Attachments
Human Rights Council
Fifty-seventh session
9 September–9 October 2024
Agenda item 2
Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General
Summary
The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 54/1, in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to present a comprehensive report to the Council at its fifty-seventh session on the overall situation of human rights in Afghanistan, including a stocktaking of accountability options and processes for human rights violations and abuses.
I. Introduction
1. The present report is prepared pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 54/1, requesting the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to present a comprehensive report to the Council at its fifty-seventh session, including a stocktaking of accountability options and processes for human rights violations and abuses in Afghanistan.
2. This report was prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in cooperation with the Human Rights Service of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The report was shared the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations in Geneva. It was also shared with the de facto authorities.
3. Afghanistan remains bound by its obligations under international human rights law, which the de facto authorities, having assumed effective control over Afghanistan, must also uphold. Since January 2022, in accordance with its mandate, UNAMA has engaged with the de facto authorities in Kabul and at provincial and district levels on individual cases of human rights violations and on the international human rights obligations of Afghanistan. UNAMA has had ongoing cooperation de facto Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Directorate of Human Rights and International Women’s Affairs. UNAMA has published seven public reports1 based on its human rights monitoring since the last report of the Office of the High Commissioner2. UNAMA has also continued to offer advice on protection measures and capacity building support to civil society and media stakeholders in Afghanistan.
4. The present report provides an update for the period from September 2023 until July 2024, together with an analysis of accountability options and processes available at the domestic and international levels for past and present human rights violations and abuses in Afghanistan and concludes with recommendations to the de facto authorities and international community.
II. The human rights situation in Afghanistan
5. The human rights situation in Afghanistan remains very serious, as severe economic impacts and humanitarian needs have pushed the population into deeper poverty and precarity, women and girls have faced ever tighter restrictions, civic space and media freedom has been severely curtailed, and the rule of law and institutional protection of human rights continue to fall well short of international norms.
A. Situation of women and girls
6. The de facto authorities continued to curtail severely women’s and girls’ enjoyment of their fundamental rights and freedoms through a succession of restrictive edicts, orders and practices that have effectively erased opportunities for women and girls in public and political life. On 20 March 2024, the school year in Afghanistan commenced once again with the exclusion of Afghan girls from high schools, due to the de facto authorities continued ban on girls’ education beyond grade six. Women’s freedom of movement is restricted by requirements to be accompanied by a mahram (male chaperone) for distances beyond 78 km. Women’s employment is mainly limited to the health sector, primary education, security at airports and in detention facilities, some segments of the manufacturing sector, some women’s businesses and some peripheral functions within the de facto administration. Women protesting these policies are denied the rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and freedoms of opinion and expression and have faced punishment. Taken together, this web of controls inflicted on women and girls and their agency, in furtherance of policy of the de facto authorities, is widespread and systematic, and constitutes a form of systematic gender persecution.
7. Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the de facto authorities ordered the majority of female civil servants to stay home with a few exceptions for women working in the health, education and security sectors. On 2 June 2024, the de facto Directorate General of Administrative Affairs issued a letter purporting to “standardise” the salaries of women civil servants hired by the former administration to 5,000 Afghanis (approximately 70 USD) per month, regardless of grade, pegging women’s salaries to the lowest possible level. On 7 July 2024, the de facto Ministry of Finance issued a letter clarifying that the order would be applied to women civil servants who did not attend work daily or did not perform their duties according to their job description, and that it did not apply to women who were reporting to work and performing their duties.
8. In December 2023 and January 2024, officials of the de facto Department for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, in cooperation with de facto Police, took a series of measures to enforce the strict hijab rules issued in April 2022. They gave verbal warnings and arbitrarily detained a substantial number of women and girls accused of “not wearing proper hijab” predominantly in West Kabul/Dasht e-Barchi, a Hazara-dominated area, with some arrests also taking place in Khair Khana, which is mainly populated by people of Tajik ethnicity and communities from Panjshir. Most of the women detained were released after several hours, upon their mahram signing a guarantee that the female relative would adhere to the hijab decree in the future.3 Some, however, were subjected to further punishments and ill-treatment.
9. Though women and girls in Afghanistan have long been subject to high levels of gender-based violence, frameworks to end violence against women in place under the previous administration have been dismantled under the de facto authorities. On 14 December 2023, UNAMA published a thematic report on the handling of complaints of gender-based violence against women and girls by the de facto authorities4. It found a lack of clarity regarding the legal framework applicable to complaints of gender-based violence against women and girls, including which de facto justice actors are responsible for handling such complaints. Many survivors reportedly prefer to seek redress through traditional dispute resolution mechanisms due to fear of the de facto authorities. Traditional mechanisms often put women at a disadvantage, with settlements usually reflecting mainly interests of the families and male perpetrators rather than female victims. The de facto police, courts and departments of justice appear to prioritise mediation of complaints of gender-based violence over prosecution and trial, an issue that was already of concern before the de facto authorities took control.