Rehabilitation and drug therapy centres should be places of treatment, safety and recovery. Yet the report "Caged in Care: Investigating Human Rights Violations in Rehabilitation Centres" finds that, for many women and girls in Pakistan, they have become places of confinement without adequate medical, legal or safeguarding protections.

Drawing on fieldwork conducted between January 2024 and October 2025, the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) examined selected centres in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore through site inspections, survivor testimonies, regulatory hearings and facility records. The report documents involuntary admissions, non-consensual sedation, denial of privacy and contact with the outside world, and the absence of meaningful complaint mechanisms. It also identifies gaps in regulation, oversight, and legal safeguards. 

Produced by NCHR with UNDP support under the European Union-funded Huqooq-e-Pakistan II project, the report calls for a rights-based approach to mental health and addiction care that puts dignity, health and individual choice at its centre.