The current conflict in Afghanistan entered its twentieth year and continued to claim large numbers of civilian casualties. Attacks by the Taliban and other armed groups deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects in violation of international humanitarian law; sites that were attacked...

The Government of Pakistan must urgently stop arbitrarily arresting and harassing Afghan refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom are fleeing persecution by the Taliban, Amnesty International said today as it marks World Refugee Day. In recent years, many Afghans living in fear of persecution...

The Taliban have committed the war crime of collective punishment against civilians in Afghanistan’s Panjshir province, Amnesty International said in a new report published today. The report, ‘Your Sons Are In The Mountains’: The Collective Punishment of Civilians In Panjshir by the Taliban,...

Responding to the unanimous adoption of the resolution at the UN Security Council today demanding that the Taliban urgently lift restrictions that violate the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan in response to the latest ban on Afghan women working for the UN in the country, Joyce Bukuru,...

Responding to reports in local media yesterday on the alleged horrific rape of a woman and her two minor daughters in Sar-i-Pul province in Afghanistan on the night of 28 February 2023, Zaman Sultani, regional researcher for South Asia at Amnesty International, said: “The emerging details of the...

Amnesty International is urging UN member states to act towards ending impunity and ensuring justice for victims of Taliban abuses, as the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan presents a new report at the 52nd Human Rights Council session today. In recent months, the...

The United Nation Security Council (UNSC) closed-door meeting on Afghanistan – tomorrow – must focus on how to reverse the stifling ban by the Taliban on women and girls from accessing work, education, sports and public spaces said Amnesty International today. On 24 December 2022, the Taliban,...

Amid the doom and gloom of human rights work in the region, a few success stories this year give me hope. by Yamini Mishra, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International A cursory look at the human rights situation in South Asia can make one feel that the arc of the moral universe in the...

Responding to the first public execution by the Taliban today since their takeover of power in Afghanistan, Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said: “The deplorable return of public executions in Afghanistan is the latest phase in Taliban’s...

Responding to the public flogging of three women and 11 men on Wednesday on the orders of a Taliban court on charges of theft and moral crimes in Logar province of Afghanistan, Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s South Asia Campaigner, said: “The public flogging of women and men is a cruel and...

Responding to the arrests of at least three prominent women human rights defenders Zarifa Yaqoobi, Farhat Popalzai and Humaira Yusuf and their colleagues by the Taliban in the last ten days, Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s South Asia Campaigner, said:  “The recent wave of arrests of women...

Responding to the decision earlier this week by the International Criminal Court (‘ICC’) Pre-Trial Chamber authorizing the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to resume investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Afghanistan armed conflict, Yamini Mishra, the regional...