Country Assessment of Human Rights: Afghanistan

 

This report aims to highlight and analyse the main human rights issues and concerns in Afghanistan through the assessments and information provided by organisations and media outlets on the human rights issues in Afghanistan.

 

This report will focus mainly upon the Amnesty that is offered to previous human rights violators, who are now individuals in government, and how this has undermined the initiatives that the government is and may be proposing to combat human rights violations

 

The report will also discuss other relevant human rights issues such as freedom of expression; economic, social and cultural human rights; detention by international forces; and the vulnerable position that human rights defenders in Afghanistan face, with particular focus on the case of Safiye Amajan.

Before discussing the main areas of concerns, I believe that the Amnesty Report[1] gives a good background as to the human rights situation in Afghanistan. The report highlights that in February 2007, the Afghanistan Compact was adopted outlining reforms and priorities for the next five years. Through the Compact, the Afghan government and its international partners agreed new financial and institutional support and oversight mechanisms. Key areas of the Afghanistan Compact are security, governance, rule of law and human rights, as well as economic and social development.

The report argues that a lack of good governance and the rule of law contributed to the climate of impunity. Government officials and local power-holders were not held accountable for their actions and there was little or no access to justice.

Escalating conflict caused widespread social unrest. Violations of international humanitarian and human rights law were committed with impunity by all parties to the conflict, including international and Afghan security forces and the Taleban.

Human rights defenders, many of them women, faced harassment, intimidation and in at least one case murder, as they sought to protect human rights. It became more dangerous to speak out. Schools were burned down and teachers were attacked and killed by those opposed to the government and the education of girls.

Conflict, drought and floods in different parts of the country caused forced displacement throughout the year, while neighbouring Iran and Pakistan sought to reduce the number of Afghan asylum-seekers. The number of Afghans returning from these countries decreased.

Amnesty International is a respected organisation and I felt that this report should be based mainly upon the issues raised by the Amnesty report and that those issues should be further explored through the media outlets and reports from other human rights organisations and commentators.

 

Amnesty to Human Rights violators

 

The Afghan Parliament approved an amnesty for warlords and others accused of war crimes with an aim of national reconciliation. President Hamid Karzai signed into law an amended version of the controversial ‘National Stability and Reconciliation’ bill. Dad Noorani’s article[2] states that international law prohibits the extension of national amnesties to genocide or war crimes, which deprives victims of their fundamental rights. The article further states that there are questions raised as to the legality of the bill and that the amnesty bill is in clear breach of the Afghan constitution.

 

The power and pressure exercised upon President Karzai is clearly illustrated in Noorani’s article on the rally organised at Ghazi stadium by warlords and factional leaders. Ghazi stadium is a somewhat ill advised setting as it was the centrepiece upon which the Taliban had committed their numerous atrocities. The influence of these figures is clearly evident from the article, as the rally had openly threatened independent media and human rights groups. President Karzai is left at a dilemma when attempting to combat human rights violations and offer basic human rights to Afghans as any attempts made is being undermined by the powerful warlords and factional leaders who symbolise the factional in-fighting in the capital in the early 1990s that led to tens of thousands being killed and brought the nation to its knees.

 

Initiatives to combat human rights violations such as the Action Plan for Reconciliation and Justice are undermined in favour of parliamentary figures ensuring that they do not suffer the same ill fate as the former ally of the West, Saddam Hussein.

 

Noorani’s article concludes that the President’s decision to trade justice for gaining support for his position and his vision severely hinders the country’s attempt to move forward, rebuild and heal its wounds. Therefore, the solution offered in the article is to purge his government of these individuals with an internationally proven record of human rights abuses and initiating a genuine truth and reconciliation process would be a major step and the platform for a fresh, new start.

The government took a few steps to support the Transitional Justice Action Plan, adopted in late 2005. A mechanism for vetting political appointments was established, and in December the President officially launched the action plan. However, efforts failed to bring to justice those accused of human rights violations. The reach of the central government was restricted. Parallel systems of governance and informal dispute resolution prevailed.

However, Asadullah Sarwari, a former government minister and former head of the intelligence service, was sentenced to death on 23 February for war crimes committed between 1978 and 1992, under communist rule. Unfortunately, Amnesty reported that his trial was grossly unfair and that for most of his 13 years in custody Asadullah Sarwari did not have access to a lawyer[3]. Therefore this is not an example the government would like to highlight in their attempts to bringing justice.

Amnesty’s Report on Afghanistan commented that the insecurity undermined the rule of law and created a climate of impunity. Governors in some provinces acted independently of central government and violated human rights with impunity. Despite the appointment of Supreme Court judges and other high-ranking officials, reform and rebuilding of the judicial sector remained sluggish. The Afghan security forces, particularly the police and representatives of the National Security Directorate (NSD), were accused of illegal detentions and torture and other ill treatment.

The Amnesty report further highlighted that in July 2007, the government reportedly announced plans to re-establish the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a government body that committed numerous human rights violations, notably against women, during the rule of the Taliban. Assurances were given that the department would not be given the same duties as before. However, re-establishing a department renowned for its notoriety will clearly do little to convince Afghans that there is real change.

Freedom of expression

 

Afghanistan is an Islamic state where conservative traditional religious values still prevail and provides an obstacle that denies basic human rights to groups, especially individuals of other faiths and women. This ideology of exclusivity in the patriarchal dominant country was plainly evident in the cases of Abdul Rahman and Saifye Amajan. The case of Safiye Amajan will be referred to later in this report.

 

Abdul Rahman was arrested in February and threatened with the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity more than 15 years previously, while working in Peshawar, Pakistan. In March 2006, under heavy pressure from foreign governments, the court returned his case to prosecutors, citing "investigative gaps" and he was released from prison. He fled to Italy and was granted asylum. Threats against journalists also continue[4].

 

Amnesty International USA reported further instances of freedom of expression being denied.  On 22 January 2008 Mr. Pervez Kambakhsh, a 20-year-old newspaper reporter and university student was sentenced to death for blasphemy by a provincial court for downloading and distributing an article from the internet that questioned the practice of polygamy. In June 2007, a female radio station owner who was known to be vocal against warlords was shot dead while sleeping aside her two young sons. Six people have been arrested in connection with the murder of Ms. Zakia Zami, but little progress has been made towards bringing the alleged perpetrators to justice. Earlier that year, the Taliban in the country’s south, beheaded Ajmal Naqshbandi, a freelance journalist and translator, his driver was also killed while an Italian colleague was freed.  

 

A symbol of Afghanistan’s progression is demonstrated by the freedom enjoyed by the two main national television organisations, Afghan TV and Tolo TV. However, this period of freedom is starting to crack as the BBC reports on 1 May 2008[5]. The Afghan government have issued a ban on Indian soap operas that they believe conflict with Afghanistan’s Islamic values and contravenes Afghan law that forbids publishing material that is “contrary to the principles of Islam”. Although other stations have complied, Tolo TV and Afghan TV have continued broadcasting the shows, which has prompted the ministry of information referring the two stations to the attorney general.

 

Despite this I feel that the Amnesty Report stating that freedom of expression was reasonably well respected, is still accurate and therefore there is optimism in this regard as Afghans have access to a multitude of information media including foreign stations such as in Dubai.

 

Economic, social and cultural human rights

 

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission’s Summary Report on the Economic and Social Rights in Afghanistan at May 2006 states that the foundation of economic and social rights is the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The summary report states that the ICESCR was ratified by Afghanistan in 1983. The government’s obligations are to take steps towards the progressive realisation of the rights in the ICESCR.

 

The core obligation is to ensure at least minimum essential levels of economic and social rights, including the right to adequate food and housing, health protection and education. There are other obligations such as the obligation to exercise these rights without discrimination on any grounds stated in Article 2 of the ICESCR, as well as the prohibition against the government implementing any regressive measures in relation to any of the rights in the ICESCR, unless under specific circumstances.

However, the ICESCR takes into account that a State Party may not have the resources or capacity to achieve the standards set out in the Covenant immediately, therefore the ICESCR foresees progressive realisation of these rights in the long term. But this should not be used as an excuse for inaction and the ICESCR does impose on State Parties some obligations, which are of immediate effect.

 

The summary report[6] points out that Afghanistan is in the process of developing an Afghan National Development Strategy (ANDS), which incorporates Afghanistan’s commitments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2020. The report and described in Afghanistan’s Millennium Goals Report 2005, there is a close correlation between the Government’s obligation to protect human rights and to achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets, since many of the objectives coincide. 

 

The summary report argues that it is important that the Government’s commitments under Afghanistan’s Millennium Development Goals are not seen only in terms of development priorities, but also as human rights, which the Government is legally bound to respect, protect and fulfill, according to the international treaties, which Afghanistan has ratified.

 

The report concludes that its findings exhibit that the Government of Afghanistan is in violation of its legal obligations under international human rights law, in particular of its immediate obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which it is a State party.

 

The summary report recommends that the Government should acknowledge their human rights obligations in the international treaties to which Afghanistan is a State party and that they are an applicable legal framework for its National Development Strategy and that the strategy must not be in violation of these obligations.

 

The Government needs to explicitly recognize that the National Development Strategy is a step towards the full realization of rights recognized in international human rights instruments. Taking into account the findings of this report, the National Development Strategy (ANDS), should as a priority target the fulfillment of Afghanistan’s core minimum obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

 

The area of economic, social and cultural human rights is too extensive for this report to cover and therefore the focus will be on the right to education as this is fundamental to the future of Afghanistan. This report will also focus upon the rights of women.

 

Right to education

 

The right to education is a fundamental right as success in this part would be a major step to realising a brighter future for Afghanistan and re-invigorate the country in terms of economy, opportunity and combating poverty. It is essential to provide an educational system to counter the worrying influence of the exclusive religious doctrine madrassahs that are rampant and dangerous in its ideology and threatens the stability and future of Afghanistan.

 

The Summary Report[7], in its research, expressed the following opinions:

 

• The report highlights that the main obstacle to girls’ primary education is a lack of accessibility. The Commission[8] recommends urgent Government action to properly address physical accessibility, security concerns and negative cultural stereotypes, which prevent girls from enrolling in and completing primary education. 

 

• The Commission is concerned that within the ANDS[9] benchmark for Education, the objective to increase net enrolment of girls and boys in primary school is not sufficient for the achievement of Afghanistan’s MDG 2 and MDG 3[10].  

 

The current ANDS benchmark does little more than maintain existing gender disparity in primary school enrolment and therefore is in contradiction with the Government’s commitments under the Millennium Development Goals and falls short of international human rights obligations, which advocate for positive discrimination to achieve equal access to primary education. 

 

• The findings of the report highlight a significant disparity in the completion of primary school education by girls and boys. It is therefore vital that a reduction in dropout rates for girls is incorporated as a benchmark in the National Development Strategy and specific gender-disaggregated indicators are used for monitoring. 

 

• The Government should pay particular attention to improving the quality of educational services and capacity building of teachers through designing comprehensive schemes for teacher training. The Commission therefore supports initial discussions to incorporate teacher competency criteria and an increase in the number of women teachers as benchmarks in the ANDS.

 

Under the ICESCR the Government recognises the right of everyone to education, which as a minimum is a commitment to providing free and compulsory primary education to all (Article 13 (2) a).

 

The Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes that the child’s right to education is essential for all children (Article 28) and stresses the right must be achieved on the basis of equal opportunity, reflecting the fact that vast numbers of children suffer discrimination in access to education (particularly children in rural areas, girls, minorities and disabled children). 

 

Through the Millennium Development Goals the Government has committed to achieving universal primary education (Millennium Development Goal 2) and promote gender equality (Millennium Development Goal 2):

 

 

·      The Millennium Development Goal Target 3 for Afghanistan is to ensure that, by 2020, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary education – the current baseline value is estimated at 54% of children enrolled in primary education and 45% of pupils who start primary education reach grade 5.

 

·     The Millennium Development Goal Target 4 for Afghanistan is to eliminate gender disparity in all levels of education, no later than 2020 – the current baseline value for the ratio of boys to girls in primary school is 0.6.

 

This means that in order to have any chance of meeting the MDG targets 3 and 4 in

Afghanistan, the Government will have to double the number of children enrolled in primary school, with a particular focus on girl’s enrolment: 5 girls need to be enrolled in primary education for every 3 boys. In order to achieve this, the Government will have to directly address the reasons why girls are kept out of school.

 

The Commission’s findings were that:

 

·     43.7% of all interviewees said that their primary–school age children are not attending school regularly.

 

·     The main factor preventing girls from attending primary school is physical accessibility (distance to school is too far or parents are worried about security) – 51.6% of interviewees whose girl children do not attend school regularly gave this reason. Other reasons why girls do not attend primary school are that the girl has to work (12.1%), poverty (10.1%) and child marriage (3.7%).

 

·     The main factor preventing boys from attending primary school is that the boy has to work – 36.6% of interviewees whose boy children do not attend school regularly, gave this reason. Other factors preventing boys from attending primary school are related to physical accessibility (32.5%) and poverty (20.1%).

 

The Summary Report concludes that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights emphasises that poverty itself constitutes a denial of human rights. Their findings show the close relationship between poverty and the denial of, or lack of access to economic and social rights, including the right to an effective remedy.

 

Crucially, the Summary Report highlighted that poverty is related to primary school attendance. 14.5% of their interviewees, whose primary school-age children in their family are not attending school regularly, said that this is because their family cannot afford it. It is apparent that if this is not resolved, then this circle of poverty looks set to increase and plague any real lasting progress that the Government of Afghanistan intends to make.

Rights of Women and Human Rights Defenders

Amnesty International reported[11] that the situation for human rights defenders deteriorated. Members of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and representatives of national human rights organizations faced threats.

Legal reforms designed to protect women were not implemented and women continued to be detained for breaching social morals. There was a rise in cases of "honour" killings of women and self-immolation by women.

On 25 September, Safiye Amajan, head of the Kandahar regional Department of Women's Affairs (DoWA) was shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle. Individuals associated with Hezb-e Eslami were arrested in connection with her death. Other DoWA heads in other provinces also faced threats and intimidation.

 

Human Rights Watch provided a report on human rights events in Afghanistan in 2006 and gloomily summarised that by late 2006 Afghanistan was on the precipice of again becoming a haven for human rights abusers, criminals, and militant extremists, many of whom in the past have severely abused Afghans, particularly women and girls, and threatened the stability of the country, the region, and the world.

 

Human Rights Watch commented that Afghan women and girls continue to suffer extremely low social, economic, and political status. They rank among the world’s worst off by most indicators, such as life expectancy (46 years), maternal mortality (1,600 deaths per 100,000 births), and literacy (12.6 percent of females 15 and older). Women and girls confront barriers to working outside the home and restrictions on their mobility; for example many still cannot travel without an accompanying male relative and a burqa. While the number of girls in school increased quickly after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, only 35 percent of school-age girls were in school in 2006. The violence directed at schools hit girls’ schools particularly hard. 

 

Women active in civil or political affairs braved violence and intimidation, such as death threats often conveyed through “night letters.” Safia Amajan, a prominent educator, women’s rights activist, and government official was assassinated in Kandahar in September. Malalai Joya, a member of parliament from Herat, was physically attacked in parliament and threatened with death when she criticized members of parliament notorious for past and current human rights abuses. 

 

Violence against women remains endemic, with few avenues for redress. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission registered 704 cases of violence against women, including 89 cases of forced marriages and 50 cases of self-immolation, in 2006—significant increases over 2005. The AIHRC believes these numbers seriously under-represent the true scale of the violence due to factors such as social stigma and poor response from the justice system. More than one-third of all marriages were forced, according to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and more than half of girls were married before the age of 16, the legal age for marriage. 

 

The government took several steps that weakened the already weak government commitment to women, in part because of pressure from ultra-conservative political supporters, and in part to counter anti-Western propaganda by opposition groups. In June 2006, Karzai sent the Afghan parliament a proposal for re-establishing the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, as mentioned earlier, which under the Taliban had established a record of arbitrary abuses, notably for beating and harassing women and girls for travelling without male guardians and for even slight infractions of stringent dress requirements. In November 2006, parliament began debating the possibility of closing the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which, although weak in terms of implementing programs, served as an important symbol of support for Afghanistan’s women.

 

The BBC reported[12] that Shukria Barakzai, a leading female Afghan MP, has been receiving a letter stating that suicide bombers may target her. The MP explained that the government just sends a letter once every month saying that her life is under threat but there is no talk of providing security for her.

 

The report also states that the Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, for example, alone documented over 1,500 cases of atrocities against women last year.

 

Conclusion

 

More than six years after the removal of the Taliban and the formation of a Western government led by President Hamid Karzai, there is little to suggest a noticeable improvement on human rights in all respects.

 

It is unfortunate that human rights violators have been replaced by individuals in government who have a history of human rights abuses and are provided with an amnesty that allows them to never be brought to justice for the abuses they committed. The recent attempted assassination of President Hamid Karzai is illustrative of the lack of security and stability in the country. It is also illustrative of the corruption that exists as the two individuals arrested for the attack worked in government ministries[13].

 

The BBC article contains MP Ms. Tooarpekay’s comments on Zabul, where she is representative, by stating that government officials are lax and insincere about simple demands of local people, joblessness is rife and there are few schools, Alarmingly, all this drives people into the arms of the Taliban. It is a sad indictment of a government that they cannot even satisfy their basic human rights obligations under the ICESCR and failing on their MDG[14].

 

The alarming report of atrocities on women is demonstrative of little security being provided to Afghans, especially women and that despite these abuses now being documented and 91 of the 361 members of parliament being women there is a seemingly immovable barrier in the form of the ultra-conservative Afghan society and the lack of support that women and human rights defenders receive from the central government.

 

It seems further generations of Afghanistan will be lost unless dramatic changes occur that revitalises a nation which has lost any hope that they may have had after the downfall of the Taliban. The access to education is a core problem and this is due to the lack of importance that is placed on education by the central government. The BBC article[15] that 226 schools had been burnt down in the 13 months preceding the date of the article, 80% of teachers are untrained and that neighbouring countries such as Tajikistan spend three times more on teaching its children. A little over 6% of the Afghan government’s non-defence budget is spent on education.

 

This report does not attempt to cover every human rights issue or provide an in-depth analysis of human rights issues but instead provides information on areas that I believe are of main concern in Afghanistan. This report draws a gloomy picture for Afghanistan and it is clear that if nothing substantial is done then the future could be bleaker as weak governance and revival of insurgents propel further lack of security, and the loss and further abuse of human rights.