Call for Action:

Afghanistan – Target of Crimes against Humanity

For many years, Afghanistan has turned into a land of horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the current situation, our homeland is targeted by a new round of these ferocious crimes: the bloody tragedies of human rights in Logar province and at the Sayed ul Shuhada school in western Kabul are the recent occasions of these crimes. By inflicting organized and pre-planned group casualties on the civilian assembly centres, the terrorist factions commit heinous crimes, the victims of which are mostly young people and adolescents. Likewise, the loss of families in their homes due to the escalation of the war in Helmand is a new case in which defenceless civilians are still the most affected. Targeted killings of civil society employees, teachers and employees of the judiciary and justice entities, and dozens of other cases which should be investigated and prosecuted as war crimes and crimes against humanity in a fair trial of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Concealment, silence, veiling and neglect of these heinous crimes can severely undermine the importance and credibility of the international community and the International Criminal Court.

In accordance with all the international criteria, all legal standards, the accepted values ​​of the civil and religious life, this barbarism is a violation of the highest human and civil values ​​and is the murder of humanity.  Attack on civil facilities, schools, hospitals, health centres, mosques, etc. and killing civilian population has been described as:

War crimes

The crimes against humanity

A crime against humanity

which should be widely hated nationally and internationally, and urgent measures shall be taken to apprehend and prosecute the criminals, their organizers and supporting governments should be blacklisted by the United Nations and subjected to severe international sanctions.

In accordance with all the standards of international law, from the Hague Conference (1907) to the Nuremberg Statute, the International Criminal Court, the Court of London and the Four Geneva Conventions (1948), this criminal act, which has been committed “purposefully” and “pre-planned”, is listed in the category of “war crime, and anti-humanity crime, and crime against humanity”.

According to the afore-cited Geneva Conventions:

 War crimes include all violations of humanitarian law in conflicts and war engagements, and the crimes against humanity include “acts of cruelty against human beings, mass murders, and assault on the physical and moral integrity of human beings”.

In such cases where the occurrence of “crime against humanity, war crimes and crimes against humanity” is brighter than the sun, cases of legal liability can be brought against the offenders, the operating organizations and the supporting governments by the competent authorities.

The perpetrators of these horrific crimes committed during the last two decades are known and identified.

Most of these crimes have been committed by the Taliban and other terrorist groups. The US and NATO military forces, as well as the Afghan government, are accused of committing these crimes. Unfortunately, civilians have suffered great casualties in the bombardments.

In most cases, the perpetrators of these crimes have not been brought to justice. The main obstacles in this regard are the following:

- A weak will on the part of the government.

- The law enforcement agencies and the judicial system of Afghanistan are not able to prosecute and sue the powerful individuals within the system and capture the Taliban men.

- Prevention of the US government to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes.

Likewise, in accordance with the security agreement between the government of Afghanistan and the United States, the US troops who commit crimes against humanity and war crimes on the Afghan soil, enjoy the so-called judicial immunity.

 The International Criminal Court (ICC), with its seat in The Hague, the Netherlands, has acted in accordance with the provisions of the Statute, and Afghanistan has been a member of the Court since 2003 and is obliged to comply with the provisions of its Statute.

This court can only consider the crimes which are committed on the soil of Afghanistan or by Afghans after the entry into force of its statute.

Based on its jurisdiction and at the request of war victims and the human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court has collected complaints about the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan during the imposed war of the past years, and calls for practical and direct investigations thereabout. In order for the International Criminal Court to hear specific cases, it needs to enjoy the legal legitimacy of its intervention in that situation in accordance with Articles 17 and 53 of the Statute.

The severity and extent of the crimes committed and the lack of domestic prosecution are among the main motivations for the intervention of the International Court of Justice, and Afghanistan must cooperate with the International Court of Justice in all stages of investigation, prosecution, trial or execution.

It is imperative that the government of Afghanistan refer to the United Nations Security Council for the establishment of an international fact-finding commission for disclosure and prosecution of the perpetrators of these horrific crimes against humanity.

The investigation of these dangerous crimes by the International Court and the disclosure of the perpetrators and their supporters can reduce the motives for distrust caused by the intense psychological warfare, and strengthen the international community's compliance with the rightful claim of the oppressed people of Afghanistan.

The Leadership Council of the Afghan Lawyers’ Association in Europe approaches all human rights defenders and requests:

In circumstances where entire Afghanistan and all brotherly and equal ethnic groups and the followers of all religious faiths are being targeted by the bloody crimes against humanity, it is necessary that the disclosure and prosecution of the criminals is propounded as a common human and national cause, to prevent the conspiracies aiming at giving ethnic and lingual dimensions to the human rights tragedy.

We ourselves must value our own blood!!! And in these sad and bloody days, send a public curse to the ruthless murderers and demand their trial as a common and justful human cause.

With regards,

Leadership Council of Afghan Lawyers Association in Europe

Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat

President of Association