After 16 months President Hamid Karzai has appointed a head and filled up vacancies in the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). With the appointments being called partisan,
After 16 months President Hamid Karzai has appointed a head and filled up vacancies in the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). With the appointments being called partisan, can we hope to see the publication of the Mapping Report?Activists fear the selections have not been made on the basis of capability and experience, and could be at the cost of justice.
On Dec 16, 2011 the curtain came down on the five-year terms of nine AIHRC commissioners. The terms of three commissioners -Nader Naderi, Fahim Hakim, and Mawlawi Gharib- were not renewed.
Civil society organisations met the president frequently to discuss the issue of appointing new commissioners to the AIHRC. They even sent two lists of names to the palace. Under Article 64 of the Constitution the appointment of the head and commissioners of AIHRC is at the discretion of the president.
On June 16, the palace announced Sima Samar was selected as head of the commission and Mohammad Farid Hamidi, Sayed Ahmad Zia Langary, Dr Soraya Sobhrang, Mawlawi Abdul Rahman Hotak, Qadria Yazdan Parast, Hawa Alam Nuristani, General Ayub Asil, and Wahidullah Arghoon were members.
Aligned with government
Civil society organisations are complaining their requests were not considered, and the newly-appointed commissioners are politically aligned with the government.
Abdul Satar Saadat, head of the Afghanistan Lawyers Network said, “We are concerned about the presence in the human rights commission of people involved in the civil war which is a black part of Afghanistan’s history. The Transitional Justice Process was prepared during Sima Samar’s first term, and then she was the one that postponed it. The selected people are related either to Ittihad-e-Islami led by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf or Jamiat-e-Islami (a party led by Rabbani the former president).”
Lal Gul Lal, chairman of the Afghanistan Human Rights Organisation (AHRO), says his name was proposed by civil society. “I don’t want to mention other names but mine was on the list even though I was against it. Not one from the list has been selected.”
Eventually two lists, these were presented to Karzai by two groups of civil society organisations on Dec 28, 2011. Habibullah Rafi was the leader of one group. He said the president acceded to their request for “basic reforms”. “The president promised that he would consider the people we suggested, either individually or as a group. But now we see the selected commissioners are not independent, which will cost the AIHRC its independence, and it will become an anti-national, government commission,” he said.
Moreover, according to Rafi, Sima Samar’s appointment in the first term was “wrong” and no criminal was taken to court.
In government defence
Rafi Ferdaws, spokesman for the Office of Administrative Affairs (OAA), rejected the criticism over the appointments, and said the new commissioners have legal experience, and were selected on the basis of suggestions from civil society. “The appointments have taken place based on civil societies’ suggestions. They had a meeting with Karzai before the announcements were made,” he is quoted saying.
Civil society organisations hope the new appointments will clear the way for the publication of the war crimes or mapping report. The dismissal of commissioners, Nader Naderi, Fahim Hakeem and Mawlawi Gharib, derailed the publication of the Conflict Mapping Report, a damning, detailed documentation of war crimes, civilian murders and torture in private jails and detainee houses. Those arguing for its publication say it would help people decide who they should vote for in the forthcoming presidential elections (in 2014).
People have the right to know
Speaking to Killid, Azaryoon Matin, head of Focus on Human Rights, said not publishing the report would send the wrong message to others who want to get their way. The Mapping Report has targeted those who were involved in the war. “The people have the right to know the facts and make the right choices,” according to Matin.
Matin has expressed concern the government may have postponed the unveiling of the report to use it as a “political tool”. He believes as long as the report is not published the trauma of the survivors will remain unheard. “The report must be published so that people know the culprits and don’t vote for them. Its non-publication would mean there will be obstacles in the coming political round,” he said.
Political analysts have urged the AIHRC to publish the long-delayed report. “Now that new commissioners have been appointed, don’t postpone,” appealed Dr Rohullah Amin. “Take a step for the benefits of the Afghan nation.”
Sima Samar had said last year the report was held back because of “security concerns”. All eyes will be on her.
There are real fears the report, which has followed up on the documentation done for a UN report on war crimes that was finished in early 2005 but held back under pressure from the Afghan and US governments (but was leaked to the public), may be buried like its previous incarnation. The new report is expected to contain information, and possibly names, about war crimes linked to high-ranking individuals serving in the Karzai administration and close advisers of the president.
