Mohammad Nawaz Atta
Mohammad Nawaz Atta is a human rights defender and the Information Secretary of Baloch Human Rights Organisation (BHRO), an organisation monitoring and denouncing human rights violations occurring in Balochistan. BHRO provide independent information on human rights abuses in Balochistan, an area with notoriously little media coverage. He has advocated against the systematic use of enforced disappearances by Pakistani security forces as a strategy to silence independent voices.
Pakistan’s record of impunity has emboldened hostile actors and fostered an increasingly violent climate for HRDs, who face high risks including killing, arbitrary arrest and detention, abduction and kidnapping, surveillance, threats and judicial harassment. The government of Pakistan has made no real effort to support or protect their work and instead regularly votes against UN resolutions aimed at providing better protection for HRDs.
Defenders investigating human rights violations in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) face a particularly hostile climate, as they are targeted by security agencies, religious groups, militants, and armed gangs.
