Month: November 2022

FN-rapportør: »Talebanernes ledere lover én ting, men gør noget andet«

Politiken, 28 November 2022 The leading danish daily newspaper reports about a panel organised by the Danish Refugee Council in Copenhagen about the current political and human rights situation in Afghanistan, in which AAN’s Ehsan Qaane and Thomas Ruttig, the UN human rights rapporteur for Afghanstan, Richard Bennett, and migration scholar Liza Schuster participated (in […]

28 Nov 2022

Obituary for Francesc Vendrell (1940-2022): An outspoken diplomat who cared about people, principles and peace

Thomas Ruttig •

The Afghanistan Analysts Network mourns for the chair of our Advisory Board, Ambassador Francesc Vendrell, who died on the morning of 27 November 2022 in London of severe illness, aged 82. Francesc was a passionate diplomat, a seeker of peace and defender of human rights, not just with lip service but with a drive and […]

28 Nov 2022

[SIGAR Is] Blaming The Afghans One Last Time

Forever Wars, 22 November 2022 National-security reporter Spencer Ackerman looks at what he assumes could be the last SIGAR (“pronounced like the thing you smoke”) report, titled “Why Afghanistan’s Government Collapsed” , looks back at SIGAR’s entire reporting history and concludes: SIGAR told true stories about the trees while avoiding the forest – and the people trying […]

22 Nov 2022

How Can a Bird Fly On Only One Wing? Afghan women speak about life under the Islamic Emirate

Roxanna Shapour • Rama Mirzada •

Fifteen months after the Taleban returned to power, Afghan women have seen their country and their lives dramatically alter, as jobs evaporated, restrictions were announced and families sank into poverty. To better understand how these changes affect the day-to-day lives of women and which changes are at the forefront of their minds, AAN conducted a […]

22 Nov 2022

In Afghanistan droht ein Rückfall in schlimmste Zeiten

SRF, 17 November 2022 Listen to the audio of Swiss radio interviewing AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the situation of women’s rights, the implementation of sharia punishments and other latest events in Afghanistan (in German).

17 Nov 2022

Taliban verordnen noch mehr Scharia

Tageszeitung, 16 November 2022 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports that the Taleban leader has order the countrywide implementation of sharia-based hudud, qisas and other punishments, that at least six women rights activists are held by the Taleban and that, according to reports from Afghanistan, a young women condemned to stoning had committed ‘suicide’ under suspicious circumstances.

16 Nov 2022

Frauenrechte in Afghanistan: Welle der Festnahmen

Tageszeitung, 10 November 2022 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports (in German) about the latest arrests of women activists, including males, by Taleban forces at a Kabul press conference convened to announce the start of a new rights movement.

11 Nov 2022

ICC Afghanistan Investigation Re-Authorised: But will it cover the CIA, ISKP and the forces of the Islamic Republic, as well as the Taleban?

Ehsan Qaane •

The judges of the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II have ruled that the investigation into war crimes related to the conflict in Afghanistan – which was stalled for two and a half years – can be resumed. However, the authorisation relates to “all alleged crimes and actors that were subject to” a request made in […]

11 Nov 2022

Not at COP27, but Already in Crisis: A dossier on Afghanistan and the climate emergency

Thomas Ruttig •

Afghanistan is projected to be the sixth most badly affected country by climate change but is also among the lightest emitters of greenhouse gasses. Yet, it is not represented at the COP27 conference, a meeting of the member countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change now underway in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Afghanistan signed […]

9 Nov 2022

UN in Afghanistan calls for urgent collective climate action in the country

UNAMA, 6 November 2022 Despite emitting only 0.03 per cent (0.28 tons per person) of worldwide greenhouse gases, the Afghanistan “is one of the least prepared against climate shocks [and] is ranked the sixth most affected in the world to climate-related threats. … The Afghan people stand on the precipice of devastating climate projections”, the […]

6 Nov 2022

The Taliban wants to segregate women. So it’s training female doctors.

Washington Post, 5 November 2022 This reportage gives detail on how the Taleban, based on “‘clear instructions from the top level’ to bring policies in line with the Taliban’s strict interpretation of sharia” (e.g. that female health workers should treat women, while male health workers should treat men), try to train female doctors, at several […]

5 Nov 2022