Since the insurrection and the subsequent takeover by the Taliban on the 15th of August 2021, the Taliban regime has abruptly extinguished the human rights of its citizens.
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was forceful and without the consent and without the will of the people of Afghanistan. It is the definition of an insurrection.
The Taliban were quick to occupy offices of Afghanistan’s national human rights organisation the ‘Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission’ (‘AIHRC’) thus preventing the AIHRC from fulfilling its mandate and continue their work which has a mandate to protect and monitor the human in Afghanistan. This mandate is entrenched in Article 58 of the Constitution of Afghanistan.
The AIHRC is an independent institution in line with the United Nations Generally Assembly in 1993 and the Paris principals relating to the status of National Human Rights institutions. Evidently, the Taliban does not respect the work of the AIHRC.
The Taliban must recognise and respect the independence of the AIRHC and its staff and all Afghan human rights defenders, who have worked tirelessly to protect the rights of the Afghan people.
Since the Taliban take over of the Afghanistan’s Government, the Taliban and implemented sharia law and has resumed its targeting the rights of girls and women by denying them their rights to access education, to work, wearing clothes of their choice, and are prohibited from travelling independently of a male chaperone.
The Taliban also target the LGBT community whose lifestyle the Taliban claim is contrary to their beliefs. Many of the LBGT community are hiding in fear of reprisals.
Minorities are not safe in Afghanistan either; The marginalised communities include the Hazara community, Hindus and Sikhs who throughout the history of Afghanistan have subjected to human rights abuses. There is a concerted effort to ethnically cleanse the region of minorities. This has been ignored by the international community. The Taliban and their supporters are responsible for the internal displacement of of masses of people in Afghanistan.
The Taliban continue to ignore the Rule of Law. They are seeking out and summarily executing the employees of the former Government accusing them of being collaborators with the USA and its allies.
The Taliban are currently on a murder spree; They are murdering journalists, including other advocates of free speech and freedom of expression as well those who criticise and scrutinise the Taliban regime.
The Taliban regime are unelected. They gained control and power by force. Their takeover of Afghanistan was an insurrection. The Taliban’s rule is illegitimate and must be challenged by the people of Afghanistan. The international community must support them in this endeavour. The medieval and barbaric doctrine practiced by the Taliban is incompatible with twenty-first century civilisation and it contravenes with Human Rights Declaration of Human Rights as well international laws and Conventions. Accordingly, the world should not set a precedent by legitimising the undemocratic Taliban regime. Do so, would be an insult to the lives lost of the people of not only of the people of Afghanistan but also the men and women belonging to the security forces of the allied forces over the decades who made the supreme sacrifice for the people of Afghanistan.
The world cannot be bystanders and continue to witness the unfolding tragedy in Afghanistan. We should collectively speak out for and support the people of Afghanistan who have been silenced. Failure to speak out is tantamount to complicity.
We urge human rights defenders as well as the rest of the civilised world to unite, speak out and condemn the actions of Taliban and its supporters. A civilised world should not tolerate and/or allow the now emboldened Taliban to eradicate human rights in Afghanistan.
The United Nations Human Rights Council including the United Nations’ Security Council and world leaders must take responsibility and ensure that provisions are made for the people of Afghanistan to access national and international human rights organisations without fear or favour and to ensure that the people of Afghanistan have unfettered recourse to enforce their human rights. There should be a constant reminder that the Taliban imposed a regressive, illegitimate, an unelected regime forcefully on the people of Afghanistan against their will. The Taliban are an uncouth, uneducated group of terrorists. To recognise the Taliban and its supporters would be to recognise terrorists. This is an extremely dangerous precedent to set.
We call upon International community including UN, EU, USA as well as other countries that no international recognition should be accorded to Taliban regime and the assets frozen should not be released to Taliban unless;
1.The Taliban ensure adequate safeguards to protect the human rights of Afghans. Taliban should stop targeted killings of former government/ security personnel immediately;
2. The Taliban undertake to put in place safeguards to protect the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Afghanistan;
3. The Taliban allow International human rights monitoring groups unfettered access to Afghanistan to verify reports of Taliban’s targeted human rights violations/ killings. These groups should be empowered to investigate and report back to UNHRC/ International Court of Justice /EU Commissioner of Human Rights about reported killings / human rights abuses since the Taliban forcefully and illegally became the unelected rulers of Afghanistan. Cases of mass graves, targeted killing of journalists, the violation of Women's rights, the persecution minorities including the forceful eviction of the Hazaras from their homes to be investigated by these HR Monitoring Groups.
4. The Taliban agrees to and protects media freedom;
5. The Taliban agrees to and protects rights of women and girls’ right to education.
