Open Letter to President Hamid Karzai: Insist on Equality in Constitution, Stand Up for Afghan Human Rights
|
September 22, 2003
President Hamid Karzai
Kabul, Afghanistan
Dear President Karzai:
We write to urge you to treat human rights issues as the highest priority of your administration and to ask U.S. President George W. Bush to end U.S. support for Afghan warlords and military commanders who are committing systematic human rights abuses that have led to a worrying increase in insecurity for average Afghans
Human Rights Watch and others have documented a serious degradation in the human rights situation in recent months in Afghanistan, which has put at risk many of the gains made since the end of the Taliban period. Violence and intimidation at the hands of soldiers, militia and police under the control of warlords have created a generalized sense of insecurity. Even gains in education for school-age girls are now at risk as many parents are afraid to send their daughters out of their homes to go to school.
The deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan is the largest impediment to the protection of human rights, reconstruction, and political stability. Without an improved security situation it will be difficult and perhaps impossible to hold a credible constitutional drafting process or national elections.
During your last visit to the United States in February 2003, you assured the United States Congress that Afghanistan was well on the road to peace and stability and did not require additional international security forces to provide assistance. We urge you to provide a more realistic assessment of conditions in Afghanistan now and to use your upcoming meetings with President Bush and other world leaders at the United Nations to press for greater international support for Afghanistan's security and the protection of human rights.
In your meeting with President Bush, we encourage you to ask him to:
- Make clear that the United States supports the Afghan Transitional Administration and will end any financial or material support for regional warlords or military commanders responsible for human rights violations. The United States must make clear both in words and actions that it supports only those leaders who promote respect for human rights.
- Assist NATO to expand the security umbrella of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) beyond Kabul to the many insecure provinces in Afghanistan. NATO is now undertaking a review of the feasibility of expanding ISAF
- The United States should encourage other states to increase their peacekeeping role in Afghanistan and should offer any logistical, intelligence, and political support necessary for ISAF to expand.
With Afghanistan entering a critical period in which a new constitution will be drafted and national elections will be held, Human Rights Watch believes that it is crucial that you speak in a clear and consistent voice in support of respect for human rights. In particular, it is important that you take action in any cases that threaten press freedom, the rights of women, or the safety of human rights defenders. We understand the domestic pressures you and your administration are under, but your silence when these rights are under attack may be interpreted as indecisiveness or lack of commitment to human rights. It may also strengthen the positions of those who seek to pursue their own interests at the cost of the human rights of ordinary Afghans.
We thus urge you to publicly reiterate your support for the primacy of human rights in Afghanistan. Specifically, we ask you to:
- Publicly state that the new Afghan constitution should protect the human rights of all persons in Afghanistan, with special emphasis on women and religious and ethnic minorities. Announce publicly that the constitution should guarantee equality for all Afghans, irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, or religion. We also urge you to take all possible steps to limit the influence of individuals without a demonstrated commitment to human rights over the country's judiciary and ensure that the constitution contains a judicial appointment process that emphasizes professional competence.
- Select experts and the appointment of delegates for the constitutional loya jirga who will foster an open and democratic decision-making process. You should take all measures within your legal and moral authority to ensure that those political or military figures responsible for human rights abuses do not hijack the constitutional drafting process to intimidate delegates, legitimize their own positions, or limit the rights of women and religious and ethnic minorities;
- Publicly and privately support the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC); support giving the AIHRC full constitutional status and clarify that recent attacks on the AIHCR by senior members of your government do not represent your administration's policy; and publicly reprimand and punish anyone who interferes with the AIHRC's mandate, under the Bonn Agreement, to investigate and publicize violations of human rights in Afghanistan.
Thank you for your consideration of these important matters.
Sincerely,
Brad Adams
Executive Director
Asia Division
|
|
