Pakistan passes criminal law to prosecute honour killings

Story: 2016 C.E.  |  Last updated: October 6, 2016

For generations, families in Pakistan who killed a relative — almost always a woman — in the name of family honor faced a near-certain escape from punishment. A legal loophole allowed the victim’s own family to “forgive” the killer, effectively granting immunity. In October 2016 C.E., Pakistan’s parliament closed that loophole for good.

What the law changed

• Honour killing law Pakistan: The Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offences in the Name or Pretext of Honour) Act 2016 C.E. made honour killings punishable by a mandatory 25-year prison sentence, removing the family’s legal right to pardon the perpetrator.
• Legal loophole: Under the previous framework, convictions under Pakistan’s Penal Code could be waived if the victim’s heirs — often the same family members who ordered the killing — chose to forgive, letting perpetrators walk free.
• Legislative passage: The bill passed both houses of Pakistan’s parliament in October 2016 C.E., following years of pressure from human rights organizations, women’s advocates, and high-profile public cases that drew international attention.

Why this moment mattered

Pakistan had long ranked among the countries with the highest recorded rates of honour killings. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan documented nearly 1,000 such deaths per year in the years leading up to the law, and advocates believed the true number was higher, since many cases went unreported or were logged as accidents or suicides.

The case of Qandeel Baloch — a social media celebrity killed by her brother in July 2016 C.E., just months before the law passed — crystallized public debate in a way few cases had before. Her death prompted widespread protests and gave legislators the political momentum to act. Her name became a rallying point for reformers who had spent years pushing for exactly this change.

The new law did more than raise penalties. It sent a signal that the state, not the family, held authority over life and death. That shift in legal philosophy was significant in a country where customary law and family-based justice had long coexisted — and sometimes competed — with the formal court system.

A long road to this vote

Pakistan had attempted legislative reform on this issue before. A 2004 C.E. law had tightened some provisions, but left the forgiveness loophole intact. Women’s rights organizations, including the Aurat Foundation and international groups like Human Rights Watch’s women’s rights division, had documented the loophole’s deadly consequences for over a decade.

The 2016 C.E. law was the product of sustained, unglamorous coalition-building — lawyers, parliamentarians, journalists, and civil society activists working across political and religious lines. That breadth of support helped the bill survive debates in a legislature where measures affecting family law can face intense opposition.

It also reflected a broader regional conversation. Advocates in Jordan, Turkey, and across South Asia had spent years challenging legal frameworks that treated family honor as a mitigating factor in violent crime. Pakistan’s 2016 C.E. reform contributed to that global shift in legal norms.

Lasting impact

The law gave prosecutors a stronger tool and gave survivors and witnesses a clearer basis for coming forward. Within years of its passage, courts began handing down sentences under the new framework that would have been impossible before.

More broadly, the legislation helped shift the terms of public debate. Honour killings became harder to defend legally and, gradually, socially. Younger generations of Pakistani women’s rights advocates cite the 2016 C.E. law as a foundation — an acknowledgment by the state that no cultural tradition justifies the killing of women.

The law also demonstrated something important about how legal change happens: a tragic, high-profile case, combined with years of quiet organizing and a parliament finally ready to act, can produce durable reform. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has pointed to legislative reform of this kind as a critical tool in the global effort to end gender-based violence.

Blindspots and limits

Passing a law and enforcing it are different challenges. Honour killings in Pakistan have continued since 2016 C.E., and convictions under the new framework have been uneven — hampered by underreporting, witness intimidation, and the reluctance of some local authorities to pursue cases against prominent families. The Amnesty International research on violence against women and domestic human rights monitors have noted that legal reform, while necessary, is not sufficient on its own. Changing deeply embedded social norms requires sustained investment in education, economic opportunity, and community-level support for women — work that no single law can accomplish.

Read more

For more on this story, see: Al Jazeera — Pakistan adopts harsh law on honour killings

For more from Good News for Humankind, see:

• Global suicide rate has fallen by 40% since 1995
• Indigenous land rights: 160 million hectares recognized at COP30
• The Good News for Humankind archive on Pakistan

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