"The misery in war- torn Afghanistan is reminiscent of images from the thirty years war"

- Jurgen Habermus

Introduction

Afghanistan is always in tension over which one has more power, either a centralized government or a decentralized government or a parliament or a presidential system or a powerful president or prime minister. Fundamental changes in Afghanistan's political system are seen as the most viable path to reliable and functional democracy, decentralization, the end of the war in a decade, and the needs of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is at an important time when all political power is needed to overcome the situation in which it is placed.

Taking control of and administering Afghanistan is a mammoth endeavor that few civilizations have ever attempted. From the Mongols to the Mughals, the British to the Russians, no one has been able to entirely seize the region or manage the "Tribal Afghanis." Americans are no exception, and despite spending more in Afghanistan than in rebuilding Europe after traumatic World War II, little progress has been made in a deadlock with the Taliban, which killed thousands.

Historical Context

On September 11, 2001, a terrorist attack in the US killed more than 3,000 people. Osama bin Ladin, the head of the Islamic terrorist group al Qaeda, was immediately identified as responsible. The Taliban, a radical Islamist who ruled Afghanistan at the time, protected bin Laden and refused his extradition. So, a month after 9/11, the United States launched air strikes on Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom). After the attack, allied NATO forces declared war on Afghanistan. As a result of this United States expelled the Taliban regime and established an interim government in Afghanistan.

Who are the Talibani’s?

To answer your curiosity, the Taliban are primarily Pashtun, an Islamic Fundamentalist group, a religious seminary that preaches hard-line form of Sunni Islamic. Pakistani high school girl Malala Yousafzai was shot is one of the most prominent and internationally criticized incidents of the Pakistani Taliban attack on her way to the village of Mingora in October 2012. The Taliban also banned the viewing of television, music, and movies. They were charged with a variety of human rights and cultural violations. Despite international condemnation, the Taliban carried out the demolition of the world-famous Bamiyan Buddha sculptures in central Afghanistan in 2001.

Application of Relevant International Law

Various international treaties, Declarations and Resolutions explain aspects of women's health-related rights. The weight and condition of these tools depends on international law. For example, while the treaty is legally binding, the Declaration and Resolution have only moral effect. Nonetheless, in this section, in order to understand the breadth and depth of the international consensus on norms on women's human rights, Author first described the various sources of such norms & then discusses the particular status of Afghanistan’s legal obligations.

 Applicable Legal obligations

  • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): The ICCPR recognizes the inherent dignity of everyone and is committed to improving the internal environment of the country in order to exercise civil and political rights. The countries that signed the treaty are obliged to "defend and safeguard basic human rights" and "are obliged to implement administrative, judicial and legislative actions to protect the rights stipulated in the treaty.
  • International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) : This treaty pledges its signatories to working toward the provision of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) to Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories and persons, including labour rights and the right to health, education, and an appropriate quality of life.
  • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): The goal of the Convention is to eliminate all forms of de jure and de facto discrimination against women, resulting from the actions or omissions of States Parties, their agents, or any other persons or organizations in all areas of life, including politics, economy, society, culture, civil and family life.
  • Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): The Convention clarifies these rights in 54 Articles and two Optional Protocols. It explains the basic human rights that children have everywhere. Right to life; full participation in family, culture and social life to maximize development, to be harmfully affected and to protect against abuse and exploitation. The four core principles of the Convention are discrimination. Dedication for the best interests of the child; rights to life, survival and development; and respect for the opinions of the child.

Status of Afghanistan’s International Legal Obligations

Afghanistan ratified the (ICCPR) and (ICESCR) on January 24, 1983. Afghanistan signed the (CEDAW) on August 14, 1980 and the (CRC) on September 27, 1990. Afghanistan ratified the CRC on March 28, 1994. The Taliban's imposition of harsh limitations on women's freedom cannot be considered to fall under any of the exceptions to this right. The Taliban's ordinances and actions essentially impose an indefinite ban on all forms of association, assembly, and freedom of movement.

Impact of this insurrection

Women & Girls Right

Women and girls faced gender-based discrimination and violence across Afghanistan, particularly in regions controlled by the Taliban, where their rights were routinely violated and harsh “punishments” were meted out for alleged breaches of the armed group's interpretation of Islamic law.

Violence against women and girls has long been under-reported, with victims frequently fearing retaliation and losing faith in the authorities if they spoke out. More than 100 incidents of murder were recorded throughout the year, according to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). There was a consistent failure to investigate these incidents where they were reported. In other situations, victims of abuse were pressured to withdraw their accusations by local communities or state authorities, or "mediation" was employed to address complaints outside of the legal system. As a result, the perpetrators of beatings, murders, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment, as well as physical punishments, enjoyed widespread impunity.

Children’s Right

Harassment and sexual assault against children have persisted. Despite widespread public awareness of child sexual abuse and the criminalization of the harmful practise of "bacha bazi" (male youngsters sexually assaulted by older men) in 2018, authorities made little attempt to eliminate impunity and make abusers responsible.

There were insufficient chances for children to seek their entitlement to a good education. Over 2 million females remained out of school, according to UNICEF, and roughly 7,000 schools in the country lacked a structure, according to official data. Thousands of youngsters were still being pushed into forced labour or begging on the streets.

Impunity

Human rights and women were not included in the United States-Taliban peace deal. All parties to the accord agreed to maintain impunity for severe crimes under international law. The US government solidified its position in September by implementing penalties, including asset freezes, against the ICC Prosecutor, who was slated to oversee an investigation into war crimes and genocide.

What is at risk in the current situation?

The United States has appointed a special representative to Afghanistan, who has the authority to negotiate directly with the Taliban. They met with the Taliban in Doha in February 2020, which led to an consensus between the United States and Taliban. Before the Doha talks began, the Taliban claimed to have direct talks only with the United States, not with the Kabul government they didn’t recognize. When the US pulled the Afghan government out of the process and went straight to the militants.

The terms of the consensus between the US and the Taliban

It addressed four facets of the conflict: violence, foreign soldiers, intra-Afghan peace talks, and terrorist groups like as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State using Afghan soil (the IS has an Afghan unit). In the Agreement, the U.S. government promised to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021. The deadline has been postponed to September 11, 2021. The Taliban have committed to reducing violence, participating in peace negotiations in Afghanistan and reducing all. Relations with foreign terrorist groups.

India’s Significant Investment in Afghanistan

  • The Taliban's possible victory threatens India's 20-year and $ 3 billion worth of investment in various projects, including dams, roads and trade infrastructure.
  • SALMA DAM: Violence has already erupted in the area where one of India's most high-profile projects, the “42MW Salma Dam in Herat province” is located. The Afghan-India Friendship Dam is a hydropower and irrigation project that was completed in 2016 overcoming several obstacles.
  • ZARANJ-DELARAM Highway: Another high-profile project is the 218 km Zaranj-Delaram Highway built by the Border Roads Organization. Zaranj is close to the Afghanistan-Iran border. This $ 150 million highway runs along the Khash Rud River to Delaram in northeast Zaranj, where it is connected to a ring road connecting Kandahar in the south, Ghazni and Kabul in the east, and MazariSharif and MazariSharif in the north &Herat in the West.
  • Parliament: India spent $90 million to construct the Afghan Parliament in Kabul. The structure was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015. In a lengthy lecture regarding the friendship between India and Afghanistan.
  • India donated $1 million last year for another Aga Khan historical project, the repair of the Bala Hissar Fort, which dates back to the 6th century and is located south of Kabul. Bala Hissar grew to be an important Mughal fort, with sections of it renovated by Jahangir and Shah Jahan using it as a palace.

India Options on Afghanistan

  • Taking Afghan Government in Confidence  Adhere to the principle of supporting only the democratically elected government of Kabul and providing political and humanitarian support for the continued period..
  • Support Afghan Military Forces: Provide military supplies, including ammunition and air power, to Afghan Security and Defense Forces, possibly via Iranian routes.
  • Talking with the Taliban Accelerate contact with the Taliban. However, given the Pakistani factor and the fact that all donor countries and regions have already done so, this is unlikely to have much influence in India.
  • Regional solution India and the three main regional players, China, Russia and Iran, have converged interests to reach a political solution to the Afghan problem. These countries do not want the Taliban to take over Afghanistan militarily, which means that there will be an isolated Sunni Islamic regime in a country with a broken ethnic balance. Therefore, the cooperation of like-minded countries is needed in this regard.

Conclusion

The status of women in Afghanistan today is the result of coalition participation with the United States, and without the courageous position and awareness of women's rights by women's activists in Afghanistan, would not have been able to emerge to this extent. Many believe that the Afghan government and the Taliban will not be able to draw conclusions about women's rights in Afghanistan.

Women living in Afghanistan suffer from large and systematic violations of their human rights under the Taliban. The Taliban have issued a number of directives governing literally every aspect of women's behavior, both in the public and private spheres.

References


About the Author: This Legal Article is prepared by Adv. Kunal Kumar , Advocate at High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Principal Seat Jabalpur. He can be reached at article.kunal@gmail.com

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