MONITORING (SW) – The US Department of State’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – has said security forces in Afghanistan have occasionally acted independently and have committed numerous abuses.
It said in its latest report that since September 12, when representatives of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban commenced Afghan peace negotiations, armed insurgent groups conducted major attacks on government forces, public places, and civilians, killing and injuring thousands.
It said there were also targeted attacks on women leading up to the start of the negotiations, including an assassination attempt on Fawzia Koofi, one of four women on the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s negotiating team, and two incidents during the Loya Jirga (grand council) in August in which parliamentarian Belqis Roshan was assaulted and violent threats were made against delegate Asila Wardak.
Since November 7, unknown actors killed eight journalists and activists in targeted killings, three of whom were killed between December 21 and 24. Many of the attacks were unclaimed; the Taliban denied involvement.
It has noted significant human rights issues in Afghanistan including killings by insurgents; extrajudicial killings by security forces; forced disappearances by anti-government personnel; reports of torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment by security forces and anti-government entities; arbitrary detention by government security forces and insurgents; serious abuse in internal conflict, including killing of civilians, enforced disappearances and abductions, torture and physical abuses, and other conflict-related abuses; serious acts of corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for cases of violence against women, including those accused of so-called moral crimes; recruitment and use of child soldiers and sexual abuse of children, including by security force members and educational personnel; trafficking in persons; violence targeting members of ethnic minority groups; violence by security forces and other actors against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons; existence and use of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct; and the existence of the worst forms of child labor.
According to the report, widespread disregard for the rule of law and official impunity for those responsible for human rights abuses were serious, continuing problems. The government did not investigate or prosecute consistently or effectively abuses by officials, including security forces, said the report.
Anti-government elements continued to attack religious leaders who spoke out against the Taliban. During the year many pro-government Islamic scholars were killed in attacks for which no group claimed responsibility. Non-state armed groups, primarily the Taliban and Islamic State in Khorasan Province, accounted for most child recruitment and used children younger than age 12 during the year. Insurgent groups, including the Taliban, increasingly used children as suicide
The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974.
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