Amnesty denounces major setback to human rights in Afghanistan after first year of Taliban rule

On the eve of a year since the Taliban retook power with the final and unopposed takeover of Kabul, Amnesty International (AI) has denounced that since then they have been leading “a sustained attack” on freedoms, persecuting minorities and violently repressing any opposition.

In its report published Monday under the title ‘Taliban law: A year of violence, impunity and false promises’, Amnesty highlights “the flagrant violations” that have been committed in the last year, as well as the impunity they enjoy for torturing, murdering and disappearing those who oppose the regime.

“A year ago, the Taliban publicly pledged to protect and promote Human Rights. But the speed at which they are dismantling 20 years of progress on freedoms is breathtaking,” denounced Amnesty International’s regional director for South Asia, Yamini Mishra.

In this sense, she regretted that “all hope for change has vanished while the Taliban try to rule through repression and with total impunity”, as shown by “arbitrary arrests, torture, disappearances and summary executions”.

The return of the Taliban has in turn been a major setback for women and girls, who after two decades of progress have been stripped of their rights. They now “face a bleak future, deprived of education and the possibility of participating in public life,” he denounced.

With the seizure of Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban put an end to a swift campaign to take over much of Afghanistan after the departure of the United States and its allies. Since then, and despite the promises they made to the international community, Amnesty has collected widespread cases of human rights violations against the population.

“Hundreds of civilians have been arbitrarily detained”, denounces Amnesty in its report, which includes the case of ‘Sahiba’ – fictitious name – a demonstrator beaten and tortured by the Taliban.

“There was no court, no charges and no due process; we were kidnapped from the streets, held in a jail for several days without access to our family, or a lawyer. Some women with whom I shared a cell never returned and we don’t know what happened to them,” she recounts.

For his part, Torab Kakar has denounced to the NGO how the Taliban skipped the promise to grant “total amnesty” to those who were part of the security forces of the previous government, recounting the case of his friend Jalal, who was beaten handcuffed and blindfolded.

“After he was beaten and when his family searched for him, the local head of the Intelligence services threatened them and warned them to stop searching,” recounts Kakar. Jalal’s case is one more of the “hundreds” of reprisals and extrajudicial killings that have been recorded to punish those who were part of the former regime.

“There have been hundreds of extrajudicial killings and bodies have been found with bullet wounds or signs of torture. Dozens of people have disappeared and remain unaccounted for because of their work with the former government or for allegedly taking part in the resistance against the Taliban,” Amnesty notes.

The string of crimes perpetrated by the Taliban is wide and varied. In addition to torture, indiscriminate arrests and extrajudicial killings, there are the persecutions of religious ethnic minorities, as well as forced displacements and the plundering of their lands.

“There have been reports of non-Pashtun Afghans being forcibly evicted from their homes and land so that the Taliban could reward their supporters,” Amnesty said. The main victims of these persecution policies are the Hazara, Turkmen and Uzbek peoples. One year after the takeover of Kabul, the UN estimates that the number of internally displaced persons has increased by more than 820,000.

The case of women and girls is particularly bleeding. Since they seized power, they have been subjected to “increasing and constant violence,” it notes. Dozens have been detained and tortured for participating in peaceful protests to demand their rights, after two decades of slow but significant progress.

“The Taliban have restricted the right to education for women and girls, darkening the future for millions of them. When, on September 17, 2021, they reopened secondary schools, the Taliban banned the attendance of those in higher grades claiming it was temporary while they hired more female teachers. To date, none of these plans have been implemented,” he complains.

The Amnesty report also details the excessive use of force, including the use of live fire, exercised by Taliban security forces to contain peaceful protests.

“I saw a man lying over a pool of blood in a ditch in the street; I think he had been killed. […] I had a broken hand, but I didn’t go to the hospital for fear of being arrested for participating in the protests,” one person who attended a protest in Heart province told Amnesty.

It is not only freedom of assembly and demonstration that is in question in Taliban Afghanistan, as repression is also directed at the media and its independence.

An example of this is the order issued on September 19, 2021 by the Government Media and Information Center (GMIC) prohibiting journalists from publishing stories “contrary to Islam” or stories that might insult “national figures” in any way.

In the past year, more than 80 journalists have been detained and tortured for reporting on peaceful protests, Amnesty has denounced. One of them told the NGO that he was whipped and beaten so badly on his legs that he was unable to stand up for days.

For all these reasons, Amnesty not only calls on the Taliban to immediately cease “flagrant” violations of fundamental freedoms, but also demands that the international community take “meaningful” steps to prevent Afghanistan’s human rights crisis from worsening further.

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