Richard Bennett Calls for the Establishment of an Independent Mechanism to Address Human Rights Violations in Afghanistan

Photo: UN Photo by Pierre Albouy

Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, in his latest report scheduled to be reviewed next week at the UN Human Rights Council meeting, has once again called for the establishment of an independent and comprehensive mechanism to respond to human rights violations in Afghanistan, particularly regarding women and girls.

In this report, he described the current human rights situation in Afghanistan as concerning and emphasized that the Taliban’s judicial system has turned into a tool for suppressing women and girls instead of providing protection.

He stressed that this independent mechanism must be tasked with collecting, documenting, and preserving evidence related to human rights violations, including international crimes such as gender-based persecution, in order to enable the legal prosecution of perpetrators.

According to Bennett, such a mechanism could support judicial processes at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and other legal avenues and could help put an end to impunity in Afghanistan.

It is worth noting that, according to reports, the European Union is expected to present a draft resolution on the situation in Afghanistan to the Human Rights Council in September. Human rights activists hope that the resolution will include a formal proposal for establishing an accountability mechanism.