PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON AFGHANISTAN

Kamal Hossain, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan of the Commission on Human Rights, told correspondents gathered this morning at the Palais des Nations at Geneva that since his appointment in December 1998, he had visited Afghanistan from 16 to 18 March. His report to the Commission (E/CN.4/1999/40) contained not only developments concerning his visit but also a general review of the human rights situation.

The Special Rapporteur said some of the main issues of concern in country were related to the denial of the right to education of girls and gender discrimination in general. The only exception was the permission given to widows to work in order to survive.

During his visit to Kabul, Mr. Hossain said, he had observed some relaxation of the restrictions imposed on the rights of women, as a few women doctors and nurses were seen at work in a hospital attending to female patients.

The improvement of the overall human rights situation would require the emergence of a framework for building peace through an inclusive participatory process involving continuing consultations with all segments of the Afghan people, aimed at establishing a broad based, multiethnic and fully representative Government, he said.

Mr. Hossain said that a more comprehensive assessment of the human rights situation was necessary. This would involve further visits from his part and would be helped by visits of the Special Rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, on torture and on violence against women.

A correspondent asked why a country as rich in natural resources was so poor. Were the Taliban or any other faction interested in avoiding the exploitation of Afghan natural resources? Mr. Hossain said there had been 20 years of conflict, that millions of people had been displaced and that nearly all institutions were in a state of collapse. This was the reason why the natural resources could not be exploited.

Asked if all factions of the Taliban around the country were acting under the same direction, Mr. Hossain said "there are different voices in different tunes". There also were differences between the rural and urban areas.

Another correspondent asked whether the Special Rapporteur could confirm that since the imposition of very strict gender segregation, the remains of civil society had collapsed. Mr. Hossain said the situation was very negative in all fields regarding women activities.