Strengthening Accountability for Human Rights Violations in Afghanistan

As part of the Institute’s support to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and our work, supported by Nordic donors 2021-2026, to strengthen conditions for inclusive governance, peace, and respect for human rights and gender equality in Afghanistan, accountability for decades of human rights violations has been a key issue in focus. Activities have ranged from roundtables to training programmes and research.

 

The work started with three related roundtables in 2023 where the first one, opened by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the RWI Director, gathered over 40 experts in Lund to discuss Prospects for Accountability of Human Rights Violations in Afghanistan.

 

 

 

A central point in the discussions and in the recommendations that came out from this event was the centrality of qualitative documentation. As a consequence, the following two roundtables gathered experts and Afghan civil society actors engaged in documenting human rights violations in the Afghan context to discuss challenges, opportunities and cooperation.

Based on findings from the events 2023, and in cooperation with key Afghan civil society organisations in the field, a training programme was launched in 2024 for Afghan human rights defenders addressing international standards for documentation. Course contents include standards and cooperative approaches for effective engagement with the UNSR, among other pathways and mechanisms for accountability.

RWI and OHCHR also co-organised consultations with Afghan women on accountability for violations against women’s rights, following up on a co-organised roundtable in early 2024 where over 40 experts gathered in Lund for a consultation in preparation for the SR report on institutionalised discrimination against women and girls that was presented at HRC56. The consultations on accountability recommended an “all tools approach”, that would include the use of international accountability mechanisms such as the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, as well as pursuing cases at the national level under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Furthermore, in 2024 an RWI research team developed a strategic study on accountability for human rights violations in Afghanistan 1978-2021, which was presented at a side event at UN HRC57. A summary of the research findings and recommendations is available on the RWI website, where you will also find the full report.

Accountability-related issues have also been addressed in the research of RWI Fellows 2022-2024 and discussed by Afghan scholars in two research conferences to date, in 2023 and 2024.

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