Incidents of human rights violations up by 15per cent

Monitoring Desk

JALALABAD: Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) officials say more than 400 complaints of human rights violations have been registered in the eastern zone this year.

The commission’s branch for the eastern zone expressed concern at security organs failing to initiate action to arrest human rights violators — something that further aggravated the problem.

Erfanullah Larawai, AIHRC supervisor for the eastern zone, told local media that most of the human rights violation cases filed this year concerned violence against women.

He said human rights violations had increased by 15 percent over last year. The main reasons behind the surge include ineffective of law enforcement and lack of government writ in many areas.

Although significant changes had been made in judicial organs, police and other security forces failed to arrest human rights violators or bring them to justice, Larawai added.

Sabrina Hamidi, AIHRC head for the eastern zone, confirmed security organs’ lax approach to dealing with human rights violators. She accused the security organs of refusing to cooperate on the issue.

She said human rights violation cases were increasing with each passing day mainly due to non-cooperation of security organs and lack of government’s writ.

Attaullah Khogyani, the governor’s spokesman, said the provincial government had been trying to encourage police into cooperating with judicial organs and AIHRC.

He said the local administration would also push the security organs, particularly police personnel, to cooperate with the human rights commission.