The Kabul Tribune (KT) — The United States and its coalition partners have failed to provide adequate justice or compensation for war crimes and other serious abuses committed during the 20-year war in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said Monday, marking 25 years since the conflict began.
In a report and timeline documenting the conflict, the
rights group said victims of abuses by U.S. and coalition forces, as well as
their families, still face significant obstacles to obtaining accountability
and compensation.
“The United States and other countries that took part in the
war in Afghanistan should properly investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes
by their forces and provide appropriate redress to the victims of abuses and
their families,” said Patricia Gossman, senior associate Asia director at Human
Rights Watch.
The conflict began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the
United States and ended with the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.
Human Rights Watch said the war was governed by the Geneva Conventions,
customary international humanitarian law and international human rights law,
including the U.N. Convention Against Torture.
The group documented allegations that U.S. forces tortured
and otherwise mistreated detainees in Afghanistan, including through beatings,
humiliation, waterboarding, prolonged sleep deprivation and mock executions.
Some civilian detainees were held for months or years without being charged.
Human Rights Watch said the U.S. government has not provided
full accountability or compensation for those abuses.
One Afghan farmer told the group that U.S. forces detained
him in Ghazni in 2019 while he was recovering from eye surgery. He alleged that
American soldiers beat him during questioning and failed to provide medical
treatment, leaving him permanently blind. He was never charged and was released
in August 2021, according to the group.
The United States did prosecute some service members for
unlawful killings. Sgt. Robert Bales was convicted in 2012 of killing 16 Afghan
civilians in Kandahar.
Several soldiers were also convicted in the killings carried
out by members of a U.S. Army unit known as the “Kill Team.” Staff Sgt. Calvin
Gibbs was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, while Specialist
Jeremy Morlock received a 24-year sentence. Two other members of the unit
received prison sentences for failing to prevent the killings.
Human Rights Watch said, however, that many other
allegations were never prosecuted. The group cited the deaths of at least 18
civilians in Wardak province’s Nerkh district in 2014 as one example.
The rights organization also criticized former President
Donald Trump for pardoning U.S. soldiers convicted or accused of unlawful
killings. Lt. Clint Lorance, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to 19
years, was pardoned after serving six years. The Army also dropped charges
against Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who had acknowledged killing an Afghan man and
attempting to cover up the incident, after Trump pardoned him in 2019.
Human Rights Watch said other coalition countries have
similarly made limited progress in addressing alleged abuses by their forces.
Australia and the United Kingdom have conducted
investigations into allegations of unlawful killings and mistreatment of
civilians by their troops. In Australia, the Brereton Report detailed alleged
war crimes by special forces between 2005 and 2016. Human Rights Watch said
that nearly six years after the report was released, only two people had been
arrested, trials had not begun and there was no known compensation for victims
or their families.
In Britain, Human Rights Watch said successive governments
attempted to prevent prosecutions after media reports exposed allegations of
summary executions and other war crimes by British special forces. An
independent inquiry into the allegations was established in 2022, but its
mandate covers only the period from 2010 to 2013.
The rights group also accused Afghan government forces,
militias backed and trained by the United States and CIA-run Afghan strike
forces of committing serious abuses, including attacks on civilians, torture,
rape and enforced disappearances.
At the same time, Human Rights Watch said the Taliban and
other insurgent groups were responsible for widespread abuses and thousands of
civilian deaths and injuries during the war. The Taliban targeted government
officials, journalists, embassies, hotels, polling centers and aid
organizations, while indiscriminate improvised explosive devices were a major
cause of civilian casualties.
Other armed groups, including an Islamic State affiliate,
carried out attacks against civilians, particularly members of the Hazara and
other minority communities, the group said.
The International Criminal Court initially investigated
alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan since
May 2003 by the Taliban, Islamic State, Afghan government forces, the U.S.
military and the CIA.
Human Rights Watch said the first Trump administration
opposed the ICC investigation and imposed sanctions on the court’s judges and
prosecutors. In 2021, then-ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan prioritized alleged crimes
by the Taliban and Islamic State, while investigations into alleged crimes by
other parties have not publicly advanced.
In October 2025, the U.N. Human Rights Council established
an independent investigative mechanism for Afghanistan tasked with collecting,
preserving and analyzing evidence of past and ongoing international crimes by
all parties. The mechanism is also expected to prepare files that could support
future prosecutions.
Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations to ensure
the mechanism has sufficient resources and begins its work without delay. It
also urged judicial authorities in other countries to cooperate with the
mechanism and ensure Afghan survivors, including women and girls, are
consulted.
“Indifference of governments and the passage of time should
not deny people the justice, compensation and recognition they are due,”
Gossman said.
