SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON EXTRAJUDICIAL, SUMMARY OR ARBITRARY EXECUTIONS TO VISIT AFGHANISTAN

9 October 2002




The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Asma Jahangir, will go on mission to Afghanistan from 13 to 23 October.

The visit will start in Kabul, where Ms. Jahangir will meet with Government officials and hold briefings with United Nations representatives and others. The Special Rapporteur is also scheduled to visit a number of cities and towns in Afghanistan where she will meet, among others, local authorities, international agencies, and other individuals relevant to her mandate.
"I will endeavour to meet with all relevant parties and interlocutors, in order to make a balanced and independent assessment", the Special Rapporteur said today.
The mission, which comes at the request of the Special Rapporteur, has been agreed upon by the Government of Afghanistan with the assistance of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Ms. Jahangir will prepare a report on the visit for the upcoming session of the Commission on Human Rights, which starts in March 2003.
Ms. Jahangir, an advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, was appointed Special Rapporteur in August 1998 by the Commission on Human Rights. Since then she has carried out a number of field missions, including to Mexico, East Timor, Nepal, Turkey, Honduras, the Democratic Republic of Congo and, in connection with the Kosovo conflict, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania.


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