Political Rights: 6
Civil Liberties: 6
Status: Not Free
Population: 28,700,000
GNI/Capita: $523
Life Expectancy: 46
Religious Groups: Sunni Muslim (84 percent), Shia Muslim (15 percent), other (1 percent)
Ethnic Groups: Pashtum (44 percent), Tajik (25 percent), Hazara (10 percent), Uzbek (8 percent), other (13 percent)
Capital: Kabul
Ratings Change
Afghanistan's political rights rating improved from 7 to 6 due to the holding of the Loya Jirga and the establishment of the Transitional Authority in June. Its civil liberties rating improved from 7 to 6 due to increased personal freedoms in some areas of the country.
Overview
With halting progress on several fronts, Afghanistan continued to struggle toward normalcy in 2003. President Hamid Karzai's Transitional Administration (TA) worked to extend the writ of the central government and curb the power of regional warlords, while preparations for national elections and the drafting of a new constitution began during the year. However, the war-ravaged country remained wracked by pervasive insecurity and some armed conflict. In addition, the slow disbursement of foreign aid hampered efforts to provide humanitarian assistance as well as to rebuild Afghanistan's shattered infrastructure and institutions. Although the level of personal autonomy has substantially increased since the fall of the ultraconservative Taliban regime in 2001, numerous human rights violations, including threats to women's rights and to freedom of expression, were reported during the year.
Located at the crossroads of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan has for centuries been caught in the middle of great power and regional rivalries. After besting Russia in a contest for influence in Afghanistan, Britain recognized the country as an independent monarchy in 1921. King Zahir Shah ruled from 1933 until he was deposed in a 1973 coup. Afghanistan entered a period of continuous civil conflict in 1978, when a Communist coup set out to transform this highly traditional society. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979, but faced fierce resistance from U.S.-backed mujahideen (guerrilla fighters) until troops finally withdrew in 1989.
The mujahideen factions overthrew the Communist government in 1992 and then battled each other for control of Kabul, killing more than 25,000 civilians in the capital by 1995. The Taliban militia, consisting largely of students in conservative Islamic religious schools, entered the fray and seized control of Kabul in 1996. Defeating or buying off mujahideen commanders, the Taliban soon controlled most of the country except for parts of northern and central Afghanistan, which remained in the hands of the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance coalition. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were the Taliban's main supporters, while Iran, Russia, India, and Central Asian states backed the Northern Alliance.
In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States launched a military campaign in October 2001 aimed at toppling the Taliban regime and eliminating Saudi militant Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, al-Qaeda. Simultaneously, Northern Alliance forces engaged the Taliban from the areas under their control. The Taliban crumbled quickly, losing Kabul to Northern Alliance forces in November and surrendering the southern city of Kandahar, the movement's spiritual headquarters, in December.
As a result of the Bonn Agreement of December 2001, an interim administration headed by Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, which enjoyed the nominal support of Afghanistan's provincial leaders, took office. The UN-brokered deal that put Karzai in office sought to balance demands for power by victorious Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara military commanders with the reality that many Pashtuns, who are Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, would not trust a government headed by ethnic minorities. In June 2002, the United Nations administered an emergency loya jirga (gathering of representatives), presided over by the formerly exiled King Zahir Shah, which appointed the TA to rule Afghanistan for a further two years. Karzai won more than 80 percent of the delegates' votes to become president, decisively defeating two other candidates. The Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance filled more than half the cabinet positions, including the key positions of ministers of defense and the interior, while the remainder were given to Pashtuns and representatives of other ethnic groups.
The UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), over which NATO assumed command in August 2003, is responsible for providing security in Kabul, but many areas outside the capital are unstable and conditions deteriorated in parts of the country as the year progressed. Military commanders, tribal leaders, rogue warlords, and petty bandits continue to hold sway. Bolstered by arms, money, and support from the United States and neighboring governments, some warlords maintain private armies and are reluctant to submit to the leadership of the central administration. Recurrent fighting between two northern factions throughout the year left dozens dead or injured. Civilians were affected by an increasing number of bombings, rocket attacks, and other sporadic violence by suspected Taliban sympathizers.
Seeking to curb the power of regional strongmen, President Karzai signed a decree in December 2002 banning political leaders from taking part in military activity; he also undertook several reshuffles of provincial governors and other key officials throughout 2003. Karzai won a crucial battle in May when a number of governors agreed to hand over a greater proportion of customs revenues to the central government. Following an attempt in September to reform the Ministry of Defense by appointing more professionals and non-Tajiks to positions in the ministry, the TA initiated a voluntary program of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration in October. Preparations for holding a constitutional loya jirga (CLJ) and national elections continued during the year, with the formation of a constitutional commission charged with drafting a new constitution and conducting public consultations, and an election commission whose first tasks were to prepare accurate voter lists and register political parties.
Political Rights and Civil Liberties
Despite a number of improvements since the fall of the Taliban regime, the political rights and civil liberties of most Afghans remained severely circumscribed in 2003. The Emergency Loya Jirga (ELJ) convened in June 2002 was charged with choosing a head of state and key ministers for the TA, which is mandated to govern while a new constitution is drawn up and elections scheduled for mid-2004 are organized. The majority of the delegates to the ELJ were selected through a two-stage electoral process, but places were also reserved for women and refugees. Although care was taken to ensure a widely representative grouping, some human rights groups charged that the delegate-selection process was characterized by "widespread and systematic" manipulation and intimidation from military commanders. The ELJ itself was marred by complaints of behind-the-scenes deals, some orchestrated by representatives of the U.S. government, which were said to have subverted the voting process. In addition, many delegates complained that warlords and Islamic fundamentalists had threatened them during the proceedings. While the vote on Hamid Karzai's presidency was held by secret ballot, later votes on the arrangement of the government and its key personnel were "highly irregular," according to Human Rights Watch.
Crackdowns on political activity have continued in Kabul and other provinces. Political parties have faced threats after distributing publications critical of certain government officials, and ordinary citizens have been threatened after speaking openly about political issues, according to Human Rights Watch. Nonmilitarized and pro-democracy political parties find it difficult to campaign openly because of the security situation and pressure from military factions. In October, a new law on political parties prohibited the registration of parties backed by armed forces or which oppose Islam or promote racial, religious, or sectarian hatred and violence.
The TA functioned as a central government with both executive and legislative authority, but its writ over areas outside Kabul remained limited. During the year, preparations commenced for the holding of elections in 2004 and the drafting of a new constitution, which was meant to be ratified at a CLJ held in December 2003. Although two women and a broad range of ethnic groups hold positions in the 30member cabinet, concern has been raised about the government's lack of inclusiveness given the present domination of the Northern Alliance over state structures, particularly the security apparatus.
Afghanistan's media remained fragile in 2003. A press law adopted in 2002 guarantees the right to freedom of expression, subject to certain restrictions. Authorities have granted more than 200 licenses to independent publications, and a number of private radio stations began broadcasting, although some warlords have refused to allow independent media in the areas under their control. In April, cable television services resumed in Kabul and several other cities after being banned by the conservative chief justice of the Supreme Court in January. A number of journalists were threatened or harassed by government ministers and others in positions of power as a result of their reporting. Many practice self-censorship or avoid writing about sensitive issues such as Islam, national unity, or crimes committed by specific warlords. In June, two editors of the Kabul-based newspaper Aftab were arrested briefly and charged with blasphemy, and in July, the fatwa (religious edict) department of the Supreme Court recommended that they be sentenced to death.
For Muslim Afghans, the end of Taliban rule meant that they were no longer forced to adopt the movement's ultraconservative Islamic practices. Although the new administration attempted to pursue a policy of greater religious tolerance, it remained subject to some pressure from Islamic fundamentalist groups. The minority Shi'a population, particularly those from the Hazara ethnic group, has traditionally faced discrimination from the Sunni majority, and relations between the two groups remain somewhat strained. The small numbers of non-Muslim residents in Afghanistan are now generally able to practice their faith, although Hindus and Sikhs have had difficulty in obtaining cremation grounds and building new institutions of worship.
Academic freedom is not restricted. However, government regulations prohibit married women from attending high school and, during the year, several thousand young women were expelled from school. In some provinces, schools have also been the target of threats and violent attacks by fundamentalist groups.
With the fall of the Taliban, residents of Kabul and most other cities were able to go about their daily lives with fewer restrictions and were less likely to be subjected to harassment from the authorities. Rights to assembly, association, and free speech were formally restored, but were applied erratically in different regions. A November 2002 Human Rights Watch report detailed numerous violations of these rights in the province of Herat. In addition, police and security forces have occasionally used excessive force when confronted with demonstrations or public protests. In late 2002, police forces fired on a peaceful student march at Kabul University, killing 3 students and wounding more than 20. Both international and Afghan nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are able to operate freely, but their effectiveness is impeded by the poor security situation in much of the country. Despite broad constitutional protections for workers, labor rights are not well defined, and there are currently no enforcement or resolution mechanisms.
Throughout Afghanistan, new rulers faced the question of whether to bring to justice, take revenge on, or simply ignore perpetrators of past abuses. Dealing with past abuses as well as protecting basic rights is particularly difficult in a country where the rule of law is extremely weak. There is no functioning nationwide legal system, and justice in many places is administered on the basis of a mixture of legal codes by judges with minimal training. In addition, the influence of armed power brokers and political factions over the judiciary remains strong. The Karzai administration's plans to rebuild the judiciary have proceeded slowly, as the Judicial Reform Commission tasked with overseeing the process of legal reform has thus far operated with limited effectiveness, and funding from donors has been generally inadequate.
Although the Bonn Agreement recognized the need to create a national army and a professional police force, progress on both fronts has been limited. By June 2003, only 6,500 recruits to the Afghan National Army had been trained, out of a proposed force of 70,000, and attrition levels are already high. However, in October, the TA initiated a voluntary program of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration that is eventually intended to target 100,000 of the estimated 200,000 armed men in Afghanistan.
In a prevailing climate of impunity, government ministers as well as warlords in some provinces sanctioned widespread abuses by the police, military, and intelligence forces under their command, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, extortion, and extrajudicial killings. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, which was formed in August 2002 and focuses on raising awareness of human rights issues in addition to monitoring and investigating abuses, received around 2,000 complaints of serious rights violations during 2003.
Numerous civilians have been killed as a result of bombings, rocket attacks, and other acts of terror by unknown assailants; during localized fighting between ethnic factions, particularly in the north; or during skirmishes between Taliban supporters on one side and government forces and the U.S. military on the other. Both the foreign and Afghan staff of a number of international organizations and nongovernmental aid agencies have been targeted for attack, particularly in the provinces with an active Taliban presence, and several dozen were killed during the year. In October, after months of reluctance on the part of the international community to significantly expand the 5,300-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the United Nations voted that the ISAF should be allowed to operate beyond Kabul. Although Germany deployed a contingent of troops in the northern city of Kunduz shortly thereafter, other donors remained loath to commit extra troops, and the security situation in much of the country continued to be extremely poor.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans returned to their homes during 2003, but well over one million refugees remain in both Pakistan and Iran, and in addition, tens of thousands of civilians continue to be displaced within the country. Humanitarian agencies and Afghan authorities were ill-equipped to deal with the scale of the repatriation, while the poor security situation compounded by widespread land-grabbing meant that many refugees were unable to return to their homes and instead congregated in and around major urban centers.
The end of Taliban rule freed women from harsh restrictions and punishments that had kept them veiled, isolated, and, in many cases, impoverished. Women's formal rights to education and employment were restored, and in some areas they were once again able to participate in public life. Karzai named 2 women to his cabinet, and nearly 200 women took part in the ELJ, although some female delegates were threatened by other participants and officials for being outspoken. Women's choices regarding marriage and divorce, particularly their ability to choose a marriage partner, remain circumscribed by custom and discriminatory laws, and the forced marriages of young girls to older men or of widows to their husband's male relations is a problem, according to Amnesty International.
As a result of continued lawlessness and inter-ethnic clashes, women also continued to be subjected to sexual violence. In certain areas, ruling warlords imposed Taliban-style behavioral restrictions on women. A Human Rights Watch report issued in December 2002 detailed the strictures imposed on women by Ismail Khan's administration in Herat, which include mandatory usage of the burqa, or head-to-toe covering; a ban on traveling with unrelated men; and gynecological examinations for women suspected of "immodest" behavior. While record numbers of children returned to school, a number of girls' schools were subject to arson and rocket attacks from Islamic fundamentalists during the year.
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