UN Human Rights Council and Human Rights Abuses in Afghanistan

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Recently, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan. However, human rights activists across the globe are outraged that the resolution does not include a mechanism to advance justice, accountability and repreparation for past and ongoing grave human rights abuses, including on the Taliban’s persecution of women and girls.

Last month, ninety Afghan, regional and international NGOs renewed their appeal for the council to establish an independent investigative mechanism with a mandate to collect and preserve evidence of international crimes committed in Afghanistan. Such a mechanism would support and strengthen accountability efforts including at the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.

As Amnesty International issued in a recent report, “The Human Rights Council has again shied away from sufficiently supporting justice for the people of Afghanistan who have placed their hopes in the international community. While it is notable that the UN Human Rights Council resolution recognizes the need to investigate as well as to collect, preserve and analyse evidence of crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations in Afghanistan, it falls short of establishing an independent international accountability mechanism that can actually perform these functions.”

According to them, “The Human Rights Council has yet again missed the chance to deliver an adequate response, advance accountability and justice, and deter further abuse of human rights as the Taliban continues to intensify and escalate their crackdown on the rights of the people in Afghanistan including through far reaching, draconian restrictions on the rights of women and girls. An independent international accountability mechanism that can identify perpetrators as well as investigate, collect, and preserve evidence is critical to effectively address past and ongoing violations as well as the pervasive impunity of over forty years that continues today.”

A recent report by Human Rights Watch documented how grave the plight of Afghani ex-police women is: “Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Taliban authorities have threatened Afghan women who had served in the police under the previous government. As Taliban forces carried out hundreds of revenge killings of men who had served in the former government’s security forces, many former police women went into hiding out of fear of being identified. Some women have described receiving intimidating phone calls from Taliban officials telling them to report for questioning and warning of unspecified consequences related to their former work. Some former police women and female corrections officials have been killed, apparently by relatives who believe their work shamed the family, and the Taliban have not conducted credible investigations into these murders. Many former police women have fled their homes, seeking refuge in neighboring Iran or Pakistan, or have tried to get to other countries to obtain asylum.”

When these women served under the Karzai government, they also faced difficulties that their male peers did not. “During the years they were employed by the former government, many police women experienced sexual assault and harassment by their male supervisors and counterparts in the police,” Human Rights Watch continued.  “Former police women have described systemic abuse, including frequent demands from superiors for sex in exchange for promotion, desirable posts, or avoiding dismissal from jobs. Complaints systems failed to provide any means of redress. While the widespread nature of these abuses was well-known since at least 2013, the former government did not discipline or prosecute police officers responsible for harassment or sexual assault, including rape. Former police women have recounted ongoing mental trauma and rejection by family members over perceived shame related to their abuse during this period.”

However, the plight of these women worsened since the Taliban took over: “All women employed under the former government as civil servants, including those in the police, lost their jobs when the Taliban took power. While the Taliban ordered some police women to return to work in selected areas including searching women at checkpoints and guarding female prisoners, the majority have struggled to find alternative income because in order to disguise their identity, they moved to areas where they have few networks or support. As a result, Afghanistan’s economic collapse has hit the former police women particularly hard.”

Yet, when Afghan women seek to flee because of the harsh conditions for women under Taliban rule, which includes not only the repression of women who served as police officers under the Karzai government but also the denial of the right of women to study and work in many fields, alongside a draconian dress code policy, they face many difficulties. In a conference organized by Peace for Asia Switzerland, Ramon Rahangmetan, co-founder of Circle for a Sustainable Europe, proclaimed, “There is an hidden force exploiting the desperation of refugees—human trafficking. Asylum seekers from South Asia, particularly those fleeing conflict in Pakistan and Afghanistan, often fall into the hands of traffickers who prey on their vulnerability.”

He added: “This humanitarian crisis is compounded by organized crime. Traffickers exploit the weak, charging very high fees and subjecting migrants to violence, forced labor, and sexual exploitation. These refugees are victims twice over—once in their home countries, and again as they are smuggled into Europe.”

Rahangmetan continued: “The EU must strengthen its efforts to fight human trafficking through, for example, cooperation with international bodies like the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. We must ensure that asylum seekers are protected not only from persecution at home but from the predatory forces that await them on their journey to safety. As the saying goes; We should not throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Fulvio Mortusciello, a member of the European Parliament, concurred: “The European Parliament has approved the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, in which asylum claims will be processed more quickly, including at EU borders. Member states can choose whether to take charge of asylum seekers, make financial contributions or provide support for refugees from third countries. In addition, the need to protect people’s right to safety and asylum becomes crucial. Humane asylum procedures must be guaranteed and refugees must be provided with safe transit mechanisms. We should help women and girls in Afghanistan who are fleeing the Taliban regime to get education and job opportunities.”

Indeed, the plight of women who flee Taliban rule is horrific. However, the women and girls who remain behind and live under Taliban rule is even worse. Unfortunately, Europe cannot provide asylum to every woman and girl in Afghanistan. Therefore, it is of pivotal importance that the UN Human Rights Council make sure that the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan is empowered in order to prosecute the Taliban for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Count at the Hague, so that the Taliban won’t be given a carte blanche to continue the repression of women and girls living under their dictatorial rule.

Rachel Avraham is the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and an Israel-based journalist.  She is the author of “Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media.”