RASC News Agency: In response to the recent UN report on the activities of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue, Amnesty International has asserted that the rampant impunity for gross human rights violations and crimes by the Taliban under international law must be terminated. Amnesty International has condemned the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and called for immediate measures to halt these crimes.
In its statement, Amnesty International highlighted that the recent UN report has exposed the role of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue in violating the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Afghanistani citizens. Amnesty International has identified this Ministry as the primary entity through which violence is perpetrated.
The statement reads: “The arbitrary, inconsistent, and opaque behavior and performance of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue in moral oversight of the Afghan people, with an institutionalized structure of discrimination, disproportionately affects women and girls and destroys human rights in the country.” Furthermore, Amnesty International has called on the Taliban to “guarantee” the rights and freedoms of expression, thought, conscience, religion, health, and work alongside other fundamental freedoms of Afghanistani citizens.
This demand has been repeatedly made by international organizations and has often gone unanswered. Amnesty International also stated: “The United Nations must establish an independent global accountability framework to investigate crimes under international law and other serious violations in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, as well as a structure for collecting and preserving evidence for future accountability and prosecution efforts, in addition to extending and fully resourcing the mission.”
Amnesty International insists that the United Nations must ensure that gender justice remains a priority and that the participation of women human rights defenders and members of civil society remains central in all engagements with the Taliban concerning Afghanistan’s future. The statement reads: “Failure to do so would mean turning our backs on the victims and their rights to truth, justice, and reparation.”
This call from Amnesty International comes after the United Nations, in its recent report, identified the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue as the “largest violator of human rights.” The UN report also noted that the staff of this Taliban ministry, especially in the provinces, act contrary to the directives issued by their leaders and officials in the central government.
