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  • Human Rights in Afghanistan
    Preparations for the end-2014 withdrawal of international combat troops continued in 2013, with international troops largely departed, sequestered in bases, and focused on the logistics of shipping military equipment out of the country. The Afghan army and police stepped forward to lead the fight against the Taliban and other insurgents, with mixed results. With international interest in Afghanistan rapidly waning, opponents of women’s rights seized the opportunity to begin rolling back the progress made since the end of Taliban rule. Overall declining international interest in Afghanistan contributed to mounting fears among Afghans for the country’s future.
  • Villagers gather at the site of a car bomb attack that killed at least 89 people in Urgon district, eastern province of Paktika, on July 15, 2014.
    © 2014 Reuters
    Afghanistan: Political Uncertainty Fuels Rights Decline
    Afghanistan’s fraught political transition and intensifying armed conflict have generated uncertainty placing the rights gains of the past decade at risk.
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Afghanistan

  • Pakistan: Stop Forced Returns of Afghans
    Feb 21, 2015
    The Pakistan government should immediately order local authorities to stop pressuring registered refugees to return to Afghanistan.
  • Afghanistan: Still a Man’s World?
    Feb 17, 2015
  • Dispatches: Afghanistan’s Afshar Agonies Remembered
    Feb 11, 2015
  • Afghanistan: Political Uncertainty Fuels Rights Decline
    Jan 29, 2015
    Afghanistan’s fraught political transition and intensifying armed conflict have generated uncertainty placing the rights gains of the past decade at risk.
  • Afghanistan: Media Under Attack
    Jan 21, 2015
    Violence and threats against Afghanistan’s journalists by the government and security forces are increasing, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These attacks put at risk the gains in media freedom in Afghanistan since 2001.
  • Iran: Let Afghans Seek Refugee Status
    Dec 21, 2014
    The Iranian government’s December 13, 2014 announcement that it will grant a six-month visa extension to 450,000 Afghans is a helpful move to prevent their imminent deportation. However, the visa-extension plan is no substitute for an asylum system that will allow newly arriving Afghans to lodge refugee claims.
  • Women fighting for justice in Afghanistan are treated with contempt by foreign donors
    Dec 17, 2014
    Afghanistan's civil society organisations fought an often lonely battle for women's rights, accountability for war crimes and the need to end torture through the many dark days when the Karzai administration was determined to consign the issues to oblivion. With Karzai gone, the activists are hoping for a new chance to put rights back on the agenda at Kabul's presidential palace.
  • Dispatches: Afghanistan and the CIA Torture Report
    Dec 10, 2014
  • Afghanistan: Donors Should Urge Human Rights Progress
    Dec 3, 2014
    Afghanistan’s foreign donors should press the Afghan government to prevent a further deterioration in the country’s human rights situation and support services crucial to rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The groups issued a joint statement ahead of a major donors’ meeting on Afghanistan on December 3-4, 2014, in London. Despite the government’s important improvements in human rights, many serious abuses continue and pose a threat to the fragile gains of the past decade.
  • What the US Owes Afghanistan
    Dec 2, 2014
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