On 6th and 7th February, 40 scholars and expert practitioners gathered at RWI in Lund, Sweden, or joined online, for an Expert Roundtable on the topic of Prospects for Accountability for Human Rights Violations in Afghanistan.
The expert roundtable was opened by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the RWI Director.
Roundtable participants included a wide range of experts from among Afghans in exile, as well as selected non-Afghans with long standing experience from Afghanistan or from countries with relevant comparable challenges and experiences.
It was organised in the framework of the RWI Afghanistan Programme, funded by Swedish Development Cooperation, with start in September 2021, and included the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, in his role as RWI Visiting Professor on Afghanistan, as well as Afghan research fellows from the RWI programme 2022 and 2023.
Topics addressed included Definitions of accountability in the Afghan context, learning from other countries’ experiences; Stock taking of current international and national legal mechanisms regarding Afghanistan; Documenting Evidence of violations; and a discussion on what more should be done to support the work towards accountability and redress for victims in Afghanistan. A final session then concretised recommendations from the roundtable, which will be presented in an outcome report and be shared on the RWI website by the end of February.
The ambition is that the recommendations and considerations from this expert forum will be useful for State and civil society decision making in the coming months on support for human rights in Afghanistan. A preview of meeting outcomes will be shared in advance with invited stakeholders.
Featured image: Farid Ershad