Conference on Afghanistan: discussing human rights impacts of the Taliban takeover
By Carlotta Rigotti, Sibel Top, and Júlia Zomignani Barboza
Fundamental Rights Research Centre, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
In August 2021 the Taliban conquered Kabul and consequently took control of Afghanistan, while international forces rushed to leave the country. In Europe, newspapers and social media showed the chaos and violence at the Kabul Airport, where countless Afghans struggled (mostly unsuccessfully) to leave the country. Since then, the Taliban have carried out reprisals against civilians, restricted media and free speech, as well as massively impinged on the rights and freedoms of women and other vulnerable groups. Internationally, countries started debating possibilities to provide international humanitarian aid and ways to handle a possible refugee crisis as well as how to interact with the new de facto Taliban government.
Considering that the current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has a great impact on Afghan people’s lives as well as worldwide consequences, the Fundamental Rights Research Centre (FRC) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) decided to raise this discussion during the week of Human Rights Day (namely 10 December, the day the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948). On 7 December 2021, FRC remotely held a Conference focusing on the current situation in Afghanistan. This blogpost provides an overview of the ideas discussed during the event, which covered the topics of counterterrorism actions, migration, minorities, and women rights.
During the first panel of the day, Paul Pillar (Georgetown University and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft) and Marvin Weinbaum (Middle East Institute) discussed how the Taliban takeover may shape the future of counterterrorism action in Afghanistan. Marvin Weinbaum explained some of the factors that made the Taliban takeover possible, focusing on the role foreign actors played in the country’s politics in the 20 years between the Taliban’s fall in 2001 and the group regaining control in 2021. He also noted the group’s constant disregard for human rights (despite recent changes in discourse) as well as the Taliban’s historical association with and support to Al Qaeda, which raises fear of Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for terrorist groups. Paul Pillar, in turn, mentioned that despite the widely-shared impression that the Taliban may further the cause of international terrorism, they are also engaged in fighting terrorist groups such as ISK (the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan). In this regard, he noted that the latter may lead Western States to cooperate with the former in counterterrorism action.
After the discussion on counterterrorism, Eleonora Milazzo (King’s College London) opened the migration panel by presenting a policy brief co-authored with Jean-Louis De Brouwer, voicing concern about a possible new refugee crisis in the European Union. Although Afghan borders are formally closed and the much-feared mass flow of displaced people has not occurred yet, the EU response to the fall of Kabul centred on preventing displaced Afghans from reaching EU territory and externalising protection to third countries. Alternatively, Elenora suggested the adoption of humanitarian visas and the launch of binding resettlement programmes from third States with the support of the UNHCR as a more ambitious and comprehensive EU response.
Focusing the discussion on Belgium, Annelies Nachtergaele (Agency for Integration and Civic Integration) talked about the measures adopted by the government in response to the Afghan humanitarian crisis. Like many other EU Member States, Belgium started an evacuation in August 2021 to bring back its citizens as well as certain Afghan nationals (e.g., those who worked for Belgium in international organisations and NGOs). In Belgium, evacuees were allowed to request international protection or apply for family reunification. For those still in Afghanistan, legal migration to Belgium is possible if they apply for a humanitarian or a family reunification visa in a Belgian Embassy, the closest being in Islamabad (Pakistan). Humanitarian visas, however, are issued on the condition that the applicant proves to have a link to Belgium and to be vulnerable and thus a request cannot be made based on international protection needs alone. Consequently, the possibilities of legal migration are very limited in practice.
The event then turned to the situation of minorities in Afghanistan. On this topic, Saber Jafari (human rights activist and Hazara refugee) mapped the numerous minorities in Afghanistan, showing that the country is a patchwork of ethnicities and religious minorities that include Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Sikhs and Hindus and Jews. Hafizullah Saeedi (human rights activist and researcher) built on Saber Jafari’s explanation and focused on the Hazara minority, explaining how they have become the systematic target of Taliban persecution due to their ethnic and religious background.
The last topic covered by the conference was women’s rights. Sari Kuovo (Gothenburg University) spoke about her work in Afghanistan in the 2010s explaining that, after the fall of the Taliban post-9/11, the international community pushed for legal and policy reforms to protect and promote women’s rights. Nevertheless, these types of initiative did not turn into real change on the ground, insofar as they paid little attention to the social expectations for women within Afghan families and communities. Indeed, Sari Kuovo stressed, although Afghanistan might have been a constitutional democracy enshrining gender equality, to what extent women could enjoy equal rights resulted from what was considered socially acceptable in the Afghan culture. Said otherwise, the family and the community remained the foundation for sustainable change, notwithstanding the importance of having a legal and policy framework in force. At present, Sari Kuovo concluded, even the legal and policy guarantees for women’s rights is gone, given that the Taliban regime has already demonstrated not to have changed its attitude towards women.
The idea that support for women’s rights in Afghanistan is needed was echoed by Fereshta Abbasi (Human Rights Watch consultant). Before August 2021, the people of Afghanistan created an opportunity to advance women’s rights, by implementing political and social policies to secure them across the country. For example, girls could access education and women could participate in public life and work in occupations, such as government, law enforcement, and the media, more than ever before. Notwithstanding the shortcomings previously discussed by Sari Kuovo, significant improvements in legal protections also emerged through the legislative process, including the adoption of the 2009 Elimination of Violence against Women law. Nevertheless, the takeover of the Taliban has turned this social order upside down. Divorced women are sent back to their marital households and young girls are banned from education past primary school. Women cannot work anymore, except for those jobs being closely tied to the realm of femininity (e.g., teaching). Against this background, however, people continue to demonstrate in favour of women’s rights across Afghanistan, sometimes even at the cost of their lives. Social media is likewise used as a means to protest against the Taliban policy towards women.
While the rich discussions presented by speakers of multiple backgrounds is impossible to summarise in such a short contribution, this event sheds light on the multifaceted and far-reaching consequences of recent events in Afghanistan not only to the country but globally, showing that there is no simple solution to ensure respect for human rights in the country. Consequently, this is a situation that deserves great attention from the international community to secure ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the Afghan population.
The authors would like to express their thanks to keynote speakers Khatera Shamal and Megan Manion (University of Minnesota) as well as to moderators Ahmad Wali Ahmad Yar (VUB), Madeline Garlick (UNHCR), Kristin Henrard (VUB) and Aleydis Nissen (VUB).
Bios:
Carlotta Rigotti is a PhD researcher at the Fundamental Rights Research Centre of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her PhD investigates the legal feasibility of criminalising the sexual abuse of woman-like sex robots. She also works on numerous EU funded projects ranging from human trafficking to violent extremism and data protection.
Júlia Zomignani Barboza is a PhD researcher at the Fundamental Rights Research Centre of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. While developing her PhD research on undesirable but unreturnable migrants, she contributes to multiple research projects and manages FRC’s role as national FRANET contractor.
Sibel Top is a PhD researcher at the Fundamental Rights Research Centre of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Since 2018, she is a PhD fellow of the Flanders research foundation (FWO). Sibel’s PhD focuses on the legal relevance and actual application of the political offence exemption through the lens of Bourdieu's theory of the State.