• 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.
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Afghanistan

  • 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.
  • US: Act to Protect Children in Conflict
    Feb 5, 2013
    The United States government should promptly carry out the recommendations of a United Nations committee of experts to improve protection of children abroad from armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report and recommendations to the US government on February 5, 2013.
  • Afghanistan: Act on UN Torture Report
    Feb 3, 2013
    The Afghan government should urgently adopt meaningful steps to end the widespread use of torture in government detention centers.
  • Global: HRW Submission to the CEDAW Committee
    Feb 1, 2013
  • Afghanistan: Rights at Risk as Military Drawdown Advances
    Feb 1, 2013
    Afghanistan’s human rights situation remained poor, with deterioration in some areas, and growing concerns for the future, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013.
  • Mr. Karzai Goes to Washington
    Jan 10, 2013

     

    President Karzai is in Washington this week to meet with President Obama and military commanders at the Pentagon. A main subject of the meetings will be the fate of peace negotiations with insurgent forces and the size of US military forces after a planned military drawdown is completed in 2014. But while the two leaders meet they may want to consider why these topics are still relevant in 2013. 

  • Barack Obama: Dump These 8 Unsavory Allies
    Jan 2, 2013
    If Obama wants to bolster his legacy in his second term, he can and should get tough on some of the United States' most unsavory friends and allies. Here are eight leaders to start with.
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