• Human Rights in Afghanistan
    Many Afghans feel enormous anxiety as the 2014 deadline for withdrawing international combat forces from Afghanistan looms and warlords and other powerbrokers jockey for position. The powerful, when implicated in serious abuses, are almost never held to account, and the justice system fails ordinary Afghans. Torture is rampant in detention facilities. The Afghan government’s failure to tackle discrimination and respond effectively to violence against women undermines the already perilous state of women’s rights. Civilian deaths in 2012 from the armed conflict with the Taliban numbered several thousand.
  • Prisoner outside her cell at Badam Bagh, Afghanistan's central women's prison in Kabul on March 28, 2013.
    © 2013 AP
    Afghanistan: Surge in Women Jailed for ‘Moral Crimes’
    The Afghan government should take urgent steps to halt an alarming increase in women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes."
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Afghanistan

  • 'Dark future' for women's rights in Afghanistan
    May 22, 2013
    In January 2012, my investigations determined that some 400 women and girls were locked away in Afghan prisons and juvenile detention facilities for the 'moral crime' of running away from home or having sex outside of marriage.
  • Afghanistan: Surge in Women Jailed for ‘Moral Crimes’
    May 21, 2013
    The Afghan government should take urgent steps to halt an alarming increase in women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes."
  • The Real Costs of CIA Cash
    May 21, 2013
    When the New York Times reported recently that the CIA routinely provides cash payments to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, totaling in the tens of millions of dollars, many were surprised. I wasn't among them. The Karzai scandal cycle has developed a certain amount of redundancy: his odd outbursts, his family's endless corruption, the vacillating positions on peace negotiations and about faces on the Taliban one day and the United States the next--it has lost the power to shock. CIA payments are not even at the front of this parade of infamies.
  • A Real Life 'Hunger Games'
    May 20, 2013
    Here’s a story to break your heart – thousands of Afghan refugee boys who roam Europe alone, without parents, without enough help from European governments, and at risk of destitution, detention, and death.
  • Afghanistan: Peaceful Protest Suppressed
    May 7, 2013
    Afghan authorities should investigate the arrests and possible torture of peaceful protesters by security forces in Kabul.
  • Afghanistan: Urgent Need for Safe Facilities for Female Police
    Apr 25, 2013
    The government of Afghanistan should take immediate action to ensure that the country’s female police officers have access to separate, safe, and lockable restroom facilities in police stations.
  • Seven days – a week in the life of a Human Rights Watch researcher
    Mar 20, 2013
    Human Rights Watch's Afghanistan researcher focuses on a boy detained for 'moral crimes', a report on torture in Afghan jails, a protest march highlighting violence against women – and dinner in Kabul's best and worst French restaurants.
  • In Afghanistan, Women Behind Bars for 'Moral Crimes'
    Feb 27, 2013
    It was winter when I interviewed Tahmina at a Kabul prison for girls. Six to eight girls lived in each room, and although I preferred to interview each of them privately, the girls all wanted to stay together and hear what everyone had to say. So together, we sat on the carpeted floor and listened to Tahmina’s story.
  • Afghanistan: Don’t Prosecute Sexually Assaulted Children
    Feb 9, 2013

    The Afghan government should take urgent steps to ensure that rape and sexual abuse of children leads to prosecution of the abusers – not of victims.

  • No end in sight to state torture in Afghanistan
    Feb 7, 2013
    As pundits and critics discuss whether the recent Hollywood film offering Zero Dark Thirty wrongly implies justification for torture, a debate about torture that is all too real plays itself out in Afghanistan.
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