KABUL (SW) – Figures compiled by the Afghanistan Civil Society Forum and the Human Rights Defenders Committee suggest 23 rights defenders and civil activists have been killed in Afghanistan over the past year.
A moot in this connection in Kabul was told that during this period, human rights and civil society activists also witnessed at least 54 serious threats.
Aziz Rafii, chairman of the Afghanistan Civil Society Forum and the Committee for Human Rights Defenders, said on the occasion that a number of human rights and civil society activists have been killed by insurgents in insecure provinces. According to Rafi, human rights defenders continue to face serious threats.
He added there is still no mechanism in place to investigate cases of human rights defenders in the country.
The committee called on the government to seriously investigate the cases of threats and killings of human rights defenders.
Speaking at the event, Second Vice President Sarwar Danish said that today no one is safe from the armed opposition of the government and according to him, the enemies of Afghanistan continue to target defenders of democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani had recently set up a Human Rights Defenders Commission headed by his Second Vice President Sarwar Danish to protect human rights defenders.
ENDS
