By Institute for Integrated Transitions and Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit
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Over 40 years, every side in Afghanistan’s armed conflict has violated fundamental human rights or international humanitarian law. This is the grim reality that has shaped the country and underscores the stakes of the incipient intra-Afghan peace talks.
Afghanistan became known as the “Great Game” in the 19th century, a buffer at the core of prolonged political and diplomatic confrontations between the mutually suspicious Russian and British empires. After independence in 1919, the 40-year reign of King Zahir Shah (1933–1973) saw some reforms until his constitutional monarchy was overthrown by his first cousin and former prime minister, Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, who declared Afghanistan a republic. Daoud Khan’s unsuccessful efforts to play off the West and the Soviet Union culminated in the 1978 coup that launched a civil war and led to the Soviet invasion of 1979 (1979–1989).
Keywords: Afghanistan, Transitional Justice, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Peace and Accountability