The International Justice Clinic submitted a human rights overview of Afghanistan to the United Nations Secretary-General Special Coordinator, Independent Assessment mandated by United Nations Security Council resolution 2679. Adopted in March 2023, the resolution requests the Secretary-General to “conduct and provide” to the Security Council “an integrated, independent assessment” on a range of issues in order to “advance the objective of a secure, stable, prosperous and inclusive Afghanistan”. The assessment, according to the resolution, is to include “forward-looking recommendations for an integrated and coherent approach among relevant political, humanitarian, and development actors, within and outside of the United Nations system, in order to address the current challenges faced by Afghanistan including human rights and especially the rights of women and girls, religious and ethnic minorities.”

Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, multiple and overlapping human rights crises have gripped Afghanistan. In the period since then, the Taliban has not only committed specific violations of fundamental human rights. They have systematically eroded and undermined the human rights of women and girls, imposed severe restrictions on ethnic and religious minorities, and oppressed various vulnerable communities. Additionally, they have suppressed individual rights to conscience and belief, perpetrated extrajudicial killings, torture, and forced disappearances. The Taliban’s actions have decimated independent media, impeding the public’s access to information and communications technologies, while simultaneously undermining the independence of the judiciary, contributing to an extensive series of significant human rights abuses.

The overview endeavors to highlight the urgent, ongoing crisis in Afghanistan, present recommendations to alleviate and improve the circumstances, and call on the de facto government to ensure the safety and wellness of its people. The overview seeks to cover human rights violation encompassing torture and ill-treatment; arbitrary arrest and due process; enforced disappearance and summary executions; freedom of movement and assembly; freedom of thought and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; women’s rights to education, healthcare, work; and rights of the child.

Clinic Students Jacob Basta, Benjamin Chen, Ashley Duke, Tomris Ahmad Shah, and Andrew Hallak supported the research and drafting of the work.