High Commissioner for Human Rights concludes visit to Afghanistan
24 November 2007 5:18 am

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour concluded her six-day visit to Afghanistan on 20 November. She said civilian casualties resulting from International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and other international military operations reached “alarming level” in the country.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour concluded her six-day visit to Afghanistan on 20 November. She said civilian casualties resulting from International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and other international military operations reached “alarming level” in the country.

She visited Kabul and two cities near the border: Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Khost in the east. Besides government officials, she also met the staff of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and members of civil society organisations.

In the statement issued on the last day of her visit, Louise Arbour said that she focused on “the protection of civilians and transitional justice”.¹ In Khost for example, she heard “accounts of the deliberate targeting of civilians” by anti-government groups. While pointing out that the responsible ones for these tactics should be brought to justice, she emphasised that ISAF “needs to be more responsive and accessible to families in ensuring redress”.

During her visit she shared her concerns about the treatment of detainees with the government, ISAF and other international military operations. She said that “transfers to the National Security Directorate (NDS) are particularly problematic” and she urged the President Karzai “to ensure greater transparency, access to, and accountability for this institution, starting with publication of the decree on which its powers are based”.

She also expressed her disappointment at the little progress in implementing the commitments made by the government and the international community under the Action Plan for Peace, Reconciliation and Justice in Afghanistan. “Unfortunately the transitional justice agenda has been reduced in many people's minds to the prosecution of individuals alleged to be responsible for past crimes” and the impunity at the highest level “remain unaddressed”, she concluded.

1 20 November 2007, High Commissioner for Human Rights Concludes Visit to Afghanistan