Int'l community should demand progress on human rights in Afghanistan: UN rapporteur

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan on Friday urged the international community to demand progress on the rights situation in the war-torn country where Taliban took power in August 2021.

Responding to Anadolu's question on public executions and floggings in the crisis-ridden nation, Richard Bennett said: "We are also observing an uptick in public executions, and we condemn this."

"It really must stop, it's contrary to international standards," Bennett said in a press conference in Geneva. "We consider that this is a very important indicator for the international community about demanding progress and improvements on human rights benchmarks before there can be any normalization of the current administration in Afghanistan."

Regarding what kind of measures can be taken in this regard, he said: "International Criminal Court is fully underway in Afghanistan, and there may be opportunities in other international courts, including the International Court of Justice, when it comes to the violations of the CEDAW convention, that Afghanistan is a party to." The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly.

The UN human rights office on Wednesday said it is appalled by last week's public executions of three people at sports stadiums in Afghanistan in the presence of de facto officials, noting that five people have been publicly executed since the Taliban took control.

The office also drew attention to the flogging of four people, including a 12-year-old boy and a woman, in Laghman and Balkh provinces, arguing that corporal punishment is a form of "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, which is prohibited under international human rights law."