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Afghanistan

Afghanistan Protection Cluster Advocacy Strategy and Action Plan 2025-2027

Attachments

Context

A more fulsome overview of the Afghanistan context and protection situation is provided by recent Protection Analysis Updates published by the Protection Cluster as well as other documents, such as the 2025 Afghanistan HNRP and the Afghanistan Humanitarian Country Team Centrality of Protection Strategy (endorsed in August 2024).
To highlight some of the prioritized protection risks the humanitarian sector is addressing in Afghanistan, the Humanitarian Country Team presented the following diagram as part of the HCT Centrality of Protection Strategy, with the APC is actively contributing to.
The HCT CoP Strategy sets out the broader frame for APC advocacy efforts, which will contribute to the implementation of the CoP Strategy and advance on a particular prioritized protection risks.
Afghanistan faces a severe protection crisis worsened by decades of conflict, political instability, climate disasters, and entrenched discrimination. Women, girls, persons with disabilities (PWD), minorities, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, and youth are especially vulnerable, facing severe restrictions on rights, freedom of movement, and access to essential services like education, healthcare, and livelihoods. Discriminatory policies and laws, such as the recent PVPV law, have deepened the marginalization of women and girls, increasing genderbased violence, including early/child marriage, increasing child labour, and psychological distress. Persons with disabilities face widespread discrimination and restricted access to services as well as limited specialized services, worsening their exclusion. Decades of conflict and natural hazards have led to significant internal displacement, with an estimated 6.3 million people in protracted displacement, with many having been displaced multiple times, and who are exposed to protection risks, including trafficking, family separation, exploitation, discrimination, and abuse. This is compounded by an influx of returnees from Pakistan and Iran, straining resources and increasing the risk of eviction, especially in informal settlements, underlining the need for durable solutions. Displaced people often lack adequate housing, civil documentation, employment opportunities, and social support. At the same time, some 191,500 people residing in nearly 600 informal settlements (ISETS) are at high risk of eviction due to DfA initiatives to return them to their places of origin and develop state land. Afghanistan also faces extensive explosive ordnance contamination, resulting in approximately 50 civilian casualties each month, with over 80% of the victims being children. Afghanistan has a young population, with 63% under 25 and 46% under 15. Youth face challenges such as limited education, employment opportunities, meaningful participation leading them to resort to harmful coping mechanisms, such as drug addiction, violent extremism, child labor, early/child marriage and economic exploitation. Around 1.5 million secondary school-aged girls are out of school, further limiting their opportunities, while a ban on women and girls attending private medical institutions restricts access to essential services and employment as well as long term maternal and child health implications. Mental health needs are rising, with many, especially women and children, suffering from the impacts of violence, displacement, and isolation. The situation is worsened by restrictions on MHPSS services, especially in Kandahar province. These challenges will likely continue to deplete the population’s ability to cope, diminishing its capacity for self-protection and pushing many to resort to harmful coping mechanisms.

The humanitarian response is hindered by bureaucratic delays, restrictions on aid workers, and insufficient funding, leaving many without the help they need. The protection risks requiring immediate attention in the period covered by this analysis are:

  1. Discrimination and stigmatization – denial of resources, opportunities, services and/or humanitarian access

  2. Presence of mines and other explosive ordnance

  3. Gender-based violence

  4. Unlawful impediments and/or restrictions to freedom of movement, forced displacement and threats of forced eviction

  5. Impediments and/or restrictions to access legal Identity, remedies and justice

Addressing these complex protection risks will require sustained, inclusive, and robust humanitarian assistance, along with a concerted effort to advocate for the rights and protection of Afghanistan’s most vulnerable populations.