The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) (

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

:کمیسیون مستقل حقوق بشر افغانستان, ps, د افغانستان د بشري حقونو خپلواک کميسيون) is a

national human rights institution A national human rights institution (NHRI) is an independent state-based institution with the responsibility to broadly protect and promote human rights in a given country. The growth of such bodies has been encouraged by the Office of the United ...

that was created during the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, dedicated to the promotion, protection, and monitoring of

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

and the investigation of human rights abuses. , during the ''de facto'' Taliban government of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, the status of the AIHRC is disputed between the Taliban, who declared the AIHRC to be dissolved, and the AIHRC itself, which sees the Taliban government as nationally and internationally illegitimate, without the power to dissolve the AIHRC.

Creation

The

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

-based Commission was established on the basis of a decree of the Chairman of the Interim Administration on June 6, 2002, pursuant to the Bonn Agreement (5 December 2001);

United Nations General Assembly resolution A United Nations General Assembly resolution is a decision or declaration voted on by all member states of the United Nations in the General Assembly. General Assembly resolutions usually require a simple majority (50 percent of all votes plus o ...

48/134 of 1993 endorsing the Paris Principles on national human rights institutions, and article 58 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The AIHRC described itself as a "constitutionalized, national and independent human rights body in Afghanistan." It refers destitute orphans to the Mahboba's promise non-governmental organisation.

Leadership

, its chairperson was Shaharzad Akbar.

Actions

The AIHRC played a role in the 2007 Canadian Afghan detainee abuse scandal when questions arose about the ability of the AIHRC to monitor the status of individuals detained by Canadian soldiers and given into Afghan custody. A report in ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' quoted several AIHRC investigators as being glad of the renewed attention to human rights that the Canadian scandal had created, but fearful of the political consequences from the Afghan leadership once past abuses came to light.

Status

National

Following the Taliban capture of the country in 2021, the AIHRC was unable to carry out its work, due to the Taliban confiscating the human rights commission's "buildings, vehicles and computers". In 2022, the ''de facto'' Taliban government declared the AIHRC to be dissolved. The AIHRC refused to recognise the dissolution, stating "The AIHRC belongs to the people of Afghanistan and continues its activities to monitor, evaluate, promote and protect human rights in Afghanistan. ... The AIHRC belongs to the people of Afghanistan, and only decisions based on the will of the people and by international standards will justify its fate." The AIHRC stated that the Taliban government "lacks national legitimacy and international recognition and is not based on the people's will".

International status

In October 2007, with support from the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

, the AIHRC secured 'A-status' accreditation from the peer review process of the

International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), formerly known (prior to 2016) as the 'International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions' (sometimes shortened to the International Coordinating Committee ...

, giving it enhanced access to the United Nations human rights bodies. That status was subjected to special review by the ICC in November 2008, and reaffirmed. The commission is a member of the

Asia Pacific Forum The Asia Pacific Forum (APF) is one of four regional networks of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) within the International Co-ordinating Committee of NHRIs. The APF formerly accredited NHRIs for compliance with the United Nations' Pari ...

, one of the four regional groupings in the ICC.

References

External links

Official site of the Afghan Independent Human Rights CommissionOHCHR National Human Rights Institutions site
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820092713/https://nhri.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/default.aspx , date=2019-08-20 National human rights institutions Human rights organisations based in Afghanistan 2002 establishments in Afghanistan Organisations based in Kabul