Pakistan’s Peter Jacob among eight winners of Int’l Religious Freedom Award

Pakistan’s leading human rights and religious freedom advocate, Peter Jacob, is among eight individuals from different countries who were awarded with the US Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Award in recognition of their courage and commitment to promoting and defending religious freedom globally.

Apart from Jacob who is mentioned as the winner for his tireless advocacy for Pakistan’s marginalised religious minority communities, the other winners are Farid Ahmed (New Zealand), Kola Alapinni (Nigeria), Mirza Dinnayi (Iraq), Martha Patricia Molina Montenegro (Nicaragua), Tali Nates (South Africa), and a group of nine Orthodox clergy from Lithuania represented by Gintaras Sungaila.

A State Department media note issued after the January 18 award ceremony in Washington DC said, “These advocates had focused on promoting human rights and mutual respect for all in countries including Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa, and Nicaragua, as well as protecting the rights of Orthodox Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and members of other religious communities around the world”.

Jacob heads the Lahore-based research and advocacy organisation, Center for Social Justice (CSJ), as its executive director. He has lectured, written columns and books, and carried out other forms of public and private advocacy on behalf of members of religious minority groups for more than 35 years, seeking to secure their constitutionally guaranteed rights to equal treatment and freedom of religion.

He has called publicly for the repeal or reform of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which can carry punishments up to the death penalty and have been used extensively and abusively to imprison thousands of Pakistani Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs.

Under his leadership, the Centre for Social Justice has compiled the only comprehensive database of blasphemy arrests and prosecutions in Pakistan, documenting more than 2,000 cases since 1987. CSJ has also catalogued vigilante violence and targeted killings of blasphemy suspects and religious minorities.

Congratulating its member Peter Jacob, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) said the veteran rights activist is one of the foremost authorities on freedom of religion or belief in Pakistan.

“His commitment to speaking truth to power is a testament to his courage and strength of character, and a credit to all human rights defenders,” the tweet said.

The US embassy in Islamabad also congratulated Jacob on winning the prestigious award.

“We congratulate Peter Jacob on receiving the Department of State's International Religious Freedom Award in recognition of his commitment to promoting and defending religious freedom and human rights in Pakistan,” the embassy said in a tweet.