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Commission on Human Rights
Fifty-eighth session
Item 9



STATEMENT BY DR. KAMAL HOSSAIN
SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE SITUATION OF
HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN


AT THE FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION OF THE
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

26 MARCH 2002


1. I am presenting my seventh report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. Dramatic developments have taken place since my sixth report was presented to the UN General Assembly on 8 November, 2001. You may recall the anxiety I shared with you during the last session of the Commission about the Afghan people being totally forgotten by the international community and Afghanistan having become as it were an abandoned nation. Since then there has been a total change. Now, the attention of the world has become focussed on Afghanistan.

2. The opportunity presented in February 1989 by the withdrawal of Soviet troops for restoring Afghanistan to all of its people was lost. Instead of the multi-ethnic, representative government promised by the Geneva Accords, the international community allowed the country to become an arena of externally supported conflict between warring factions. The tragic events of 11 September in an extraordinary way set in motion events presenting once again an opportunity for change. This opportunity has created the Bonn framework for transition. The international community cannot fail this time to fulfill its responsibility. It cannot once again let down the Afghans.

3. I had made an emergency visit to Islamabad (Pakistan), Tehran, Zahedan and Zabol (Iran) between 22 and 30 October 2001. On 7 November 2001, I briefed the Security Council under the Arria formula. I visited Kabul between 6 to 8 January and met the Chairman of the Interim Administration, Mr. Hamid Karzai, two Vice-Chairpersons, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of the Interior, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi. From 15-22 February, 2002 I visited western Afghanistan (Herat) and Iran. I interviewed refugees in Mashhad and IDPs in Maslakh. In Herat, I held consultations with the Governor of Herat, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society members.

4. Significant military and political developments have occurred. Military operations commenced on 7 October, 2001. It resulted in the rout all over northern Afghanistan of Taliban forces. Taliban units there concentrated mainly in Kunduz Province, having failed to withdraw to southern Afghanistan. On 12 November, the United Front launched an offensive on the Shomali front, north of Kabul, entering Kabul on 13 November without a battle, since the Taliban had already abandoned the capital city.

5. I had in my report to the General Assembly and in the press conference following it made urgent appeals for compliance with international humanitarian law, in particular in relation to the treatment of prisoners. I had urged a negotiated surrender wherever possible including Kunduz. Prisoners taken there were brought to Qala-i-Jangi fort, which proved to be a disaster as a site for detention. Grave concern was expressed by international human rights organizations at the deaths which occurred at the Qala-i-Jangi fort and the circumstances surrounding the reported uprising of prisoners and the ensuing operations, which led to the death of several hundred prisoners. The President of the ICRC in his statement at the Afghanistan Support Group Conference in Berlin on 5 December, 2001 urged that "All persons who surrender are entitled to a humane treatment regardless, in the case of Afghanistan, of whether they are Afghan Taliban or foreign fighters. This was true of Kunduz yesterday and remains true for Kandahar in the future." He further urged all parties in Afghanistan and members of the international coalition to respect the provisions of the Geneva Conventions. On 21 December referring to these expressions of concern I had urged that inquires should be held on those reports by the authorities concerned and corrective action taken.

6. I underlined that it was important that the international action against terrorism be viewed as a campaign to uphold the international rule of law. I further urged that forces engaged in that campaign should be seen as complying with international humanitarian law, this more so as increasing numbers of prisoners were expected to be taken in the coming days. It was important to ensure that captured fighters continued to be treated in accordance with the applicable Geneva Convention and any question regarding their status be determined by a competent tribunal as envisaged by that Convention. So long as military operations continue, the Afghan population would need to be protected against their destructive impacts.

7. The Bonn Agreement, signed on 5 December 2001, acknowledged the right of the people of Afghanistan to freely determine their political future, with its basic objective being "the establishment of a broad-based, gender-sensitive, multi-ethnic and fully representative government". Human rights were thus recognised to be the key feature of the framework for change. The leadership of the Interim Administration reaffirmed their commitment to human rights, recognizing that "the most important thing for human beings is human rights", and that this made it necessary "to disarm the country" and to collect arms which were held by many groups under different local commanders. A national legal order had to be built based on human rights and the rule of law. The support of the international community remains critically important if these objectives are to be secured.

8. The 23 year conflict has left the Afghan economy devastated. The overwhelming majority of Afghans struggle to survive in miserable conditions. They are among the poorest and hungriest in the world. Mass unemployment, widespread lack of purchasing power and lack of infrastructure and institutions undeniably makes Afghanistan one of the most difficult places to live on earth. The imperative of undertaking a massive programme of national reconstruction in palpably evident. The urgent need to respond to their plight is characterized by an extremely complicated and volatile operating and planning environment.

9. The Tokyo Conference on Afghan Re-construction (January 2002) was expected to respond to the re-construction and development needs of Afghanistan on a scale commensurate to the magnitude of devastation. The Conference concluded with a pledge of around US$4.5 billion over the next five years. The pledge revealed some critical gaps.

10. Resources are most urgently needed for recruiting and developing a national police force which would play a critical role in meeting the need for security of life and person. This is universally recognized by all sections of the Afghan people to be the number one priority. In the absence of a nation-wide law enforcement capability, there are reports from different parts of Afghanistan of violent crimes, some of which are reported to be ethnically motivated and a number of them to be directed against women. New refugee flows consisting mainly of Pashtuns, numbering several thousands are reported to have crossed into Pakistan. The reasons for fleeing are reportedly ethnic harassment, physical violence, and shortage of food. I had in my report to the General Assembly on 8 November 2001 warned about the violence that may occur against civilians as territories change hands. Reliable reports from Balkh, Faryab, Samangan, Badghis and Kunduz indicate that as these territories were changing hands civilians became targets of violence and there are reports from a number of villages of reprisals against an ethnic minority in those areas. Most of the incidents are reported to have occurred in November and December 2001. I have also had reports of about a dozen such incidents in Balkh, Samangan and Sari Pul in January and February 2002. The Interim Administration sent a high-powered three-member commission to enquire into these incidents, and has committed itself to take effective law enforcement measures against those responsible. Its capacity to do so, however, has to be developed as a matter of the highest priority. In this context, the need to develop and deploy a national police force and, while this is being done, to expand the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from the 5000 committed to around 20 to30 thousand, for deployment in different parts of Afghanistan, cannot be over emphasized.

11. A key change which the transition aims to bring about is to restore the rights of Afghan women who had been the targets of systematic discrimination denying them access to employment, education and health services. That the process of change had begun is reflected in the re-opening of schools for girls and women returning to their normal jobs. Immediate measures were recommended in the January 2002 report of the Secretary-General on discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan to the Commission on the Status of Women and may be commended for consideration and action by the Interim Administration.

12. The Afghan people have been exposed over more than two decades to the arbitrary use of force, recurrent massacres accompanying changes of control over territory, arbitrary detention, cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, arbitrary and drastic restrictions of freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom of association, gender discrimination and discriminatory treatment of minorities, within an authoritarian structure of governance and suffered from systematic deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights.

13. Today, the highest priority in the programme for restoration of human rights would be to replace the rule of the gun by the rule of law. The consensus expressed by nearly all Afghans accords the highest priority to security which necessarily connotes establishing an environment for peace, ending past conflicts, respect for human rights and providing for conflict prevention. Strategic and sustainable improvement of human rights is seen as a prerequisite for durable peace in Afghanistan and for creating conditions conducive for the return of millions of Afghan refugees, a process which has just begun. Priority tasks would include laying the foundation for impartial and effective law enforcement, establishing an independent judicial system and a national human rights commission empowered to protect the rights of all Afghans.

14. An important question is that of the accountability of those who were responsible in the past for committing massacres and similar serious human rights violations. As the High Commissioner for Human Rights speaking recently in Kabul said: "We know well from past experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere, that sustainable peace, reconciliation and reconstruction and development cannot be built upon a foundation of impunity". The experience of other post-conflict societies offers a range of options, from prosecution of the perpetrators, establishment of a truth commission and/or lustration/disqualification of the perpetrator from electoral office and/or public service. The option or combination of options which would be appropriate to the circumstances of Afghanistan would call for a national policy decision, to secure the twin objectives of justice and reconciliation. Afghans will need to deliberate within the framework of the Bonn Agreement, in order to arrive at a national policy on this important issue. Chairman Karzai in a recent statement announced his intention to pursue the ultimate establishment of a truth commission for Afghanistan, which intention was confirmed by Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah in his statement in this Commission last week.

15. An integrated approach is imperative. The restoration of the rule of law, the protection of the right to life and personal security, the right to property, the right to move freely and transport goods throughout the country, are critically necessary to enable the economy to be regenerated, for agriculture to revive, for trade to resume, for markets to function, for employment opportunities to be promoted and for access to be afforded to housing, education and health facilities.

16. The international community must commit itself resolutely and with a sense of solidarity with the people of Afghanistan to support them in meeting the challenge of national reconstruction which faces them. It must mobilize and deliver the resources needed and in particular provide the critical support requested by way of expansion of ISAF, without which the transition could be put at risk. Never would so much have been at stake if so modest and so urgent a request for security support is not met.