The Kabul Tribune (KT) — The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution establishing an independent accountability mechanism to investigate human rights violations in Afghanistan — a move hailed by activists and rights groups as a historic step toward justice.
The decision, passed on Monday, follows years of appeals
from Afghan and international rights advocates. The call for such a mechanism
was first made in May 2021 by the now-defunct Afghanistan Independent Human
Rights Commission, after a deadly bombing at Kabul’s Sayed al-Shuhada School
killed dozens of students, most of them girls.
Nasir Ahmad Faiq, Afghanistan’s representative to the United
Nations, called the resolution a “historic victory on the path to justice,”
saying it sends a clear message that “impunity is intolerable, and justice and
human rights will prevail.”
The resolution not only sets up an international mechanism
to collect and preserve evidence of rights abuses but also extends the mandate
of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.
The Malala Fund welcomed the move, describing it as a turning
point for Afghan women and girls after years of impunity. “This decision
represents a historic step toward justice,” the organization said in a
statement.
Gaisu Yari, Director of Advocacy and Policy at the Afghanistan
Initiative, an arm of the Malala Fund, said the new mechanism will bolster
documentation of international crimes, including gender-based persecution, and
advance efforts to recognize gender apartheid in international law.
“This is the result of years of tireless work by Afghan
women activists, survivors, and human rights defenders — women who never
stopped demanding justice, even when the world turned away,” Yari said.
Shaharzad Akbar, former head of the Afghanistan Independent
Human Rights Commission, also hailed the decision as a major achievement. “The
joint efforts of civil society and human rights institutions made the
impossible possible,” she wrote on X, noting that the resolution fulfills a
long-standing demand for an independent international investigation into crimes
committed in Afghanistan.
The Afghan rights group Rawadari issued a statement calling
the move “an important and historic step toward justice.” It said the new
mechanism would have authority to collect and preserve evidence of serious
international crimes and pursue a comprehensive mandate to ensure
accountability.
Human rights experts say the establishment of the mechanism
marks the most significant international step toward justice for Afghan victims
since the Taliban regime’s return to power in 2021.
