On 6 July 2026, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the abduction, forced conversion and child marriage of Maria Shahbaz, a 14-year-old Christian girl from Lahore, and calling on Pakistani authorities to protect minor girls from religious minorities. The resolution demands that Pakistan ensure the safety of Christian and other religious minority girls, conduct a transparent review of Shahbaz's case, return abducted girls to their families, prosecute those using forced conversion as a cover for abduction, and establish a national complaint mechanism. It also calls on the European Commission and the European External Action Service to raise these issues in all bilateral dialogues with Pakistan, including under the GSP+ monitoring framework.
According to the resolution, Shahbaz was abducted on 29 July 2025, forced to convert to Islam and marry her captor. The Lahore High Court overruled a lower court decision to place her in a shelter and returned her to her captor; she later escaped and is in hiding with her family. The Parliament noted that Christians are the most persecuted religious group globally, and that roughly 1,000 young girls, many of them Christian, are kidnapped annually in Pakistan, often forcibly converted and married. Pakistani courts have repeatedly rejected parents' annulment attempts despite evidence of underage status, often granting custody back to the man. Pakistani law criminalises child marriage but does not affect the legal validity of such marriages, and enforcement is lacking.
The resolution has no direct regulatory impact on EU stakeholders but signals the Parliament's position for EU external action. It calls on EU institutions to prioritise the protection of religious minorities in bilateral engagement with Pakistan, which could influence trade and aid discussions under the GSP+ scheme. The resolution is a non-binding political statement, and its implementation depends on the Commission and EEAS integrating these concerns into diplomatic channels. The Parliament's stance may also affect public and civil society expectations for EU action on human rights in Pakistan.