Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Rights and Freedoms

This thematic category comprises of AAN’s reporting on human rights, including women’s rights, media freedom, rule of law, governance and democratisation.

Detainee assessment report cover

From Guantanamo to the UAE: A scrutiny of the three Afghan transfer cases

Kate Clark •

Three of the eight remaining Afghans detained by the United States in Guantanamo have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates. The three had each spent 13 or 14 years in detention. None were captured on the battlefield, but detained after tip-offs or were handed over to the US by Afghan forces. Their files reveal […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
Afghanistan's flag hangs among the other members' flags at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Photo: Ehsan Qaane (2016)

The ICC’s Planned Visit to Afghanistan: Crimes, capacities and the willingness to prosecute

Ehsan Qaane •

A delegation from the International Criminal Court (ICC) is planning to visit Afghanistan in 2016, but the government has hesitated about receiving it. It has established an inter-ministerial committee to ensure the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the ICC, is finally translated into local languages and published in the official gazette so that the public […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
Six convicts sentenced to death were executed by hanging in Pol-e Charkhi prison in Kabul on the morning of 8 May 2016. (Photo Source: Tolonews)

Afghanistan’s Latest Executions: Responding to calls for capital punishment

Ehsan Qaane • Jelena Bjelica •

On the president’s order, six convicts sentenced to death were executed by hanging in Pol-e Charkhi prison on the morning of 8 May 2016. The executions came after the president’s speech at the joint session of both houses of Parliament on 25 April 2016, in which he announced that the time for unjustified amnesty was […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
Map showing the distribution of attacks on schools across Afghanistan from the new UN report "Education and Healthcare at risk: Key trends and incidents affecting children’s access to healthcare and education in Afghanistan”, released on 18 April 2016

Education and Health Care at Risk: UN report paints grim picture of post-transition Afghanistan

AAN Team •

A new UN report highlights how access to healthcare and education in Afghanistan, particularly for children, is being increasingly compromised by violence, threats, intimidation and abuse of facilities. The number of verified incidents over the last three years (2013-2015) in particular shows an increase in recorded incidents of threats and intimidation, as well as a continued […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
One of those killed while out electioneering in Takhar province in 2010: Atiqullah Rahman, a school student, was the brother of Habib Rahman who made a request for a judicial review to look into the UK’s alleged role in targeted killings in Afghanistan (permission given to AAN by the family to reproduce the image).

Were British Police Involved in Targeted Killings? New report presents fresh evidence

Kate Clark •

The allegation that a British civilian policing body, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), helped draw up lists of Afghans for targeted killings in ISAF’s ‘kill or capture’ strategy in Afghanistan has re-surfaced. Two years ago, SOCA denied to a London court that it had supplied such intelligence for targeted killings in a case brought […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
A surgeon displays two bullets extracted from different patients at the MSF hospital in Kunduz before it was targeted in a US air strike on 3 October 2015. (Photo: Andrew Quilty/Oculi, from MSF website)

Clinics under fire? Health workers caught up in the Afghan conflict

Kate Clark •

Those providing health care in contested areas in Afghanistan say they are feeling under increasing pressure from all sides in the war. There have been two egregious attacks on medical facilities in the last six months: the summary execution of two patients and a carer taken from a clinic in Wardak by Afghan special forces in […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
Sample of E-Tazkera (Source: Pajhwok)

The Troubled History of the E-tazkera (Part 2): Technical stumbling blocks

Jelena Bjelica • Martine van Bijlert •

The introduction of electronic ID cards – or e-tazkera – in Afghanistan remains haunted by delays, obstacles and poor planning. Although CEO Dr Abdullah approved the e-tazkera pilot phase on 3 August 2015, the process has yet to begin. Since then, President Ghani has questioned the very feasibility of this oft-delayed project, while main donors […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
Protest in eastern Nangarhar province in September 2015 for inclusion of words of Afghan and Islam in new electronic national identity cards. (Pajhwok/Zeerak Fahim)

The Troubled History of the E-tazkera (Part 1): Political upheaval

Jelena Bjelica • Martine van Bijlert •

There is a fairly broad consensus among Afghans and donors alike that the introduction of an electronic ID card – or e-tazkera – would be a good thing; it would provide accurate population data, standardised ID documents and the possibility of, in the case of elections, drawing up reliable voter lists. The project, however, has […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Casting a Very Wide Net: Did Ghani just authorise interning Afghans without trial?

Kate Clark • Lenny Linke •

A recent decree by President Ghani on how to deal with terrorist crimes has introduced the prospect of detaining, without trial, Afghans (and foreigners in Afghanistan) suspected of planning acts of terrorism. The relevant article allows the Afghan authorities to detain suspects indefinitely on very little evidence and with little or no opportunity to defend […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
The main corridor of the MSF hospital in Kunduz after the 3 October airstrikes. Victor J Blue/MSF

Ripping Up the Rule Book? US investigation into the MSF hospital attack

Kate Clark •

The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, has said the deadly air strike on the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz in the early hours of 3 October 2015 was “a direct result of avoidable human error compounded by process and equipment failures.” The US military investigation, moreover, found […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

A 36-Year Wait for Justice? Dutch arrest suspected Afghan war criminal

Kate Clark •

The Dutch police have arrested an Afghan Dutchman on suspicion of war crimes. Sadeq Alamyar has been accused of involvement in one of the worst atrocities of the Afghan war: the killing of hundreds of men and boys in the village of Kerala in Kunar province by an elite unit, on the night of 19-20 […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Homeless and Unwanted: How Kabul’s drug users are driven from place to place

Jelena Bjelica • Qayoom Suroush •

The 2015 summer campaign to push drug users out from under the bridge in Pol-e Sokhta and close the ‘addict town’ there has turned into a public spectacle with groups of drug addicts being herded around by the police. Complaints by the surrounding community had forced the police to act, resulting in the partial dispersal of […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up