Afghanistan Human Rights

Human Rights Concerns

Afghanistan today faces enormous challenges as the country continues to suffer from conflict-related insecurities. The Taleban, other anti-government groups, criminal gangs have grown dramatically. Actions by Afghan, NATO and US forces stationed there have added to the high number of civilian casualties as well. As a result, this insecurity the Afghan population, especially in the north and east provinces are facing shortages of food supplies, closings of several hundreds of schools and restrictions to health care access. In addition, several hundred thousands of internally displaced people suffer from extreme poverty in camps around the country.

The Afghan government is riddled with wide-spread corruption and the country's judicial and security sectors lack personnel, infrastructure and political will to protect and promote human rights. The inclusion in the Afghan government of warlords who stand accused of horrible human rights abuses and govern their fiefdoms with impunity is creating wide-spread resentment among the Afghan people.

Women continue to suffer from violence against them both in their homes and outside as they try to attend school and go to work. Journalists and people in the Afghan media face threats and harassment from both government and anti-governmental groups.

Loss of civilian lives and other violence-related crimes:

The Taleban continues to terrorize the population in both southern and eastern provinces and have stepped up their activities into once more peaceful regions of the country, in the north and the center. In 2008 suicide attacks by Taleban and other insurgents with military or police targets often resulted in high numbers of civilian deaths and injuries. Together with attacks from other armed groups and criminal gangs, they caused the loss of at least sixty percent of the 2,000 civilian deaths in 2008. Other violence by armed groups, criminal gangs and Taleban, some ostensibly allied to the government, include abductions of foreigners, attacks on business owners, aid workers, teacher aid projects and schools. Seventy-eight employees of various NGOs were abducted and another 31 killed.

Some 40% of the civilian casualties however were due to operations by Afghan and international security forces, a 30% increase since 2007. Serious concerns about indiscriminate and disproportionate use of air strikes were raised following several grave incidents. The 2008 August airstrike carried out in Shindand district of Herat Province resulted in more than ninety civilian casualties, including 62 children. In response to these concerns NATO troops have reviewed the rules of engagement to limit the use of immediate air strikes.

Internally Displaced People:

The Afghanistan internally displaced task force, comprising aid agencies and the government estimated that more than 235,000 people were internally displaced facing desperate circumstances as those aid organizations can not easily reach them. More than 276,000 Afghan refugees living in Iran and Pakistan returned home, adding to the high number of IDP and in September 2008. Another 20,000 people fled from Pakistan to eastern Afghanistan to avoid fighting between Pakistani security forces and pro-Taleban insurgents in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Justice System:

The Ministry of Justice, which serves as the government's lead agency for the implementation and mainstreaming of human rights, did not sufficiently collaborate with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

Reports show wide-spread incidences of arbitrary arrests and detentions by police and other official security agencies, as well as private militias that work with the Afghan and international forces. As of today, 600 detainees are still being held at the US-run Bagram military airbase and other military facilities outside the protection of international human rights and domestic laws. The National Directorate of Security have tortured and ill-treated scores of detainees.

Rights of women and girls:

Women increasingly participated in politics and public life but they continue to suffer from high rates of domestic violence with little recourse to legal protection. More than 100 self?immolations by women in Heart province illustrates the deep sense of hopelessness experienced by Afghan women.

While many girls are back in school, especially in urban areas, intimidation of teachers and female students by the Taleban continues.

Freedom of Expression:

President Karzai pardoned young journalist Perwiz Kambakhsh in 2009 but other journalists and people in the media continue to face threats and harassment from both state and non-state actors.

Mr. Kambakhsh had first been sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. Under intense pressure internationally, his sentence had been reduced to 20 years of life in prison. AIUSA and many other human rights organizations continued to press the president to free the young Afghan man.

AIUSA Actions:

1. Help put pressure on the American Administration to ensure that they invest not just militarily into the conflict. Including human rights benchmarks in the Afghanistan Strategy is vital and would show the Afghan people that the US is serious about protecting them from all kinds of abuses.

Download the full Fall 2009 Afghanistan Core Action
Action Letter to President Obama
Action Letter to Ambassador Eikenberry

2. Help us recruit more support from your members of Congress for two important bills which would benefit Afghan women, either by making a call to their offices or by writing a letter: the "International Stop Violence Against Women Act" information can be found by going to this link: http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/international-violence-against-women-act/page.do?id=1051201, and the Afghan Women Empowerment Act, (S. 229) was which was reintroduced in the Senate by Senator Barbara Boxer from California in 2009 and introduced by Representative Ms. Carolyn Maloney in the House, (H.R. 2214). Please follow this link to a prepared letter on this bill by the United Nations Foundation: https://secure.globalproblems-globalsolutions.org/site/Advocacy.

3. Please go to the "action" page for more on the issue of private contractors as well as the death penalty as it relates to Afghanistan.

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Urge the US government to support the rights of the Afghan women
Urge President Obama and the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry to continue to press the Afghan government into upholding its’ commitment to the Afghan Constitution and the international treaties and conventions it has signed, including The Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Declaration of Human Rights. » More actions

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