Connect with us

Latest News

Targeted killings taking serious toll on civil society and media: UN report

Published

on

(Last Updated On: February 15, 2021)

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said Monday that human rights and media space in Afghanistan has contracted in the past few months as a result of the sharp increase in targeted attacks against professionals in these two sectors. 

In a report issued Monday by UNAMA, analysis shows that since the start of peace talks in Doha, on September 12 last year, until January 31, 11 human rights defenders and media workers have been killed in targeted attacks. 

The new report analyses data and trends connected to the killings and traces the changing patterns of attacks on these key sectors and provides recommendations.

UNAMA stated in the report that “this trend, combined with the absence of claims of responsibility, has generated a climate of fear among the population.”

In addition, research found that human rights and media space has contracted as a result, with many professionals exercising self-censorship in their work, quitting their jobs, and leaving their homes and communities with hopes it will improve their safety. Many, including high profile personalities, have fled the country. 

“The killings have had the broader impact across society of also diminishing expectations around efforts towards peace,” a UNAMA statement read.

“The Afghan people need and deserve a flourishing civic space – a society where people can think, write and voice their views openly, without fear,” said Deborah Lyons, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan. 

“The voices of human rights defenders and the media are critical for any open and decent society. At a time when dialogue and an end to the conflict through talks and political settlement should be the focus, the voices from human rights and the media need to be heard more than ever before, instead, they are being silenced,” said the envoy, who is also head of UNAMA.

UNAMA stated that one of the key trends to emerge in the past few months is that attacks against representatives of the human rights and media sectors in Afghanistan are clearly “intentional, premeditated and deliberate targeting of individuals with perpetrators remaining anonymous.” This contrasts to previous years. 

The report also records a total of 65 human rights defenders and media professionals killed in the period from 1 January 2018 to 31 January 2021; 32 from the human rights sector and 33 from the media. 

Of these, 11 (five human rights defenders and six media) were killed in the four-month period from 1 October 2020 – 31 January 2021 alone, the statement read.

The report notes that as they work to provide timely information to the population of Afghanistan on a range of issues (including violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law), human rights defenders, journalists and media workers are far too often exposed to threats, intimidation, harassment, surveillance or arbitrary detention.

A series of recommendations to both state and non-state actors are contained in the report.

Recommendations made to the Afghan government include the establishment of an effective and cooperative national protection mechanism under the leadership of the Second Vice President Sarwar Danish. 

Also for an adequate preventive framework, including special protective and proactive security measures for human rights defenders, journalists and media workers, to be put into place. 

UNAMA also called for assurances that human rights defenders, journalists, and media workers can continue their legitimate rights to life, freedom of association, freedom of expression and access to information, as well as other fundamental freedoms, without fear of reprisal or attack.

Key among the recommendations was counter impunity, including by conducting independent, impartial, prompt, thorough, effective, credible and transparent investigations into killings and that genuine accountability, and prosecuting of suspects follow due legal process. 

Recommendations to insurgent groups included the call for them to cease all killings of human rights defenders, journalists and media workers, in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law.

For the Taliban in particular, UNAMA called on them to condemn, at the leadership level, the killings of human rights defenders, journalists and media workers.

UNAMA also called on the group to investigate cases where Taliban members are alleged to have been involved and hold to account Taliban members that order or implement the killings of human rights defenders, journalists and media workers.

The group was also encouraged to adopt, publicize and enforce policies that prohibit the killings of human rights defenders, journalists and media workers and to repeal existing policies (and refrain from adopting new ones) limiting civic space, including restrictions to freedom of association, the work of civil society and humanitarian actors, and freedom of expression.

The international community was also called on to assist with the problem. 

UNAMA urged them to continue condemning the killing of human rights defenders and media professionals, and to underscore the importance of the role of human rights defenders and independent media for a unified, sovereign, peaceful and democratic Afghanistan.

UNAMA also encouraged the international community to increase support to programs that provide security, travel, financial, capacity building and other assistance to them.

Latest News

US urges IEA to fulfill counter-terrorism commitments

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 29, 2024)

The US State Department said on Thursday that Washington is committed to ensuring that Afghanistan can never again be a launching pad for terrorism.

“We remain committed to ensuring that Afghanistan can never again be a launching pad for terrorism, and we continue to push the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) to fulfill all of their counterterrorism commitments to the international community,” the department’s spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a news briefing in Washington.

He reiterated that the United States had clearly communicated to the IEA that it’s their responsibility to ensure that “they give no safe haven to terrorists, whether it be Al Qaeda or ISIS-K or any other terrorist organization”.

Miller also reassured US allies that Washington was closely watching the developments in Afghanistan and was ready to deal with any threat emerging from the region.

“We remain vigilant against the evolving threat of these terrorist groups, and our global coalition to defeat ISIS and the C5+1 help intensify our efforts to monitor terrorist threats from the region and prevent their ability to raise funds, travel, and spread propaganda,” he said.

C5+1 refers to a diplomatic platform involving the five Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgy­zstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and the United States. It serves as a forum for discussing and addressing regional issues such as security, economic development, and cooperation.

“The United States remains vigilant against the evolving threat posed by terrorist groups, including ISIS-K, and has maintained an unwavering focus on terrorism since President Joe Biden took office three years ago,” Miller said.

The US, he said, was “working both unilaterally and with its partners to successfully disrupt threats across the globe and degrade ISIS”.

“We will continue to work to hold ISIS accountable for its actions and to prevent terrorist attacks against the United States and other Western countries,” Miller said.

This comes as IEA has repeatedly said that it is committed to not allowing anyone to use Afghanistan soil against any other country.

Continue Reading

Latest News

IEA condemns Israel for confiscating 800 hectares of land in West Bank’s Jordan Valley

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 29, 2024)

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) strongly condemned on Thursday Israel’s decision to seize 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley region.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said that the recent actions by “the Zionist regime demonstrate that it does not to adhere to international laws, especially international humanitarian law.”

“Continuation of such unilateral actions and ignoring the rights of Palestinian people will further deteriorate the situation,” the statement said.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan expects international actors, particularly influential regional Muslim countries to fulfill their legitimate, human and moral responsibilities in supporting the oppressed people of Palestine and prevent the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied territories,” it added.

Israeli media have reported that Israel seized 800 hectares of land in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank, claiming it as “state land.”

It is reported the seized land could be used for the construction of illegal Jewish settlements.

Continue Reading

Latest News

ISIS-K leader reportedly living in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Sanaullah Ghaffari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajar, is reportedly the ISIS-Khorasan (Daesh) branch leader and is holed up in Pakistan, Reuters reports.

The 29-year-old took over as leader in 2020 and under his leadership the group has carried out extreme attacks as a means of recruiting, Reuters reported.

Reuters noted that little was known about Ghafari before the deadly 2021 ISIS attack on Kabul Airport, which killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers.

But after Friday’s deadly attack in a concert hall in Moscow, which left 139 people dead, Ghaffari’s group has come under intense scrutiny.

Reuters reports that Ghaffari is said to have been involved in several attacks in Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Pakistani officials said months ago that Ghaffari had been killed in Kunar province in Afghanistan in June last year, but Reuters has reported that he did not die and instead fled to Pakistan and lives in the border province of Baluchistan.

Abdul Matin Qani, the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan, says that Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan for more than two years and has lost its operational capacity.

The last attack carried out by Daesh in Afghanistan was the attack on the Kabul Bank office in Kandahar last week which left three dead and 12 wounded.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2022 Ariana News. All rights reserved!