Back in 2020, President Donald Trump inked a deal with the Taliban for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The deal was noteworthy for a variety of reasons, among them Trump’s bypassing of the U.S.-backed Afghan government at the time. Many critics — including top U.S. military brass — would later say the deal set conditions for a botched U.S. withdrawal in 2021 and the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Afghanistan’s ‘morality police’ arrested Samira at work in Kabul – and then made the 19-year-old marry her employer
It was a normal summer morning in July last year when 19-year-old Samira* made her way to the carpet-weaving shop where she worked in Kabul to pick up her wages. She had no way of knowing that in just a few hours, her life as she knew it would be over.
She would end the day in a Taliban police station, a victim of forced marriage with her entire future decided for her by a group of strangers with guns.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Speaking at an inaugural conference on girls’ education in the Muslim world, Malala Yousafzai decried the state of women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan as ‘gender apartheid’. The conference in Islamabad brought together local and international advocates and dignitaries committed to advancing girls’ education. Representatives from Afghanistan, where girls’ education remains banned under Taliban rule, were notably absent
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
The ongoing controversy over RAF Akrotiri‘s participation in Israel’s genocide in Gaza is not the only scandal relating to British armed forces. Because the Afghanistan Inquiry into possible UK Special Forces (UKSF) war crimes has just revealed that SAS officers had a “golden pass allowing them to get away with murder” from 2010 to 2013.
This is according to a former senior Special Boat Service (SBS) officer who, along with others, had raised concerns in 2011 about SAS executions and cover-ups.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick faced criticism in 2024 for “casually revealing a UK extra-judicial assassination program designed to evade ECHR jurisdiction”. And there were many official denials. But the revelations from the Afghanistan Inquiry suggest that this type of behaviour may indeed be commonplace.
The inquiry’s closed hearings do not allow attendance by members of the public, the media, or the legal teams of bereaved families.
As the BBC reports:
Senior SBS officers told the inquiry of deep concerns that the SAS, fresh from aggressive, high-tempo operations in Iraq, was being driven by kill counts – the number of dead they could achieve in each operation.
A junior officer of the SBS, meanwhile, reported how an SAS member had spoken “about a pillow being put over the head of someone before they were killed with a pistol”. They added that “some of those killed by the SAS had been children” likely younger than 16.
In an email, another SBS officer showed concern about what might happen if they didn’t speak out:
When the next WikiLeaks occurs then we will be dragged down with them
One said that “basically, there appears to be a culture there of ‘shut up, don’t question’”.
The low level of accountability for the SAS was apparently “astonishing”.
British support for and participation in Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been utterly damning. But the UK seems not to reserve impunity only for its allies’ crimes. Instead, it seems to be how things work with our own forces too.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
As the remains of Jimmy Carter arrive in Washington, D.C., as part of a weeklong state funeral, we speak with historian Greg Grandin about the former U.S. president’s legacy. Carter, who served a single term from 1977 to 1981, promised to restore faith in government after the twin traumas of Watergate and the Vietnam War and to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward upholding human rights.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Faisal Karimi and Wahab Siddiqi, respectively founder and editor-in-chief of the Afghanistan Women’s News Agency, were among the first journalists to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban retook control of the country in August 2021. After escaping the country undetected with nearly two dozen newsroom colleagues and family members a week after the fall of Kabul, they made their way to a refugee camp in Albania. Then, they got to work rebuilding the newsroom they had left behind.
More than three years later, the two journalists run the agency from exile in the United States. To get out the news, they rely on the reporting of 15 female journalists hired in 10 provinces to replace the staff who fled. As the Taliban has become increasingly hostile to women journalists and the exile press, the newsroom takes extreme security precautions. Zoom meetings take place with a strict “cameras off” policy so that the women won’t be compromised if they recognize each other on the street.
In June, CPJ interviewed Karimi and Siddiqi in Columbia, Missouri, where they were attending a safety training for journalists in exile at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. During the interview, both men checked their phones often, explaining the importance of remaining available at all times for their reporters.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you describe the atmosphere for the press immediately after the Taliban takeover?
Karimi: When the Taliban took over, our hope collapsed overnight. We were working journalists for eight years before the takeover and we used our journalism against extremist Taliban ideology. Our work aimed to promote democratic values and human rights in our country by creating a newsroom and outlet for female journalists. Eight years of such work was evidence enough for the Taliban to attack us.
Siddiqi: Social norms in Afghanistan regarding women’s rights are very sensitive and this was the main reason we had to flee. When you are talking about women’s rights in Afghanistan, you are not only facing danger from the Taliban, but also from others in the country who adhere to such radical beliefs.
I remember when we were working in Herat, our office was in a very safe location, but even our neighbors would question why so many women were entering the building. They assumed there was some ethical wrongdoing. Since our work highlighted women’s issues, we were in danger from the Taliban and the pervasive misogyny in the society at large.
The Afghanistan Women’s News Agency is one of just a handful of women-focused outlets covering Afghanistan, like Rukshana Media and Zan Times. What led you to found it in 2016?
Karimi: Siddiqi and I both taught at Herat University. As a professor of journalism, I witnessed my female students struggle and face a lack of resources and opportunities every day. The disparity between them and my male students was blatantly obvious. Lack of access to media equipment, gender inequality in the newsroom, harassment and discrimination was a daily reality for these women.
In light of this, I decided to create a safe environment for my female students to publish their stories, [to] access media equipment and the internet eight years before the Taliban takeover. Although the Taliban was not yet in power, the extremist ideology had already begun to spread rapidly.
Families were understandably concerned when their daughters went to school or the newsroom, but when we established this newsroom solely for women, almost all female journalists across Herat came to work there. As a professor, I had the trust of these women’s families. That’s why I, as a man, was able to set up this space and reassure the families that it was safe.
Part of your staff is in exile, but you still have many female journalists based in Afghanistan. What’s their experience like?
Karimi: All of our female reporters on the ground have to remain anonymous for their safety as per our contract. Their names are never published with their stories. There are currently 15 female journalists working with us, spread across 10 provinces. Some of them are our former interns whom we hired permanently and some of them are currently interns who receive training through Zoom, so that they can be the next generation of female reporters. All of them are actively reporting, even interns, as they learn and are simultaneously paid for their work.
Siddiqi: It’s important to add that our reporters know each other by name only. Our reporters have never met or seen each other’s faces since we require them to turn their cameras off during virtual meetings. We are extremely strict about our security protocols in order to ensure that if one of our reporters faces Taliban retaliation, their colleagues will remain safe. Our reporters know that even a minor mistake can put our whole newsroom in danger.
It is obvious that these women are well aware of the danger that comes with being journalists. Why are they still in the country and choosing to report despite these risks?
Siddiqi: From my understanding and through my conversations with them, there are two main reasons. One, these women are wholly committed to their work. When I am talking with them, I learn that they work more than eight hours a day because they love their job. They all know the impact that they are making in the current environment. Two, financial security is also a huge part of their choice to report. It is rare for women to work and receive salaries in the country under the Taliban. AWNA pays its journalists and this provides them with some level of control and financial independence.
Karimi: These female journalists know that the stakes are very high. Many times I have told them that their security is our priority. We don’t want any report or story that puts their safety at risk, but they still don’t prioritize themselves. They prioritize their reporting. Nobody can stop them from making their voices heard even in the most repressive atmosphere.
What is it like for you when your reporters are so far away while you are in exile?
Karimi: To be honest, I am not comfortable. Sometimes I think something bad has happened to a colleague. Trying to minimize their risk is one of our strategies and biggest challenges. I am very concerned every single day.
Have any of the female journalists working for AWNA had dangerous encounters with the Taliban?
Siddiqi: Just a few days ago, one of our female reporters called me from Kabul while she was attempting to report on a business exhibition. Upon entering the venue, she was detained by the Taliban. In the commotion of a large crowd, she somehow managed to hide herself and escaped without facing arrest.
I called her after that and I reiterated that this cannot be the norm. I told her that we cannot lose her and that without her, there would be no reporting. My colleague replied that she tries her best and knows all the newsroom security protocols. But even for non-political events, this is the risk and the reality for female journalists in the country.
How has reporting from exile shaped your view of the future of the media in Afghanistan?
Karimi: In my opinion, the lack of free and independent media in the country has created a need for reliable media in exile to combat Taliban propaganda and control. There is a lack of female-run media. We have bypassed the Taliban firewall by providing information from exile to empower people within the country, especially women.
Siddiqi: There are so many Afghan women who are students, photographers, activists, and writers, as well as journalists who can no longer publicize their work on their own channels due to safety concerns. Many of them have found a place in AWNA in order to share their work and add value to the media atmosphere. These are all citizens and female journalists. There are thousands of women who have something to share, journalists by training or not, who are acting as citizen journalists. They have something to show and we are dedicated to uplifting it.
Do you both hope to return to your country if things change?
Siddiqi: I chose to leave my parents, siblings, everything in order to escape the regime.
Life is not easy for me here. I left my memories and emotions in Afghanistan. Everyday these memories disturb me. I was educated and began my career in Afghanistan and I believe I owe my country.
Karimi: Of course I hope to go back to my country. Right now, I feel that I have three lives as an exiled journalist: The first is the life I left behind in Afghanistan, which includes most of my family. Half of my mind and heart remains there. My second life is this one in exile where I am forced to rebuild my personal and professional life from scratch. My third life revolves around how to keep my colleagues safe and to honor their mission as female journalists. I am constantly navigating these three lives and it is a devastating reality.
What is your hope for Afghan women journalists in the future?
Siddiqi: There is no hope bigger than Afghan women having their basic human rights and access to education. If there is no education for women, there is no understanding of their reality and rights. If there is no understanding in a society, there is no justice. If there is no justice, we are no longer in a human society, but in a jungle. The Taliban has shut off all the doors that were once available for Afghan women and together, we are trying to pry them open.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Ananya Bhasin.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Here a few highlights for this year from UN and NGOs sources:
While commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “human rights are under assault”. “Whether economic, social, civic, cultural or political, when one right is undermined, all rights are undermined,” Guterres said in a post on X. “Let’s protect, defend and uphold all human rights for all people,” he added. In a video message, The UN secretary-general said “we must stand up for all rights — always.”
Achim Steiner UNDP Administrator added his voice:
..As we mark Human Rights Day 2024, we are reminded that human rights are not abstract ideals. They are vital tools for addressing these pressing challenges and advancing dignity and justice for all.
… the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) works to support human rights solutions that strengthen accountability, protect communities and foster peace, recovery, and stability. This includes partnering with National Human Rights Institutions, which often represent the frontline defenders of human rights. … Local initiatives also remain key. That includes women in Somalia who are being supported to lead peace efforts including assisting those facing violence, discrimination, and injustice. “I have resolved numerous local disputes…I feel motivated when I see I have been able to change people’s lives positively,” says Fatuma who led a local Peace Working Group.
As the accelerating climate emergency threatens the ability of current and future generations to enjoy their right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, UNDP is focusing on access to justice, working with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and OHCHR to help communities claim their rights. …The private sector also has a pivotal role to play. UNDP supports the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights including to advance sustainable practices that protect the environment. Indeed, technology offers both risks and opportunities to advance human rights. The Global Digital Compact aims to create an inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital space that respects, protects and promotes human rights. Tech-enabled UNDP tools like iVerify and eMonitor+ deployed in over 25 countries to monitor and address false narratives and hate speech show the potential. It is now crucial to adopt a rights-based approach to technologies like A.I., addressing ethical challenges, protecting data, and tackling biases to mitigate risks today and unlock immense benefits for the generations to come. [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/09/27/united-nations-adopts-ground-breaking-pact-for-the-future-to-transform-global-governance/]
——
The NGO Index on Censorship spotlights four people standing up for human rights around the world:
Despite the declaration, all around the world human rights are being challenged, degraded and attacked. That is why this year, on Human Rights Day, we pay tribute to five human rights defenders who have worked tirelessly to defend people’s rights and have been persecuted as a result.
Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO at Index on Censorship said: “In this increasingly polarised and authoritarian world these people stand out as beacons of hope and light. It’s depressing to think that over 75 years since the Declaration, we still need a day like this but that should not detract from the bravery and fortitude of these people. May their example show us all how we can all better fight injustice.”
 | Marfa Rabkova (Belarus) Marfa Rabkova is a human rights defender who has been behind bars since 17 September 2020. She has long been targeted by the Belarusian authorities as a result of her civic activism. Marfa became head of the volunteer service at the Human Rights Centre Viasna in 2019. During the 2020 presidential election, she joined the “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” campaign, which registered over 1,500 election observers. When peaceful protests began to take place after the election, she helped document evidence of torture and violence against demonstrators. Marfa was indicted on a long list of charges, including inciting social hostility to the government and leading a criminal organisation. She was sentenced to 14 years and 9 months in prison in September 2022, after nearly two years of pre-trial detention. Index on Censorship calls for her immediate and unconditional release. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/03/22/belarus-end-reprisals-against-human-rights-defenders/ |
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2024/12/human-rights-day-2024-a-tribute-to-human-rights-defenders/
https://www.undp.org/speeches/administrators-statement-human-rights-day-10-december-2024
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
RT ran a headline: “Putin must be ‘adult in the room’ on Ukraine conflict.” This is according to left-leaning comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore.
“Joe Biden and the neo-cons in his administration have been constantly escalating war… What they’re trying to do is start a war that Donald Trump can’t stop,” warns Dore about a potential WWIII.
“The only hope we have is that Putin shows restraint, that he is the only adult in the room and that he can hold off somehow until Donald Trump becomes president,” Dore opined in an interview with Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi.
Is that the only hope? One can certainly come up with many other hopes. For example, a mass mobilization by US citizenry in Washington, DC. A general strike carried out by Americans, Canadians, and Europeans repulsed by their neocon-affiliated politicians. Or that Pentagon generals speak out vociferously and publicly against such dangerous provocations against Russia. Or that people charged with inputting the coordinates for missiles targeting Russia refuse to do so.
Far-fetched? Maybe so, but isn’t that what a hope is — something far outside of the realm of a certainty?
Or is Trump the only feasible hope? And can Trump be trusted? How many promises did he fail to come through on during his first term as president?
Dore asserts that “Trump is not a warmonger” and that he “got elected on ending our foreign regime-change interventionist wars.”
Trump may very well have been elected on the basis of ending foreign interventions by the US. However, that does not excuse him from being a warmonger.
Early in the first Trump presidency, he sent in US fighters who killed dozens of Yemeni civilians, including children. Trump was now a war criminal.
Did Trump end the US war on Afghanistan? No, he sent more American troops to Afghanistan.
Did Trump end the US war on Syria? No. In fact, Trump said the troops would remain because “We’re keeping the [Syrian] oil.”
Did Trump seek peaceful relations with Iran? No. In fact, Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA which was designed to halt Iran’s potential for becoming a nuclear-armed state. Trump’s strategy has set the stage for further nuclear proliferation. And if that was not enough, Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
However woeful the Biden presidency has been, one ought not to forget the first Trump presidency. Trump has a track record. It seems prudent to remove the rose-colored glasses and take into consideration that track record.
But Trump was pressured by those around him. Trump had mistakenly saddled himself with warmongering neocons in his previous administration like Nikki Haley, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, etc. But is he different now?
Trump’s new for Director of national security policy in the White House, Sebastian Gorka, exhibited his diplomatic decorum by referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin as a “murderous former KGB colonel, that thug.” According to Gorka, Trump is going to threaten Putin by telling him: “You will negotiate now or the aid that we have given to Ukraine thus far will look like peanuts.” Which serious-minded observers believe that Putin is now shaking in his pants?
Does this inspire hope in Trump?
Finally, does anyone have an iota of hope that Trump will do right in the Middle East when it comes to Israel?
The post Is Trump “the only hope we have”? first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Two outstanding human rights defenders who have made it their life mission to protect human rights in Afghanistan and in Tajikistan will receive the Martin Ennals Award 2024 on November 21th, 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Martin Ennals Award.
The Jury of ten of the world’s leading human rights NGOs – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH, HURIDOCS, Bread for the World, Human Rights First, World Organisation Against Torture, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), and Front Line Defenders – has selected, after much deliberation, the two human rights defenders whom it strongly believes deserve to be recognized and honored in 2024, on the 30th anniversary of the Martin Ennals Award. [see also: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/043F9D13-640A-412C-90E8-99952CA56DCE]
The two 2024 Laureates, Zholia Parsi (Afghanistan) and Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov (Tadjikistan) have shown exceptional courage and determination to bring human rights at the forefront despite evolving in deeply repressive environments.
“We are very proud to honor these two exceptional Laureates. They have paid too big a price for justice and equality to be respected in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and the international community must support their efforts instead of battling geostrategic interests in the region“.
– Hans Thoolen, Chair of the Martin Ennals Award Jury
The two Laureates 2024:
Zholia Parsi: is a teacher from Kabul, Afghanistan. Having lost her career and seeing her daughters deprived of their education with Taliban takeover in August 2021, she founded the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW) to protest the return of policies and practices against women rights and fundamental freedoms. She displayed remarkable leadership and resilience in organizing numerous public protests despite the risks involved. The grassroots movement that is the SMAW quickly grew momentum in Kabul and other provinces, now counting 180 members and having mobilized communities to resist the Taliban’s policies and practices.
She was arrested in the street by armed Taliban in September 2023, and detained along with her son. She was released after three months of torture and ill-treatment under their custody, which further strengthened her resolve to resist Taliban oppression and repression.
Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov: is a Pamiri human rights lawyer from the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), Tajikistan. He is serving a 16 year-long prison sentence after what is widely considered an unfair trial in retaliation for his human rights work.
As Director of the Lawyers’ Association of Pamir (LAP), he led strategic advocacy efforts in the GBAO, a region marked by its ethnic minority and historical tensions with the central government, including by lobbying for the incorporation of international human rights standards into domestic law and practice, and by providing legal support to residents of the GBAO.
Through the human rights initiatives Commission 44 and Group 6, he played a key role in investigating the death of youth leader Gulbiddin Ziyobekov in November 2021, and the violent repression of subsequent mass protest in the regional capital Khorog. The investigation resulted in critical evidence of an unlawful killing, possibly an extrajudicial execution of the young man, and the unlawful use of force of security forces against protesters, resulting in two deaths, seventeen injured and hundreds detained.
He was arrested on 28 May 2022 together with two other members of Commission 44 amid a widespread crackdown on local informal leadership and residents of the GBAO.
The Martin Ennals Award (MEA): 30 years alongside human rights defenders
The Martin Ennals Award (MEA) was given for the first time in 1994 to recognize, promote and protect human rights defenders at risk or from under-reported contexts. Over the years, the MEA has offered defenders a platform to issues that are of global concern and the means to steer the movement for human rights and larger freedoms.
The MEA culminates every year in a public ceremony in Geneva, co-hosted with the City of Geneva (Ville de Genève). The 2024 MEA Ceremony will take place on November 21th, 2024 at the Salle communale de Plainpalais. The Ceremony, which is also livestreamed, draws many local and international human rights supporters to an inspiring event which celebrates the achievements and commitment of exceptional human rights defenders.
“Geneva has a long tradition of hosting international diplomacy and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms. The City of Geneva is proud to co-host the Martin Ennals Award and shed light, on this 30th anniversary, on the impressive resilience of two human rights defenders and the hope they bring for peace and equality” concludes Alfonso Gomez, Administrative Counselor of the City of Geneva.
https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/martin-ennals-award-2024-laureates-announced
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
In August 2021, following the withdrawal of major U.S./NATO military forces from Afghanistan after two decades of occupation, Taliban forces took effective control over the country. In response, the United States seized the assets of Afghanistan’s central bank totaling around $7 billion. Half of that amount was transferred to the misleadingly named “Afghan Fund” in September 2022, a Swiss-based “charitable foundation” whose only role thus far has been to privately conceal and invest the funds without any concrete plans to return them, as confirmed by U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West. This runs contrary to popular demands by experts and humanitarian organizations who argue that a return of the funds is desperately needed now more than ever to help everyday Afghans.
Afghan women do not have any representation on the board of the “Afghan Fund,” nor do they have any official say over whether the assets should be returned. The board of trustees includes: two men selected by the U.S. State Department, Anwar ul-Haq Ahady and Shah Mehrabi, the U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs Jay Shambaugh, and Swiss government official Ambassador Alexandra Baumann.
According to a July 2024 press statement from the board of the “Afghan Fund,” some of the stolen assets may also be disbursed to the Asian Development Bank, an institution controlled by the United States, Japan, and Australia via majority shareholder status. While the funds are not returning to the Afghan people, this move shows that a process to return the funds to Afghanistan can begin immediately if the board members agree to do so. Regardless of whether the funds are in fact disbursed elsewhere over time, board members Ahady, Mehrabi, Shambaugh, and Baumann are all culpable in the forced starvation and impoverishment of tens of millions of Afghans – tantamount to the collective punishment of the Afghan people.
According to a January 2024 written testimony by the U.S. Congress-established Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the remaining $3.5 billion in sovereign funds held in the United States may eventually be transferred to the “Afghan Fund” depending on litigation filed by the families of 9/11 victims and other plaintiffs, while other funds held in Europe and the United Arab Emirates may also be added to the “Afghan Fund.” SIGAR found that none of the funds in the “Afghan Fund” as of early 2024 have been spent, are planned to be spent, or will ever be used to provide humanitarian or development assistance. Notably, while no disbursements have been made for the benefit of the Afghan people, portions of the over $340 million in interest that have been accrued from the stolen assets are being used to pay for the “Afghan Funds” operational and administrative costs.
The sudden deprivation of access to its sovereign assets led to a sharp economic and financial crisis in Afghanistan in 2021, which a recent United Nations Development Program (UNDP) study found is disproportionately affecting women and children. The seizure of assets combined with both U.S. and UN sanctions – ostensibly only targeting the Taliban – have hurt ordinary Afghans and aid organizations, affirmed by US-aligned rights groups and media outlets. The same UNDP report found that 69% of Afghans “do not have adequate resources for basic subsistence living,” while an estimated 15.8 million Afghans – including nearly 8 million children – are expected to experience “acute food insecurity” throughout 2024.
Clearly, the “Afghan Fund” – controlled by Western officials and Afghan compradors – has deliberately withheld billions from the suffering Afghan populace. It should be reiterated that a process to return these stolen funds, and in turn mitigate the U.S.-enabled humanitarian and economic crises plaguing Afghanistan, can and must begin right away. The following individuals have full power or influence over the release of the illegally stolen assets back to its rightful owners: the Afghan people.
Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for International Affairs
Head of the Prosperity and Sustainability Division at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
Former government official, economic advisor and central banker to the U.S./NATO occupied Afghanistan
Member of the Supreme Council of Da Afghanistan Bank
U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Deputy Assistant Secretary
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
The journalist Mélissa Cornet and the photographer Kiana Hayeri met more than 100 Afghan girls and women in seven provinces, and found resistance and defiance but also despair
Earlier this year, I spent 10 weeks travelling with the photographer Kiana Hayeri across seven provinces of Afghanistan, speaking to more than 100 Afghan women and girls about how their lives had changed since the Taliban swept back to power three years ago.
Hayeri and I both lived in Afghanistan for years, and remained here after the Taliban took control in August 2021. In the past few years, we have seen women’s rights and freedoms, already severely curtailed, swept away as Taliban edicts have fallen like hammer blows.
Mitra plays with children in Yamit district, near the Wakhan mountains. Her daughter and her cousin, who were both grade 11 pupils aged about 17, took their own lives in these pools last year
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
New York, October 28, 2024—On October 13, the Taliban banned television operations and the filming and photographing of people in public spaces in northeast Takhar province according to a local journalist who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists under the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal from the Taliban, and media reports.
“The Taliban’s latest ban on television and filming and photography in Takhar should trouble anyone who cares about media freedom worldwide” said CPJ’s program director, Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “The citizens of Afghanistan deserve fundamental rights, and the international community must cease its passive observation of the country’s rapid regression.”
The ban was approved by senior officials from the Taliban’s provincial General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), directorates of Information and Culture, and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as well as the governor’s office of Takhar province.
Takhar is the second province in Afghanistan to institute such a ban. Previously, the Taliban implemented a similar ban in Kandahar province, its unofficial capital and the residence of the group’s leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, according to a Kandahar-based journalist who also spoke to CPJ under the condition of anonymity for fear of Taliban retaliation.
Saif ul Islam Khyber, a spokesman for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, confirmed to the Associated Press that media outlets in the provinces of Takhar, Maidan Wardak, and Kandahar had been “advised not to broadcast or display images of anything possessing a soul—meaning humans and animals,” according to the AP. Khyber said the directive is part of the implementation of a recently ratified morality law.
Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada signed the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice bill into law on July 31, though the news was not made public until August 21, when it was published on the Ministry of Justice’s website.
Article 17 of the law details the restrictions on the media, including a ban on publishing or broadcasting images of living people and animals, which the Taliban regards as un-Islamic. Other sections order women to cover their bodies and faces and travel with a male guardian, while men are not allowed to shave their beards. The punishment for breaking the law is up to three days in prison or a penalty “considered appropriate by the public prosecutor.”
On October 14, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the director of Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), informed senior management of Kabul’s national TV station that a phased strategy to implement the new law had already begun. TV stations across Afghanistan’s provinces will be gradually closed and converted to radio stations, with plans to eventually extend the ban to Kabul, where RTA and other major national broadcasters operate, according to two journalists familiar with the meeting and a report by the London-based independent outlet, Afghanistan International.
On October 19, during a visit to Sheikh Zahid University in Khost province, Neda Mohammad Nadim, the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, barred the filming of the event, according to the London-based Afghanistan International.
On October 23, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense launched the broadcast of Radio Sada-e-Khalid, which is managed by the ministry and operates from the 201st Corps of the Taliban army.
Since taking power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the Taliban has employed a gradual strategy to suppress media activity in the country, with the General Directorate of Intelligence forcing compliance with stringent regulations. These include bans on music and soap operas, bans on women’s voices in the media, the imposition of mask-wearing for female presenters, a ban on live broadcasts of political shows, the closure of television stations, and the jamming or boycotting of independent international networks broadcasting to Afghanistan. To enforce these policies, the Taliban have detained, assaulted, and threatened journalists and media workers throughout the country.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Afghanistan human rights defenders (HRDs), both within the country and in exile, face significant and myriad challenges. Inside Afghanistan, HRDs are not only restricted from continuing their human rights work, but also live under constant threats to their safety due to the Taliban’s intensified violence and atrocities. In particular, women human rights defenders (WHRDs) grapple with an additional level of the Taliban’s unprecedented misogynistic policies, targeting them with systematic discrimination and persecution, amounting to gender apartheid. Many HRDs have been forced into hiding or have managed to flee the country for their survival. Those who sought refuge in transit countries, mainly Iran and Pakistan, face innumerable risks such as deportation, harassment, and economic constraints to their livelihood. Meanwhile, HRDs settled primarily in western countries with comparatively greater security face their own set of difficulties, including concerns about their overall well-being and the lack of a long-term support system to sustain their human rights work while in exile.
Against this backdrop, this report explains the circumstances of Afghanistan’s HRDs both inside and outside Afghanistan. It will explore the problems they face, their needs, and provide workable recommendations to various stakeholders who are rightly positioned to fulfill those needs.
Read the report here
This post was originally published on FORUM-ASIA.
At the 57th Human Rights Council session, civil society organisations share reflections on key outcomes and highlight gaps in addressing crucial issues and situations. Full written version below:
States continue to fail to meet their obligations under international law to put an end to decades of Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people, including the genocide in Gaza, and most recently Israel’s war on Lebanon. States that continue to provide military, economic and political support to Israel, while suppressing fundamental freedoms such as expression and assembly, as well as attacking independent courts and experts, and defunding humanitarian aid (UNRWA), are complicit in the commission of crimes. We urge the Council to address the root causes of the situation as identified by experts and the ICJ, including settler-colonialism and apartheid, and to address the obligations of third States in the context of the ICJ’s provisional measures stressing the plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the ICJ advisory opinion recognising that ‘Israel’s legislation and measures constitute a breach of Article 3 of CERD’ pertaining to racial segregation and apartheid. The General Assembly adopted the resolution titled “The Crime of Genocide” in December 1946, which articulates that the denial of existence of entire human groups shocks the conscience of mankind. We remind you of our collective duty and moral responsibility to stop genocide.
States have an obligation to pay UN membership dues in full and in time. The failure of many States to do so, often for politically motivated reasons, is causing a financial liquidity crisis, meaning that resolutions and mandates of the Human Rights Council cannot be implemented. Pay your dues! The visa denials to civil society by host countries is a recurring obstacle to accessing the UN; and acts of intimidation and reprisals are fundamental attacks against the UN system itself. The right to access and communicate with international bodies is firmly grounded in international law and pivotal to the advancement of human rights. In this regard, we welcome the action taken by 11 States to call for investigation and accountability for reprisals against individually named human rights defenders. This sends an important message of solidarity to defenders, many of whom are arbitrarily detained for contributing to the work of the UN, as well as increasing the political costs for perpetrators of such acts. We welcome progress in Indigenous Peoples’ participation in the work of this Council as it is the first time that they could register on their own for specific dialogues.
We welcome the adoption of the resolution that renews the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change by consensus.
We also welcome the adoption of the resolution on biodiversity sending a clear call to take more ambitious commitments at the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and acknowledging the negative impact that the loss of biodiversity can have on the enjoyment of all human rights, including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. We welcome that these two resolutions recognize the critical and positive role that Environmental Human Right Defenders play. We also welcome the adoption by consensus of the resolutions on the rights on safe drinking water and sanitation; and the resolution on human rights and Indigenous Peoples.
We welcome the adoption of the resolution on equal participation in political and public affairs which for the first time includes language on children and recognises their right to participation as well as the transformative role of civic education in supporting their participation. We also welcome the recognition that hate speech has a restrictive effect on children’s full, meaningful, inclusive and safe participation in political and public affairs.
We welcome the adoption of the resolution from rhetoric to reality: a global call for concrete action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The resolution contains important language on the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action as well as the proclamation by the General Assembly of a second International Decade for People of African Descent commencing in 2025. We welcome the inclusion of a call to States to dispense reparatory justice, including finding ways to remedy historical racial injustices. This involves ensuring that the structures in society that perpetuate past injustices are transformed, including law enforcement and the administration of justice.
We welcome the adoption of a new resolution on human rights on the internet, which recognises that universal and meaningful connectivity is essential for the enjoyment of human rights. The resolution takes a progressive step forward in specifically recommending diverse and human right-based technological solutions to advance connectivity, including through governments creating an enabling and inclusive regulatory environment for small, non-profit and community internet operators. These solutions are particularly essential in ensuring connectivity for remote or rural communities. The resolution also unequivocally condemns internet shutdowns, online censorship, surveillance, and other measures that impede universal and meaningful connectivity. We now call on all Sates to fully implement the commitments in the resolution and ensure the same rights that people have offline are also protected online.
Whilst we welcome the attention in the resolution on the human rights of migrants to dehumanising, harmful and racist narratives about migration, we are disappointed that the resolution falls short of the calls from civil society, supported by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, for the Human Rights Council to set up an independent and international monitoring mechanism to address deaths, torture and other grave human rights violations at borders. Such a mechanism would not only support prevention and accountability – it would provide a platform for the people at the heart of these human rights violations and abuses to be heard. The study and intersessional mandated in this resolution must be used to enhance independent monitoring and increase access to justice.
We welcome the adoption of the resolution on Afghanistan renewing and strengthening the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. Crucially, the resolution recognises the need to ensure accountability in Afghanistan through “comprehensive, multidimensional, gender-responsive and victim-centred” processes applying a “comprehensive approach to transitional justice.” However, we are disappointed that the resolution once again failed to establish an independent accountability mechanism that can undertake comprehensive investigations and collect and preserve evidence and information of violations and abuses in line with these principles to assist future and ongoing accountability processes. This not only represents a failure by the Council to respond to the demands of many Afghan and international civil society organisations, but also a failure to fulfil its own mandate to ensure prompt, independent and impartial investigations which this and all previous resolutions have recognised as urgent.
We welcome the renewal of the Special Rapporteur on Burundi.
We welcome the renewal of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation. The human rights situation in Russia continues to deteriorate, with the alarming expansion of anti-extremism legislation now also targeting LGBT+ and Indigenous organisations being just the latest example of this trend. The Special Rapporteur has highlighted how such repression against civil society within Russia over many years has facilitated its external aggression. The mandate itself remains a vital lifeline for Russian civil society, connecting it with the Human Rights Council and the broader international community, despite the Russian authorities’ efforts to isolate their people.
We welcome the resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka renewing for one year the mandate of the OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability Project and of the High Commissioner to monitor and report on the situation. Its consensual adoption represents the broad recognition by the Council of the crucial need for continued international action to promote accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka and keeps the hopes of tens of thousands of victims, their families and survivors who, more than 15 years after the end of the war, continue to wait for justice and accountability. However, the resolution falls short in adequately responding to the calls by civil society. It fails to extend these mandates for two years which would have ensured that the Sri Lanka Accountability Project has the resources, capacity and stability to fulfill its mandate.
We welcome the renewal of the Fact Finding Mission on Sudan with broader support (23 votes in favor in comparison to 19 votes last year, and 12 votes against in comparison to 16 votes last year). This responds to the calls by 80 Sudanese, African, and other international NGOs for an extension of the mandate of the FFM for Sudan. We further reiterate our urgent calls for an immediate ceasefire and the prompt creation of safe corridors for humanitarian aid organisations and groups, and to guarantee the safety of their operations, as well as our call on the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo on Darfur to all of Sudan and create effective monitoring and reporting mechanisms to ensure the implementation of the embargo.
We welcome the renewal of the mandates of the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela (FFM) and of OHCHR for two more years. The deepening repression at the hands of government forces following the fraudulent Presidential elections in July has made evident the vital importance of continued independent documenting, monitoring and reporting by the FFM and its role in early warning of further human rights deterioration. We are pleased that OHCHR is mandated to provide an oral update (with an ID) at the end of this year. This will be key ahead of the end of the term of the current presidency on 10 January 2025. This resolution is an important recognition of and contribution to the demands of victims and civil society for accountability.
We regret that the Council failed to take action on Bangladesh. We welcome Bangladesh’s cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights including by inviting the Office to undertake investigations into allegations of serious violations and abuses in the context of youth-led protests in July and August, as well as positive steps by the interim government. However, we believe that a Council mandate would provide much needed support, stability and legitimacy to these positive initiatives at a time of serious political uncertainty in the country.
The Council’s persistent inaction and indifference in the face of Yemen’s escalating human rights crisis is deeply troubling. Since the dissolution of the Group of Eminent Experts, and despite years of mounting atrocities, we have yet to see the type of robust, independent international investigation that is desperately needed. Instead, the Council’s approach has been marked by half-measures and complacency, allowing widespread violations to continue unchecked. Despite the precarious humanitarian situation, the recent campaign of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention by the de facto Houthi authorities and recent Israeli bombardments, Yemen has increasingly become a forgotten crisis. The current resolution on Yemen represents this failure. Technical assistance without reporting or discussion is an insufficient response. The decision to forgo an interactive dialogue on implementing this assistance is an oversight, undermining the principles of accountability and transparency. We welcome the inclusion of language in the resolution recognizing the vital role of NGO workers and humanitarian staff who the Houthis have arbitrarily detained. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of those who continue to be detained for nothing more than attempting to ensure the rule of law is respected and victims are protected. We urge this Council to act decisively, prioritize the creation of an independent international accountability mechanism, and place civilian protection at the forefront of its deliberations on Yemen.
We continue to deplore this Council’s exceptionalism towards serious human rights violations in China committed by the government. On 17 August, the OHCHR stressed that ‘many problematic laws and policies’ documented in its Xinjiang report remain in place, that abuses remain to be investigated, and that reprisals and lack of information hinder human rights monitoring. We welcome the statement by the Xinjiang Core Group on the second anniversary of the OHCHR’s Xinjiang report, regretting the government’s lack of meaningful cooperation with UN bodies, the rejection of UPR recommendations, and urging China to engage meaningfully to implement the OHCHR’s recommendations, including releasing all those arbitrarily detained, clarifying the whereabouts of those disappeared, and facilitating family reunion. It is imperative that the Human Rights Council take action commensurate to the gravity of UN findings, such as by establishing a monitoring and reporting mechanism on China as repeatedly urged by over 40 UN experts since 2020. We urge China to genuinely engage with the UN human rights system to enact meaningful reform, and ensure all individuals and peoples enjoy their human rights. Recommendations from the OHCHR Xinjiang report, UN Treaty Bodies, and UN Special Procedures chart the way for this desperately needed change.
Finally, we welcome the outcome of elections to the Human Rights Council at the General Assembly. States that are responsible for atrocity crimes, the widespread repression of civil society, and patterns of reprisals are not qualified to be elected to this Council. The outcomes of the election demonstrate the importance of all regions fielding competitive slates that are comprised of appropriately qualified candidates.
Signatories:
https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/hrc57-civil-society-presents-key-takeaways-from-the-session
see:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/11/us-un-human-rights-israel
Following a concerted campaign led by ISHR together with other civil society partners, Saudi Arabia was just defeated in its bid to be elected to the UN Human Rights Council!
Activists hope a change in international law could help to address the intensifying erosion of women and girls’ rights in Afghanistan
Read more: Afghan exiles on the Taliban’s gender apartheid
Over the past three years, the world has watched in horror as women and girls in Afghanistan have had their rights and freedoms systematically stripped away.
In the face of inaction by the international community, a campaign for the conditions being imposed on Afghan and Iranian women to be made a crime under international law as gender apartheid was launched last year. What does the term mean and will it make a difference?
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
What women face in Afghanistan is a crime against humanity, say activists pushing for recognition by UN
Explainer: What is gender apartheid – and can anything be done to stop it?
When Sima Samar and other Afghan women came up with the term “gender apartheid” in the 1990s to describe the systematic oppression faced by women and girls under Taliban rule, she never imagined it would have become a key weapon in the fight to hold a second Taliban regime to account for their crimes two decades later.
“When the first Taliban regime fell, the idea that we would once again see the persecution, isolation and segregational and systematic repression of half the Afghan population on the basis of their gender seemed impossible,” says Samar, who served as the minister for women’s affairs after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 and now lives in exile. “But now, in 2024, it is happening again and this time we must find a way to fight for justice.”
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Annie Kelly reports from a conference in Albania where Afghan women have spoken publicly about the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on their freedom
In August, the Taliban published “vice and virtue” laws that banned women’s voices being heard in public. Weeks later, more than 130 women travelled to Tirana in Albania to attend the All Afghan Women summit to talk about the Taliban’s human rights abuses.
The Guardian reporter Annie Kelly spoke to Afghan women at the conference about how their lives had changed since the Taliban took control.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
New York, September 23, 2024 —The Taliban must stop transmitting disruptive signals to prevent residents in the Afghan capital Kabul watching the popular London-based Afghanistan International on television, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.
“The Taliban must immediately cease jamming Afghanistan International’s broadcasts, which marks a new low in their shameful campaign to silence an important source of independent news in Afghanistan,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “The Taliban’s decision to use this sophisticated technology is highly alarming, demonstrating the lengths they are prepared to go to in order to prevent the free flow of information and news to the Afghan people.”
Harun Najafizada, executive editor of Afghanistan International, told CPJ that the television station had been using other satellites to ensure people in Kabul could watch its news after September 5, when the Taliban blocked its usual signal from a ground station in Afghanistan. Any independent media organization committed to providing accurate information faces threats and intimidation from the Taliban, he said.
Video clips reviewed by CPJ showed black screens and a “no signal” message on the TV station’s usual frequency. Kabul residents told CPJ that the signal was intermittent due to the jamming.
On September 4, the Taliban’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Stanekzai denounced Afghanistan International as an “enemy” for reporting that aid relief sent to the flooded northern province of Baghlan had been allegedly misused. In May, the Taliban ordered journalists and citizens to boycott Afghanistan International for falsifying information and producing broadcasts that aided the group’s opponents.
It is the country’s most popular international television channel, also available via social media and cable.
CPJ’s text messages to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid requesting comment on the broadcast jamming went unanswered.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Organisers of international summit hope to create pressure to reverse laws including a ban on women speaking in public
More than 130 Afghan women have gathered in Albania at an All Afghan Women summit, in an attempt to develop a united voice representing the women and girls of Afghanistan in the fight against the ongoing assault on human rights by the Taliban.
Some women who attempted to reach the summit from inside Afghanistan were prevented from travelling, pulled off flights in Pakistan or stopped at borders. Other women have travelled from countries including Iran, Canada, the UK and the US where they are living as refugees.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
New York, September 11, 2024—The Taliban must stop harassing the popular London-based broadcaster Afghanistan International, which they accused of conducting a “propaganda war against us,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
In his September 4 speech, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Stanekzai attacked the independent outlet as an “enemy” for reporting that aid relief sent to the flooded northern province of Baghlan had been allegedly misused. This latest criticism follows the Taliban’s ban in May on journalists and experts from cooperating with Afghanistan International and on people providing facilities for broadcasting the channel in public.
Separately, on September 4, Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice officials met with Afghan media executives in the capital Kabul and gave them verbal orders to replace Persian words — which they described as “Iranian” — with the Pashto equivalent in their reporting.
Persian, also known as Farsi, is the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan and in neighboring Iran. But the Taliban mainly speak Pashto and they have removed Persian words from signboards for public institutions and spoken out against the teaching of Persian in universities since their return to power in 2021.
The officials also ordered the journalists to respect Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
“The Taliban must immediately halt their campaign of intimidation against Afghanistan International and lift their restrictions on Persian-language reporting,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The Taliban’s recent vice and virtue law has already emboldened their notorious morality police to further restrict the media, threatening to annihilate press freedom gains made during the two previous decades of democratic rule in Afghanistan.”
CPJ’s text messages to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid requesting comment went unanswered.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This week marks 23 years since George W. Bush declared a U.S.-led “war on terror” and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq are still suffering its consequences. After the U.S. invaded Iraq, an estimated half a million Iraqis were killed and at least 9.2 million were displaced. From 2003-2011, more than 4.7 million Iraqis suffered from moderate to severe food insecurity. Over 243,000…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Despite the regime withdrawing even the most basic human rights of women and girls, liberal democracies have failed to take action
‘So pervasive is the Taliban’s institutionalised gender oppression, and so slender are the spaces in which women and girls may live freely, that in Afghanistan today almost any act can be characterised as an act of resistance.”
That conclusion from Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, encapsulates how unbearably suffocating it is to be female in Afghanistan today: excluded from education and from running a business; forbidden from going outside for a walk or to exercise, to speak or show any part of their face or body outside the home; or even for their voices to be heard singing or reading from within their own home. There is no other country where women and girls are so oppressed on the basis of their sex.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
‘Dismal’ lack of progress leaves women and girls facing litany of abuses – with no country on track to achieve equality
More than 850 million women and girls are living in countries rated as “very poor” for gender equality, says a new report, subjecting them to a litany of potential restrictions and abuses, including forced pregnancies, childhood marriage and bans from secondary education.
The SDG Gender Index, published today by a coalition of NGOs, found that no country has, so far, achieved the promise of gender equality envisioned by the UN’s 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Between 2019 and 2022, nearly 40% of countries – home to more than 1 billion women and girls – stagnated or declined on gender equality.
This brave journalist and young women like her are bearing the brunt of the failed democratisation project: ‘Hope is fading’
In the final days of the Afghan republic – in defiance of a looming takeover by the Taliban – the Hazara journalist Mani sang revolutionary poems in public in Kabul about women, freedom and justice. Now she is on the run, waiting for the Australian government to grant her a humanitarian visa.
It’s three years since Australia pulled its final troops out of Afghanistan. Their presence over two decades saw the country emerge from the ashes of civil war, embrace a relative peace and a fragile democracy before falling back into the darkness of fundamentalism under the Taliban.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
With more than 70 people reportedly killed by rebels this week, Dr Mahrang Baloch’s effective and non-violent protests against Pakistan’s government are rapidly gaining support
On the morning of 26 August, about three dozen armed men intercepted traffic at Musakhel in Pakistan, a district on the border between Balochistan and Punjab. Identifying and off-loading 23 men from the Punjab province from different vehicles, they shot them dead. They also set 35 vehicles ablaze.
The Balochistan Liberation Army, the most active militant group in the province, claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the second of its kind this year. In April, nine passengers were forced out of a bus near Noshki, a city in Balochistan, and shot dead after the assailants checked their ID cards.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
This content originally appeared on Amnesty International and was authored by Amnesty International.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.