloch students in Pakistan are facing systemic racial profiling and discrimination at universities and colleges in Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad, President of the Baloch Voice Association Munir Mengal said during the 63rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Addressing the Council under Agenda Item 9 on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, Mengal alleged that Baloch students were being targeted in the name of national security and subjected to surveillance, harassment, false charges, forced eviction from hostels and enforced disappearances. In August 2026, five Baloch students were forcibly disappeared from their residence in Karachi, Mengal said, referring to what he described as continuing discrimination and a climate of impunity against Baloch students. He also cited the Islamabad High Court's 2022 proceedings on alleged racial profiling of Baloch students, saying the court had ordered the establishment of a commission to examine the issue. Mengal said the concerns raised in Pakistan formed part of a wider pattern of racial and ethnic discrimination across Asia and the Middle East. He highlighted the situation of the Muhamasheen community in Yemen, which he said faces caste-like discrimination based on skin colour and ancestry, as well as the situation of ethnic minorities in Iran. On Iran, Mengal cited concerns over discrimination against the Baluch, Kurds, Ahwazi Arabs and Azerbaijani Turks, alleging ethnic profiling, disproportionate executions, biased sentencing and the use of national security charges against minority communities. He said the Muhamasheen in Yemen, Iran's ethnic minorities and Baloch students in Pakistan continued to face forms of exclusion that required greater international scrutiny. Mengal urged the UN Human Rights Council to ensure concrete implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and called on states to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). He also called for the dismantling of structures of racial exclusion, whether based on caste or ethnicity or justified on national security grounds, and for accountability for those responsible for discriminatory practices. The dignity of the Muhamasheen, of Iran's ethnic minorities, and of Baloch students is not negotiable, Mengal said. (ANI)
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