Amnesty International Report 2017/18

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 AMNESTY  

 INTERNATIONAL  

 REPORT 2017/18 

PART 2: A-Z COUNTRY ENTRIES

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66

Amnesty International Report 2017/18

AFGHANISTAN

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Head of state and government: Muhammad Ashraf 

Ghani

The civilian population suffered widespread 

human rights abuses as a result of the 

continuing conflict. Conflict-related 

violence led to deaths, injuries and 

displacement. Civilian casualties continued 

to be high; the majority were killed or 

injured by armed insurgent groups, but a 

significant minority by pro-government 

forces. The number of people internally 

displaced by conflict rose to more than 2 

million; about 2.6 million Afghan refugees 

lived outside the country. Gender-based 

violence against women and girls persisted 

by state and non-state actors. An increase 

in public punishments of women by armed 

groups applying Shari’a law was reported. 

Human rights defenders received threats 

from both state and non-state actors; 

journalists faced violence and censorship. 

Death sentences continued to be imposed; 

five people were executed in November. 

Members of the Hazara minority group and 

Shi’a continued to face harassment and 

increased attacks, mainly by armed 

insurgent groups.

BACKGROUND

In March, the UN Security Council renewed 

the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in 

Afghanistan (UNAMA) for another year, 

under the leadership of Tadamichi 

Yamamoto.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the 

country’s second largest insurgent group, 

Hezb-i-Islami, joined the Afghan government. 

On 4 May, after two years of negotiations, the 

draft peace agreement signed in September 

2016 between the government and 

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was finalized, granting 

him amnesty for past offences, including war 

crimes, and permitting the release of certain 

Hezb-i-Islami prisoners.

By the end of June, UNAMA had 

documented 12 incidents of cross-border 

shelling from Pakistan into Afghanistan, in 

which at least 10 civilians were killed and 24 

injured. This was a substantial increase on 

the same period in 2016.

The government made amendments to the 

Penal Code. Some provisions of the Rome 

Statute of the ICC were incorporated into law 

and some offences which previously carried 

the death penalty became punishable by life 

imprisonment.

ARMED CONFLICT

The non-international armed conflict between 

“anti-government elements” and pro-

government forces continued. The Taliban 

and the armed group Islamic State (IS) were 

among the “anti-government elements” but 

more than 20 armed groups operated inside 

the country. The Taliban and other armed 

opposition groups were responsible for the 

majority of civilian casualties (64%) in the 

first nine months of the year, according to 

UNAMA.

By the end of September, UNAMA had 

documented 8,019 civilian casualties (2,640 

killed and 5,379 injured), a small overall 

decrease compared to the same period in 

2016, although there was a 13% increase in 

the number of women killed or injured. About 

20% of the casualties were attributed to pro-

government forces, including Afghan national 

security forces, the Afghan Local Police, pro-

government armed groups and international 

military forces.

While acknowledging that Afghan 

government forces made some efforts to 

mitigate civilian casualties, especially during 

ground engagement, UNAMA also noted that 

the number of civilians killed or injured in 

aerial attacks increased by some 50% over 

2016; about two-thirds of these were women 

and children.

ABUSES BY PRO-GOVERNMENT FORCES

In January, according to UNAMA, Afghan 

National Border Police in Paktika province 

sexually abused a 13-year-old boy, then shot 

him; the boy died from his injuries. Those 

suspected of criminal responsibility were 

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

67

prosecuted by the Afghan National Police, 

convicted of murder and sentenced to six 

years‘ imprisonment.

According to UNAMA, more than a dozen 

civilians were shot at checkpoints. In one 

such incident on 16 March, Afghan Local 

Police at a checkpoint in Jawzjan province 

shot and injured a man and his mother after 

mistaking them for insurgents. In April, 

Afghan National Police shot a 65-year-old 

man returning from feeding his cows; he later 

died in hospital. In May, an Afghan National 

Army soldier shot dead a 13-year-old boy as 

he collected grass close to a checkpoint in 

Badghis province.

In June, according to UNAMA, three young 

children in Saydebad district were killed in 

their home by a mortar round fired by the 

Afghan National Army. The same month, pro-

government forces on patrol shot dead a 

father and his two young sons (aged five and 

12) outside the brick factory where they 

worked; there was no known military activity 

in the area at the time. UNAMA requested 

updates on any investigation or follow-up 

action on these cases, but by July had 

received no information from the Ministry of 

the Interior.

During the first six months of the year, 

according to UNAMA, 95 civilians, half of 

them children, were killed in air strikes.

ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS

In January, in Badakhshan province, five 

armed men dragged a pregnant woman from 

her home and shot her dead in front of her 

husband and six children; witnesses said her 

attackers accused her of being a government 

supporter. On 8 March, armed men entered 

an Afghan National Army military hospital in 

central Kabul and killed at least 49 people, 

including patients. In August, armed groups 

attacked the village of Mirza Olang, in Sar-e-

Pul province, killing at least 36 people, 

including civilians.

Suicide attacks by armed groups in civilian 

areas caused at least 382 deaths and 1,202 

injuries. In one such attack in December, at 

least 41 people, including children, were 

killed in a suicide bomb attack on a Shi’a 

cultural organization in Kabul.

On 25 August, a Shi’a mosque in Kabul was 

attacked by IS, killing at least 28 people and 

injuring dozens more. On 20 October, similar 

attacks were carried out against two more 

Shi’a mosques – one in western Kabul and 

the other in Ghor province – leaving more 

than 60 people dead and dozens injured.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs of 

Afghanistan (MoWA) reported an increase in 

cases of gender-based violence against 

women, especially in areas under Taliban 

control.

In the first half of the year, the Afghanistan 

Independent Human Rights Commission 

reported thousands of cases of violence 

against women and girls across the country, 

including beatings, killings and acid attacks. 

Against the backdrop of impunity for such 

crimes and a failure to investigate, cases of 

violence against women remained grossly 

under-reported due to traditional practices, 

stigmatization and fear of the consequences 

for the victims.

Armed groups perpetrated gender-based 

violence, torture and other ill-treatment and 

other human rights abuses, imposing 

corporal punishments on women for having 

sex outside of marriage or engaging in sex 

work. In one instance, according to UNAMA, 

men severely beat a woman in her home in 

Darah-i-Suf Payin district, Samangan 

province, after accusing her of having sex 

outside of marriage and engaging in sex 

work.

UNAMA also noted that armed groups tried 

to restrict girls’ access to education. In 

February, threats forced the closure of girls’ 

schools in several villages in Farah province, 

temporarily denying education to more than 

3,500 girls. When the schools reopened 10 

days later, the vast majority of the girls were 

initially afraid to return.

The head of the women’s affairs department 

in Badakhshan reported that in March the 

Taliban stoned a woman to death and 

whipped a man on charges of having sex 

outside of marriage in Wardoj district, 

northeastern Badakhshan province.

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