Artefacts and dust from the vicinity of Bamyan’s demolished Buddha statues were reportedly confiscated at the Bamyan Airport while searching for foreign nationals…reports Asian Lite News
As illegal businesses remain popular in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule, the de-facto authorities have ordered to seize the artefacts found in Bamyan province, reported Khaama Press on Wednesday.
Although Taliban leaders constantly asserted that they had stopped exporting these priceless antiques, the profitable clandestine trade is still well-liked in Afghanistan and the surrounding area. At least 12 antique artefacts have been found by officials in Afghanistan’s central Bamyan province, according to a statement from the provincial information and culture directorate, reported Khaama Press.
Artefacts and dust from the vicinity of Bamyan’s demolished Buddha statues were reportedly confiscated at the Bamyan Airport while searching for foreign nationals, the Afghan news agency added.
The artefacts and ancient items have been seized based on the orders of the Taliban-led Ministry of Information and Culture, Rahmatullah Rahmani, head of culture and art of Bamyan information and culture directorate, said.
The destruction of Bamyan Buddha statues was carried out in stages. Initially, the statues were fired at for several days using anti-aircraft guns and artillery. This caused severe damage, but did not obliterate them.
Later, the Taliban placed anti-tank mines at the bottom of the niches, so that when fragments of rock broke off from artillery fire, the statues would receive additional destruction from particles that set off the mines.
In the end, the Taliban lowered men down the cliff face and placed explosives into holes in the Buddhas. After one of the explosions failed to obliterate the face of one of the Buddhas, a rocket was launched that left a hole in the remains of the stone head.
Since the Taliban regained power in August 2021 after the US exit from the country, the citizens of Afghanistan continue to live miserable lives as basic law and order of the country.
According to the Taliban officials, of the objects found, 8 are antique artworks like pottery, precious stones, and carved iron plates. (ANI)
(140702) -- MIRANSHAH, July 2, 2014 (Xinhua) -- Photo released by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on July 1, 2014 shows Pakistani soldiers entering a house through a hole during a military operation against Taliban militants at the main town of Miranshah in northwest Pakistan's North Waziristan. The United Nations and non-governmental organizations are helping nearly 470,000 uprooted people in North Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here on July 1. (Xinhua/ISPR)
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Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid believes that certain groups are attempting to harm Afghanistan’s ties with its neighbours….reports Asian Lite news
Iran’s interior minister Ahmad Vahidi has asked the Taliban authorities to advise their security forces on maintaining peace and security and avoiding further border clashes, The Khaama Press News Agency reported.
The Iranian minister stated on Wednesday that peace and security have been restored in the area following recent occurrences at the Iran-Afghanistan border, reported Khaama Press quoting Tasnim News. Vahidi blamed the border clashes on Taliban troops and said that Iranian soldiers retaliated.
He said, “The Afghans had begun shooting at the common border, and the Iranian forces naturally responded to the shots properly.”
The interior minister added, “We currently have direct interaction with Afghan rulers, and all misunderstandings and problems should be settled through dialogue and negotiation.”
According to Iranian officials as quoted by Khaama Press, one Iranian border guard was killed and two others were injured during last week’s border confrontations with the Taliban.
Meanwhile, Afghan security forces said during the clashes, one Taliban security force personnel and two Iranian border guards were killed, and many more were injured.
The incident occurred near the border crossing between the southeastern province of Sistan and Balochistan and Afghanistan’s Nimruz region, between the villages of Sasouli, Hatam, and Makaki, Khaama Press reported.
Meanwhile, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force (IRGC-AF), Amir Ali Hajizadeh termed border tensions as “unimportant” while Taliban said that certain groups are attempting to harm country’s ties with its neighbours, Afghanistan-based TOLO News reported.
Hajizadeh said that “enemies” are seeking to turn the border tension with Afghanistan into a war and that there is no need to be concerned about it, Afghanistan-based TOLO News reported.
Hajizadeh while speaking at the Tehran University of Science and Technology, called the clashes with the border forces of the Islamic Emirate “unimportant.”
“Behind these cases are many of our enemies who want to turn this into a big issue, into a war, which absolutely will not happen. Anyway, the situation in Afghanistan is clear to us. Some people do things arbitrarily and want to create conflict, we should not make it too big,” Hajizadeh noted, according to TOLO News.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid believes that certain groups are attempting to harm Afghanistan’s ties with its neighbours.
The spokesman added that the Taliban wants good relations with neighboring countries.
“Some circles try to destroy ties between Afghanistan and its neighbors and they exaggerate some minor problems. It is the duty of both nations to be informed about such conspiracies. The Islamic Emirate wants good and strong relations with all its neighbours and will not allow such small issues to ruin relations,” Mujahid said, as per TOLO News.
According to some military analysts, border clashes are not in the interest of any side.
“Both Iranian and Afghan authorities should understand this, and the relations between us and our neighbours should not be harmed,” said Sarwar Nizai, a military analyst. (ANI)
Recently, 66 prisoners, including childrens, were released from the prisons in Pakistan’s Sindh province…reports Asian Lite News
The Taliban-appointed consul in Karachi city of Pakistan said that over 290 citizens of Afghanistan are expected to release in the next two months, reported ToloNews.
Out of 2,600 Afghan prisoners held in Pakistan, nearly 2,350 of them including women and children have been released and returned to the country, counsel said. “We hope that in the next two months, they will be released and for them, we have a lawyer,” said Sayed Abdul Jabar, Taliban-appointed Consul General in Karachi, Pakistan.
Meanwhile, according to the Department of Refugees and Repatriation, in the past month, more than 28,000 country citizens have returned from Iran and Pakistan.
Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Department of Refugees and Repatriation, said that a committee headed by the Attorney General has been formed to deal with the problems of Afghan prisoners, according to ToloNews.
“In the last month nearly 28,000 refugees returned from Iran and Pakistan to the country and 5,000 of them returned from Pakistan,” said Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, the department’s spokesperson.
Recently, 66 prisoners, including childrens, were released from the prisons in Pakistan’s Sindh province, Khaama Press reported.
According to Taliban-appointed General Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, 66 prisoners, including eight children, were released from Sindh’s Karachi Central Jail.
According to instructions from the Taliban’s Department of Foreign Affairs, the prisoners were transferred to Afghanistan via Chaman, reported the leading news outlet from Afghanistan.
Earlier in January 2023, Pakistan released 524 Afghan nationals, who were accused of entering without valid travel documents.
Most Afghan nationals immigrate to neighbouring Pakistan for medical treatment, work and fleeing due to prosecution and security threats.
Some Afghan refugees do not have valid travel documents, particularly those who travel for medical treatment or flee due to security and prosecution by the current regime. As a result, the Pakistani officials arrest them due to a lack of invalid travel documents, as per Khaama Press. (ANI)
The Taliban acting PM said that there is a need for Kabul and Islamabad to expand their relations in regional transit and other economic areas….reports Asian Lite News
Taliban acting Prime Minister Mawlawi Abdul Kabir in a meeting with the charge d’affaires of the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, Obaid Rahman Nizamani, said that Afghanistan wants “good relations based on good intentions” with all its neighbours, Afghanistan based TOLO News reported.
The Taliban acting prime minister in the meeting said that there is a need for Kabul and Islamabad to expand their relations in regional transit and other economic areas. Nizamani said Pakistani officials have always expressed their positive views about the world’s interaction with the Taliban, the release of the frozen assets of Afghanistan, and the expansion of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
“Transit and facilitating visas, solutions for challenges in commute between Pakistan and Afghanistan borders, the condition of Afghan refugees, and other issues were discussed,” said Mohammad Hassan Haqyar, press director for the office of the political deputy PM.
This comes as the Taliban administrative deputy of the Prime Minister, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi, in a meeting with the Islamic Emirate’s consulate in Karachi said that Afghanistan’s missions abroad should attempt to enhance relations with world countries.
Meanwhile, the Khaama Press recently reported that as the Taliban’s hardline administration continues to violate women’s rights in Afghanistan under its regime, several international organisations and human rights bodies have frequently expressed concern about the country’s gender-based policies.
Amnesty International has branded the imposition of tight restrictions as a “war against women” in Afghanistan, emphasising the importance of prosecuting violators.
Moreover, it has also recorded multiple incidences in Afghanistan under Taliban control, demonstrating gender-based and discriminatory tactics aimed at women in its most recent report.
Citing Amnesty, Khaama Press reported that Afghan women have been silenced and may soon vanish. The Taliban’s actions mirror the group’s discriminatory objectives, which strive to exclude women and girls from all sectors of public life.
As per the reports of Amnesty International, the harassment campaign of the Taliban to systematically repress Afghan women from the public sphere is a misogyny and the policy to remove women and girls from public life is ongoing throughout the country under the Taliban’s de facto regime.
Amnesty International’s findings also reveal that the Taliban’s strict restrictions on women and girls violate a number of international treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, reported Khaama Press.
Women in Afghanistan have been prohibited from working at NGOs for a long time now.
Several women and girls have repeatedly called out the de-facto authorities to provide them with work outside their houses, however, the Taliban has continued with its curbs on women in Afghanistan.
However, some women and girls have started working, such as by picking up trades or other commercial endeavours, in order to make money.
Since the Taliban regained power in August 2021 after the US exit from the country, women are not allowed to work in education with domestic and international organisations, in gyms, or in public spaces. (ANI)
The pilot, whose identity has been withheld over security fears, flew combat missions alongside British and American fighters against the Taliban…reports Asian Lite News
The US said on Sunday it could intervene in the case of a pilot from Afghanistan threatened with deportation from the UK to Rwanda, The Independent reported.
The pilot, whose identity has been withheld over security fears, flew combat missions alongside British and American fighters against the Taliban and has been described as a “patriot” by former Western coalition allies.
He said he was forced to flee to the UK in a small boat when the Taliban retook Afghanistan because it had been “impossible” to find a safe and legal route.
His case has gained support from British military chiefs, celebrities and politicians in the UK, but the British government has declined to take a decision on granting him asylum.
On Sunday, White House spokesperson John Kirby told The Independent an investigation into whether the man would be eligible for asylum in the US would be carried out.
“It’s the first I’ve heard of it, so we’ll have to look into it, to check it out,” he said.
Kirby added that the Joe Biden administration was committed to helping Afghans who fought alongside coalition forces against the Taliban with their attempts to relocate to the US.
“We continue to work to bring our Afghan allies out of Afghanistan and into the country. We continue to believe down to our marrow that that’s a responsibility and an obligation we take seriously — it’s not stopped and it’s not going to stop,” he said.
According to The Independent report, the pilot’s details have been sent to the White House, and officials will look into if the US State Department can help him.
(140702) -- MIRANSHAH, July 2, 2014 (Xinhua) -- Photo released by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on July 1, 2014 shows Pakistani soldiers entering a house through a hole during a military operation against Taliban militants at the main town of Miranshah in northwest Pakistan's North Waziristan. The United Nations and non-governmental organizations are helping nearly 470,000 uprooted people in North Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here on July 1. (Xinhua/ISPR)
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During the visit, Iran’s Deputy Police Chief Qassem Rezaei said the clashes ended on Saturday and complete calm has been restored to the common border…reports Asian Lite News
A top Iranian military commander has said that the security of Iran’s common border with Afghanistan is fully guaranteed as it is completely under the control of Iranian Army’s Ground Force.
Commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Force Kioumars Heydari made the remarks during a visit to Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province that borders Afghanistan, one day after armed clashes between Iranian border guards and Taliban fighters in the area killed three people, Xinhua news agency reported, citing Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.
He said the Iranian armed forces’ presence on the common border does not mean that the country is threatened by any danger, but is intended to maintain the intelligence dominance and ensure security along the border.
Iran is committed to the principle of good neighborliness, but will respond accordingly if the other side fails to abide by laws and regulations, he added.
During the same visit, Iran’s Deputy Police Chief Qassem Rezaei said the clashes ended on Saturday and complete calm has been restored to the common border.
Two Iranian border guards and one Taliban fighter were killed, and several others were injured during the armed clashes near a border police station between Iran and Afghanistan on Saturday, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency and Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry.
The two sides accused each other of opening fire first on Saturday morning near the police station on the border of Sistan and Baluchestan province and the Afghan province of Nimroz.
The reason for the skirmish is not known yet and the Iranian Embassy in Kabul and Afghanistan’s Taliban-run acting Ministry of National Defense have started correspondence and phone calls to investigate the cause of the clashes.
Tensions began to grow between the two neighbors in the past weeks due to a dispute over Iran’s water share from the Helmand River. According to a 1973 treaty between the two countries, Iran is entitled to receive 820 million cubic meters of water from the Helmand River annually. Iran has accused Afghanistan’s caretaker Taliban government of blocking the river water from reaching Iran’s drought-hit Sistan and Baluchestan province.
In a statement issued last week, the Taliban said Iran’s frequent requests for water and “inappropriate” comments on media are “harmful,” adding it is committed to the 1973 treaty.
6 border guards killed by 'terrorists' in Iran(twitter)
Afghanistan’s acting FM stressed Taliban’s keenness in meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Hassan Kazemi Qomi…reports Asian Lite News
Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi has stressed the need to resort to dialogue to resolve issues between Kabul and Tehran in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the local media reported on Sunday.
Iran’s water rights to the Helmand River were discussed in the meeting and the acting foreign minister emphasised that the issues related to Kabul and Tehran can be resolved through “dialogue and understanding,” Tolonews reported.
Based on an agreement signed between Afghanistan and Iran in 1351 in the Persian calendar, which coincided in 1972, Kabul is obliged to allow Helmand River water to flow to neighboring Iran, Xinhua news agency reported.
Tehran has been accusing Kabul of making excuses for giving Iran’s share in the water flow, but the Afghan side rejected the allegation, insisting the water level has receded due to continued drought.
Muttaqi’s remarks on solving issues between Kabul and Tehran were reported amid border clashes between the border forces of the two countries.
One person from the Afghan side and one from Iran were killed in a clash along the border with Afghanistan’s western Nimroz province on Saturday, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takour said.
No recognition from Iran
Iranian Foreign Minister has said that his country does not recognise Afghanistan’s caretaker Taliban government and insists upon the formation of an inclusive government in the country, according to Iranian Students’ News Agency.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, making the remarks in a meeting attended by the country’s diplomatic personnel, expressed Tehran’s dissatisfaction with the neighbouring country’s failure to form an inclusive government, Xinhua news agency reported.
He added that the Taliban is only part of Afghanistan’s reality, not all of it.
Amir-Abdollahian said over the past few months, clashes have occurred every now and then along the common border with Afghanistan, which have become a source of concern.
Another source of argument between the two sides is the joint water rights of the Hirmand River. The Iranian Space Agency spokesman said last week that satellite photos show that the Taliban have made alterations to the river’s route, preventing its water from reaching Iran.
Amir-Abdollahian stressed that Iran’s water rights from the Hirmand River should be respected under a 1973 treaty between the two countries, which entitles Iran to receive 820 million cubic meters of water from the river per year.
The Taliban government issued a statement last week, saying Iran’s frequent requests for water and “inappropriate” comments on media are “harmful”, adding it is committed to the 1973 treaty.
The Hirmand River originates in the Hindu Kush Mountains near Afghanistan’s capital Kabul and runs 1,126 kilometers south before flowing into Hamoun wetlands in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, which Amir-Abdollahian said is suffering from drought.
Photo taken on Sept. 2, 2022 shows a checkpoint near the site of a blast in Herat province, Afghanistan. A total of 18 people have been confirmed dead and 23 others were injured as a blast ripped through a mosque in Herat city, capital of Afghanistan's western Herat province on Friday, a local official said. (Photo by Mashal/xinhua/IANS)
It is time to build Afghanistan by making efforts to resume economic activities, trade, investment, and aid by cautiously playing its cards….reports Asian Lite News
It is important for Afghanistan that it remains focused on economic revival post-Covid and political upheaval. Afghanistan cannot afford to get trapped in internal political turmoil or become a victim of the geopolitical traps of neighbouring countries or global powers, The Khaama Press News Agency reported.
It is time to build Afghanistan by making efforts to resume economic activities, trade, investment, and aid by cautiously playing its cards. The priorities of the country could not be blurred in view of the fact that by mid-2022, two-thirds of Afghan households had come to the brink and could not afford food and other non-food items. The Khaama Press News Agency is an independent and non-political news organization established in 2010 by a team of highly committed and professional journalists led by Khushnood Nabizada to empower free press and journalism in Afghanistan.
The Taliban government’s capacity to reverse the “cascading” economic crisis crucially depends on the resumption of international aid, resuscitating economic activities and creating a conducive business environment, The Khaama Press News Agency reported.
All these things would depend vitally on the Taliban government’s efforts to convince the Western powers to a smooth transition to a representative government and maintain a commitment to human rights. It is also important to mobilize humanitarian support including food and medicine from the countries with which Afghanistan has enjoyed friendship for a long.
A World Bank report has rightly expressed concern that the “political crisis of August 15, 2021, morphed into an economic confidence crisis” in Afghanistan.
It says further that cessation of aid caused a collapse in aggregate demand, job losses and economic deprivation as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 20.7 per cent in 2021, The Khaama Press News Agency reported.
The country’s balance of trade is adverse with imports of USD 7 billion and legal exports at USD 2 billion in 2022, leaving a trade deficit of USD 5 billion.
While Afghanistan saw a partial resumption of aid (off-budget and smaller scale at about USD 3.5 billion compared to USD 9 billion in 2020), signs emerged by mid-2022 that the Afghan economy was settling around a fragile low-level equilibrium, yet the question of sustaining people’s livelihood still remains perplexing because of the substantial spillovers of the contraction of the aid-driven services and security sectors.
Taliban soldiers walk on a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 17, 2021. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY – RC2LRP9O0ABB
Although headline inflation has come down from a peak of 18.35 in July 2022 to 3.5 per cent in February 2023, the price level still remains elevated. The political crisis has led to job losses and business opportunities which have made people’s lives miserable, The Khaama Press News Agency reported.
In the precarious economic scenario, it is very important for Afghanistan to remain cautious that no country gets access to its precious resources on unfavourable terms. Its copper and oil reserves attract international investors, but any desperate move on the part of the Afghan government to give access to investors without commensurate quid pro quo would not be desirable.
Economic diplomacy requires that the Afghan regime balances its ties with the Western and neighbouring development partners. This means that it is a better strategy for Afghanistan to avoid the geopolitical tug of war in its territory for the strategic agenda of other countries.
Its economic diplomacy should be balanced by giving balancing stakes to all its development partners in connectivity and industrial projects and trade. Unrealistic and unsustainable debt-based models have already been proven risky and unsustainable in some South Asian neighbours, The Khaama Press News Agency reported.
A UN report highlighted in October 2022 that although Afghan people have “survived numerous resilience”, the last 12 months have brought “cascading crises: A humanitarian emergency, massive economic contraction; and the crippling of its banking and financial systems in addition to denying access to secondary education to girls and the restrictions on women’s mobility and participation of the economy.”
Afghanistan’s salvation would begin from its economic revival which depends on many other reforms, especially those which re-assure its development partners.
UNDP lamented that ten years of Afghan economic growth were reversed in just 12 months. But the Afghan regime is trying hard to bring back life to its economy. In its revival, the United Nations (UN) cash shipments for humanitarian and essential service support have helped significantly, The Khaama Press News Agency reported.
In January-February 2023, the UN has already shipped USD 440 billion to Afghanistan as against a cumulative USD 1.55 billion in 2022. Revenue collection for the first seven months of the fiscal 2022-23 has also seen remarkable improvement. But given the size of Afghanistan’s economic challenge, these could be seen as green shoots only.
Afghanistan must go miles before it succeeds in stabilizing its economy. It desperately needs the resumption of aid and investment. But for these to happen, Afghanistan needs to take visible actions. And even more importantly it needs to avert any strategic exploitation by any development partner or global power. (ANI)
UK still has the opportunity to change course with tangible actions that protect and promote the rights of women and girls…reports Asian Lite News
Taliban’s treatment of women and girls should be considered a crime against humanity of ‘gender persecution’. Report provides legal assessment of why those fleeing persecution must be presumptively considered refugees. ‘Women and girls from Afghanistan arriving in the UK are refugees, and this country must respect their right to asylum’ – Sacha Deshmukh
‘This is a war against women’ – Agnès Callamard
The Taliban’s severe restrictions and unlawful crackdown on women and girls’ rights should be investigated as possible crimes under international law – including the crime against humanity of gender persecution – Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists said today (26 May) in a new report.
The 62-page report, ‘The Taliban’s war on women: The crime against humanity of gender persecution in Afghanistan’, provides a detailed analysis of how the Taliban’s draconian restrictions on the rights of Afghanistan’s women and girls – together with the use of imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment – could amount to the crime against humanity of gender persecution under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Amnesty and the International Commission of Jurists say that prosecutors at the ICC should include the crime against humanity of gender persecution in their ongoing investigation into the situation in Afghanistan. The organisations are also calling on other countries to exercise universal jurisdiction or other lawful means to bring to justice Taliban members suspected of responsibility for crimes under international law.
Taliban fire shots, beat women protesters in Kabul.
The report covers the period from August 2021 to January 2023 and bases its analysis on a growing body of evidence collected by credible sources, including Amnesty’s 2022 report Death in Slow Motion, civil society organisations and UN authorities. It also provides a legal assessment of why women and girls fleeing persecution in Afghanistan should be presumptively considered refugees in need of international protection.
The research complements the work of UN experts and women’s rights groups to lay the foundation for the robust response needed to ensure justice, accountability and reparation for the crimes against humanity of gender persecution.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:
“Afghan women and girls are the victims of a crime against humanity of gender persecution.
Since their takeover, the Taliban has imposed draconian restrictions on the rights of Afghanistan’s women and girls.
“Let there be no doubt: this is a war against women – banned from public life; prevented from accessing education; prohibited from working; barred from moving freely; imprisoned, disappeared and tortured including for speaking against these policies and resisting the repression.
“These are international crimes. They are organised, widespread, systematic. “The gravity of the crime demands a far more robust international response than has been seen to date. There is only one outcome acceptable: this system of gender oppression and persecution must be dismantled.”
Pakistan Taliban vows to step up war for free homeland, tells Pakistani soldiers to give up arms.(photo:IN)
Santiago A Canton, the International Commission of Jurists’ Secretary General, added: “The Taliban’s campaign of gender persecution is of such magnitude, gravity and systematic nature, that cumulatively the acts and policies form a system of repression which aims to subjugate and marginalise women and girls across the country.
“Our report indicates that this meets all the five criteria to qualify as a crime against humanity of gender persecution.
“Holding the Taliban criminally accountable and tackling rampant impunity for the serious crimes documented in this report is a necessary step toward securing justice for survivors of their egregious practices.
“We simply cannot afford to fail the women and girls of Afghanistan.”
UK ‘must change course’
In the UK, the joint report is published against a backdrop of racist immigration legislation going through parliament as well as diplomatic moves by the Government to make the obligation to extradite or prosecute those wanted for the most serious crimes under international law merely optional. The proposed new Mutual Legal Assistance treaty – being negotiated at the Ljubljana conference in Slovenia and due to end today (26 May) – would allow war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to go unpunished.
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said:
UK: Government seeks to water down treaty which could allow war criminals to go free
— News From Amnesty (@NewsFromAmnesty) May 18, 2023
“This report serves as a clarion call to the UK government to fix serious shortcomings in the support it provides to women and girls fleeing persecution from Afghanistan and seeking justice.
“The UK likes to present itself as a champion of women’s rights globally, but increasingly it is not. The immigration bill will only add to the misery of those fleeing persecution to seek safety on our shores. Women and girls from Afghanistan arriving in the UK are refugees, and this country must respect their right to seek asylum just as it expects other countries to do so.
“Just this week, the UK government has been trying to water down a new treaty aimed at strengthening international cooperation in bringing perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity to justice.
“This wrongly signals to the world that justice and protection is only for a selected few and not a fundamental right for all.
“The UK still has the opportunity to change course with tangible actions that protect and promote the rights of women and girls – for those in need of safety here and those enduring unimaginable hardship in Afghanistan.”
‘Second-class citizens’
Since the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, women in Afghanistan have been excluded from political roles and most jobs in the public sector. Through a series of measures and announcements, women and girls have also been excluded from education beyond primary school.
The Taliban’s dissolution of the institutional framework of support for survivors of gender-based violencehas further undermined the rights of Afghan women and girls on the basis of their gender.
Taliban decrees issued on 24 December 2022 and 4 April 2023 to ban women from working in NGOs and the UN provide further clear evidence of the Taliban’s institutional gender discrimination. In addition, a requirement that women travel with a male chaperone (“mahram”) for long-distance journeys, a decree stipulating that women should stay at home unless necessary, and the Taliban’s strict dress code all violate women’s freedom of movement and freedom to choose what to wear in public.
The discriminatory restrictions the Taliban have imposed on women and girls violate human rights guarantees contained in numerous international treaties to which Afghanistan is a party, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Afghan women and girls have been arbitrarily arrested and detained by Taliban members for so-called “moral crimes” as a result of infringing the authorities’ discriminatory “mahram” restrictions and for their participation in peaceful demonstrations. Women who have protested against the Taliban’s abusive and restrictive policies have faced excessive force, unlawful arrests, torture and other ill-treatment to ensure their compliance.
Amnesty and the International Commission of Jurists believe that the numerous incidents of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and other ill-treatment inflicted on women and girls who either participated in peaceful protests or were accused of so-called “moral offences” should also be investigated as the possible crimes against humanity of imprisonment, enforced disappearance and torture under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
The way forward
Amnesty and the International Commission of Jurists’ report provides specific recommendations regarding how the international community must help dismantle the Taliban’s system of gender persecution and the impunity which sustains it. An upcoming meeting on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan at the forthcoming UN Human Rights Council is an important opportunity for states, civil society and independent experts to discuss the Taliban’s gender persecution and other possible crimes under international law. The Human Rights Council must renew and strengthen the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan and take urgent steps towards establishing an independent international accountability mechanism to investigate crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations, as well as to collect and preserve evidence of such violations with a view to supporting future accountability efforts, including prosecutions.
This comes as the 28th air bridge humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of Power in August 2021…reports Asian Lite News
The European Union (EU) has delivered nearly 100 tons of medicines and medical supplies to Afghanistan, Khaama Press reported.
Deputy political representative of the European Union for Afghanistan, Raffaella Iodice, on Wednesday, tweeted that nearly 100 tons of medicine and medical supplies were delivered to Kabul, Afghanistan.
“Close to 100 tons of medicines and medical items safely arrived in Afghanistan via the EU’s humanitarian Air Bride,” Iodice tweeted.
She also emphasized that the EU is committed to stand by the people of Afghanistan, as per Khaama Press.
“These cargo flights are a truly visible example of our humanitarian assistance to the country. The EU continued to stand by the people of Afghanistan,” she added.
This comes as the 28th air bridge humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of Power in August 2021.
The European Union said: “With this 28th air bridge operation from Afghanistan since 2021, we reconfirm our commitment to helping Afghans in need.”
These medical supplies come at a critical time when most people need life-saving medicine and medical equipment amid a dire humanitarian crisis in the country, according to Khaama Press. (ANI)
