Three international rights organisations have asked the United Nations to declare the detention of Baloch human rights defender Dr Mahrang Baloch illegal and to call for her immediate release.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF), Freedom House, and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) filed the petition on August 5 with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD). The groups have asked the Working Group to find that her detention is arbitrary under international law and to demand that Pakistan release her without conditions.

Dr Baloch is currently serving a life sentence in Pakistan.

Dr Baloch is one of the best-known voices in the Baloch rights movement. She founded the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a network of activists that campaigns peacefully for the Baloch people. Through the BYC, she has led protests across Balochistan against enforced disappearances and the custodial torture and deaths of Baloch people including, the petition notes, the deaths of her own father .

Her work has drawn international attention. She was named on the TIME 100 Next list and the BBC's 100 Women list in 2024. The petition says she and her family have faced repeated pressure in Pakistan, including at least 50 police complaints filed against her, which the groups describe as a form of legal harassment.

According to the petition, Dr Baloch was arrested on March 22, 2025, at a peaceful sit-in where she was drawing attention to the killing of three protesters the day before. Her whereabouts were unknown for about 15 hours after her arrest.

She was first held under Pakistan's Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance on "public safety" grounds. Officials later brought new charges against her under the Anti-Terrorism Act ; a law that, the groups say, has often been used against activists, including members of the Baloch community. In an op-ed published in The Guardian earlier this year, Dr Baloch described her time in detention, including a year of solitary confinement.

The petition lists a series of due-process problems: she was arrested without a warrant or a stated reason, had no lawyer for the first month, and was brought before what the groups call a partial judge more than three months after her arrest. From September 26, 2025, all her hearings were held behind closed doors inside the prison, and she could take part only by video link. She was sentenced on June 22, 2026, to two terms of life in prison on terrorism charges.

The conviction has already drawn condemnation from the United Nations. On July 8, a group of UN experts called the sentence a "travesty of justice," saying it followed an unfair trial and the misuse of counter-terrorism charges. The experts noted that Dr Baloch was convicted alongside another BYC leader over the death of a Frontier Corps member during a 2024 sit-in in Gwadar, and said the court appeared to infer intent to murder simply from her presence at the protest.

In their statement, HRF Legal & Research Officer Hannah Van Dijcke and International Legal Associate Kaitie Holland said Dr Baloch's life sentence "is a clear effort to silence the dissent of the Baloch people by targeting one of their most effective and prominent leaders," calling it "the culmination of Pakistan's long effort to deter Dr. Baloch."

HfHR Senior Policy Director Ria Chakrabarty said Dr Baloch "has become a symbol for the struggle of the Baloch people," and described her detention as "yet another attempt by Pakistan to crush rights movements." She added that the case "is part of a long history of weaponization of anti-terror laws to silence dissent across South Asia."

Brian Tronic, Director of the Fred Hiatt Program to Free Political Prisoners at Freedom House, called the sentence "a grim reminder of Pakistan's persecution of human rights defenders, particularly those advocating for the rights of ethnic and religious minorities." He said: "Pakistan should release Dr. Baloch immediately."

The three organisations have asked the Working Group to rule that Dr Baloch's detention breaks international law and to demand her release.

Published in Balochistan Dispatch, August 5th, 2026