Human Rights Conditions: Afghanistan

Human Rights Conditions: Afghanistan

This is something I recently wrote for a conference for Human Rights in Warsaw moderated by the Helsinki Federation of Human Rights that might interest some people. I did omit some parts because they were conference-specific, so it may look cut-off in some parts. Please let me know if you don't' like these messages, so next time I have to report about Afghanistan, I know I am not sending you one. ;-)

-------------

Afghanistan has passed several milestones towards stability, democracy and human rights in the past four years. It once was a country in which the government perpetrated needless bloodshed to accomplish its foreign-born agenda. A country where afghan citizens were not allowed to participate but rather were forced in-doors, executed, and massacred; and women were denied their God-given rights to education, equality, and freedom. Fortunately, we don't see massacres on a larger scale anymore; however, conditions to improve human rights in Afghanistan haven't developed as much as anticipated. We still have human rights violations throughout Afghanistan by government workers, local warlords, US forces, and other residual factors within the society. Excessive use of American forces in residential areas to hunt down civilians is violation of many international laws including the Geneva Convention. Not only does the US forces use unnecessary power, but also detain civilians at will without giving the detainee the power of the attorney to claim innocence.

The life and freedom of the detainees are held at the mercy of US military court. Currently, US has provided no answers to the human rights organizations worldwide about the illegal detainment of Afghan civilian or non-civilians. Women are treated much better in Kabul than the rest of the country; however, even in Kabul, women's rights are still being abused. Many women are still scared, especially the young ones. Their fear that they could be kidnapped and raped forces them to impose themselves to wear a burka. It goes without saying that in areas outside of Kabul, women's conditions worsen as you reach remote areas with weak transportation and communication services. Poorer families naturally tend to create more gap between the status of a man and a woman. In villages, women usually milk the cows, bake bread, cook, and feed the children. Their role in the society ends there and there only. On the positive side, many poorer families stress more on education and try to send their kids to school even if it means they have to cut the grass themselves. In Kabul, in particular, a huge number of children beggars. These children skip school to go and beg to earn a living or are being forced to beg by their families. Their inherent right to education is being undermined either by the family or the person they are being forced to beg for.

A person driving down any Kabul street would witness the extent of this miserable fact without soliciting any human rights organization for a report. CCA has conducted many human rights related work throughout Afghanistan in the past four years, such as gender training workshops, publishing women's works, human rights conferences, the establishment of the Human Rights Commission, healing and rehabilitation workshops, and reporting human rights abuses