UN needs stronger accountability in Afghanistan

“The signatory organizations call your attention to the deplorable state of human rights in Afghanistan and in particular the absolute lack of accountability for gross and systematic human rights violations and abuses, including crimes under international law, occurring in Afghanistan, especially against women and girls, ethnic and religious minorities, journalists, and human rights defenders,” the letter reads.

Meanwhile, Farah Mustafavi, a women’s rights activist, voiced criticism over the activities of the human rights organizations in Afghanistan.

“The results of the one-year activities of the UN representatives, the human rights representatives and national and international organization for human rights in Afghanistan, have not been satisfactory for the people of Afghanistan,” she said.

Richard Bennett is the current UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and the renewal of his post was called for in the open letter.

“The Western countries will call for the renewal of Richard Bennett. China and Russia will also accept it but the report of Richard Bennett is made from outside Afghanistan. For better transparency, it is better that Richard Bennett stays in Kabul and write the report from Kabul,” said Torek Farhadi, a political analyst.

This comes as Kabul has repeatedly denied the reports of the violations of human rights, and called them baseless.

The Islamic Emirate stressed that it is committed to human rights and women’s rights based on Islamic values.