Human Rights in Afghanistan: 4 Reasons Why Taliban Should not be Recognized

Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 18, 2021 (AP/Rahmat Gul)

In a fast-growing inter-connected world, Afghanistan cannot sustain itself in isolation. To avoid isolation, the country needs a nationally agreed-upon legal framework.

The Taliban's efforts to win international acceptance are at odds with their actions on the ground. Since taking power in mid-August, the Taliban leaders have adopted assertive diplomacy shuttling in and out to grope recognition, promising to make progress on democratic benchmarks, including general clemency and respect for women’s rights.

However, the Taliban are pursuing a duplicitous strategy, and harrowing accounts reveal massive reprisal attacks against former government workers, human rights defenders, journalists, women activists, minority groups, and international local partners

The Islamists must not be taken by their words but by their deeds. There are four reasons why the group should not be offered recognition until they are all met.

1. Constitutional Fallacies and International Obligations 

Despite a plethora of much-needed laws and legislations approved over the past 20 years, the fledgling Taliban regime has abolished the 2004 Republic Constitution. On September 28, Taliban leaders announced plans to enact parts of the 1960s monarchy constitution that are “not in conflict with Islamic Sharia” to govern the country.

However, the regime has yet to spell out what that means.

The country needs a legal framework that clearly defines the government and citizen’s reciprocal duties and responsibilities, as well as their relationship with the international community.

Thus, the monarchical constitution is nothing more than a malleable platform the Taliban can use to legitimize their human rights infractions, picking and choosing segments to suit their needs, whilst borrowing the legitimacy of a historical legal document. 

In a fast-growing inter-connected world, Afghanistan cannot sustain itself in isolation. To avoid isolation, the country needs a nationally agreed-upon legal framework. For example, Afghanistan has ratified and become a signatory to several international treaties and conventions that the Monarchy constitution is ill-equipped to permit compliance with. Two choices now arise: the Taliban either introduce a new bill, or amend the monarchical constitution, as the regime is neither a Republic nor a Monarchy.

2. Human Rights Violations

Since seizing power, perilous accounts testify to the Taliban’s violent reprisal attacks. While attempting to portray a reformed version of themselves, the radical Islamists have engaged in gross abuses of human rights.

International human rights organizations have documented the repression of women's rights, intimidation of human rights defenders, the crackdown on freedom of expression, and the retaliatory manhunt of former government employees and international local partners by the Taliban, signifying a litany of violations. Imposing wide-ranging strictures on media outlets have forced them to cease.

According to the International Federation of Journalists, at least 153 media organizations have been forced to halt operations since the Taliban have solidified power. The violations forced the UN Committees to release a statement, urging the Taliban to hold their unscrupulous promises to protect human rights.  

3. Repression of Women

Taliban and their brethren, the Haqqani network, have notorious credentials of repression both during their first rule in the 1990s and with their guerrilla campaigns afterward.

Their return presages the revival of the country's past dark epoch when women were shunned of their fundamental rights to educate and work. After the Taliban seized power in mid-August, educational and public institutions were shut down for all. Later, on September 18, the Taliban Ministry of Education reopened schools but only for male students.

The Taliban have effectively banned girls’ education and discouraged women from returning to work. The exclusion resulted in several protests by women in some provinces, mainly in the capital Kabul.

Women protesters demanded equality and inclusivity to reflect the country's diversity.

In response, the hardline Taliban fighters cracked down on women protesters, whipped, arrested, and intimidated them. Over the past twenty years, a large number of women had joined the country’s fallen national security forces and now feared for their lives.

The killing of a pregnant female police officer by the Taliban in front of her family in the central Ghor province is an alarm to all women with similar credentials. In a similar move, Afghanistan’s new ruler has disbanded the Afghan Ministry for Women, replacing it with the historically notorious Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue. The decision is a retrograde step undoing political and social gains women had achieved over the past twenty years.

4. Forced Eviction and Repression of Ethnic Groups

Taliban’s rule jeopardizes the livelihoods of Afghanistan’s ethnic groups. Hazaras, the country's third-largest ethnoreligious community, who have faced traditionally long-term discrimination and persecution, now remain at particular risk of ethnically motivated violence perpetrated by a largely Pashtun dominated Taliban.

An Amnesty International investigation indicated cold-blooded killings of nine Hazara men in the Malistan district of Ghazni province by the Taliban shortly after seizing power in the province. Similarly, as revealed by a recent investigation, on August 30, the Taliban killed 13 Hazara men including a 17-year-old girl, as well as former security forces in Daykundi province of central Afghanistan.

Also, hundreds of families of Shiite Hazaras have been displaced by the Taliban in central Afghanistan, reinforcing fears of renewed persecution against a minority that suffered under the Taliban rule in the past. The Hazaras living in northern Mazar-e-Sharif, have faced similar eviction by the Taliban. 

Moreover, as found by a new investigation, the Taliban killed around twenty civilians and blockaded humanitarian and electricity supplies in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley. The northern Panjshir Valley was the last resistant point, which was captured by the Taliban fighters with strong aerial support from the Pakistani ISI. 

Days after taking power, dozens of suspected Taliban fighters entered Gurdwara, the main Sikh and Hindu shrine in Afghanistan capital Kabul, vandalizing and damaging CCTV cameras, breaking lock doors, and taking several of the residents in custody. Hundreds of the Afghan Hindu and Sikh community members had reportedly taken refuge in this shrine due to potential persecution following the mid-August takeover.

The Taliban attempts to establish its unquestionable authority over Afghanistan; however, IS-K is reportedly seen as a growing challenge. Over the past weeks, IS-K claimed dozens of attacks on the Taliban, as well as civilian sites.

Nevertheless, in most part, the Taliban fighters have and continue to use anti-IS-K operations as an internationally pleasing means to target other ethnic groups who they deem threats. 

The world must recognize Taliban tactics for what they are, a systematic approach to securing much needed aid and international support to suit their immediate needs. In order to do this, they must espouse morality, virtue, and give claims of reform. Meanwhile, their actions illustrate a violent and repressive self-constructed theocracy. 

Following up on its Resolution 2593 and Resolution 2596, the UN Security Council must put pressure on the Taliban Islamists in Afghanistan to comport with international human rights principles, especially with respect to women’s rights and those of minority groups.

The UN Human Rights Council’s newly appointed Special Rapporteur is expected to actively monitor the Taliban's action on the ground to stave off further violations and reprisal killings. It should also monitor the distribution of international humanitarian aid to make sure families in dire need, including destitute minority groups, enjoy equal access to it.

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Abdul Rahman Yasa  With an MA in Security and Politics from the OSCE Academy, Abdul Rahman Yasa is an expert on Afghanistan and Central Asia. His main areas of expertise are human rights, conflict and peace studies, governance and anti-corruption. Yasa's articles and research work have appeared in several international websites and academic journals.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.