Geneva [Switzerland], September 25 (ANI): Humanitarian and refugee rights advocate Elisa Allegra Ferrante, while addressing the 63rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, raised concerns over the working conditions and alleged discrimination faced by sanitation workers in Pakistan.
Addressing the Council, Ferrante said sanitation workers continue to face life-threatening conditions due to the practice of manual sewer cleaning without adequate safety measures.
She said that since April 2026, 16 sanitation workers have reportedly died due to suffocation and exposure to toxic gases.
Ferrante alleged that sanitation workers, overwhelmingly belonging to non-Muslim minority communities, are routinely subjected to hazardous manual sewer cleaning without adequate personal protective equipment.
She said such working conditions raise concerns under Articles 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), relating to the right to work and just and favourable conditions of work.
Ferrante also raised concerns over alleged discrimination in municipal employment, claiming that some government and public-sector job advertisements specifically target non-Muslim communities for sanitation work.
She said such practices raise concerns under Article 2 of the ICESCR and Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which address non-discrimination and equality before the law.
Calling for international scrutiny, Ferrante urged the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights to consider an official country visit to Pakistan to examine what she described as religiously based labour discrimination and hazardous working conditions faced by sanitation workers.
She further called for an investigation into deaths and occupational hazards affecting sanitation workers in Pakistan. (ANI)
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