The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights
Commission (AIHRC) is releasing its third
report on the economic and social rights of
Afghans. This report evaluates the progress
and challenges faced by the Afghan
government in ensuring the social and
economic rights of its citizens over the
course of the past year and a half, and
contain specific recommendations about
promoting and protecting human rights in the
country.
The AIHRC regional monitoring teams with the
assistance of the UNHCR has interviewed more
than 15000 people in 34 provinces and the
information gathered is the main source in
this report. Also, most of the quality
inputs in this report are due to numerous
interviews with government representatives,
the United Nations and civil society in
order to have the view of all three sides on
the issue. It is mentionable that vulnerable
groups and people who are living in remote
regions have a special focus in this report.
The evaluation standard of this report is
based on two legal and principle sources:
Afghanistan�s Constitution and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, which Afghanistan has
ratified in 1983. Other relevant indexes
like Afghanistan�s Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and Afghanistan National
Development Strategies (ANDS) are also
considered.
�The Afghan government has responsibility in
ensuring the political and civil rights of
the people, and, in addition to this, has
responsibility to ensure their social and
economic rights as well as to improve health
conditions, education, and adequate living
conditions and sustainable livelihoods, and
to this end must take effective action� said
Dr Sima Samar, the Chair of AIHRC.
Summary of Main Findings in the Report:
The field
monitoring information of the Commission
shows that 37% of rural population is
daily wage workers, 30% of them
work on their own land, and 20% rent
plots of land, while, according to
official statistics 33% of able
population of Afghanistan are
unemployed. The Commission field
monitoring investigation indicates that
income rate, from various sources, for
most of the population is to cope and
survive.
�In Afghanistan,
the informal economy is an important source
of livelihood and income. Post war state has
provided grounds for the development of such
economy. Aside from the poppy economy, it is
not clear to what extent the issue is being
addressed. In this kind of economy not only
tax revenues is missing, btu the rights and
well being of workers are also a human
rights concern.
�
AIHRC human rights border monitoring team
has interviewed 1137 deportees at Zaranj and
Islam Qala border. Nearly 80% of deportees
experienced "bad or very bad" treatment by
Iranian authorities and all of them had been
forced to pay the cost of deportation
themselves.
�
Child labor is prevalent in Afghanistan. An
assessment of child labor in Kabul shows
that nearly a quarter of Afghan children
between 7 and 14 years old work. The
duration of work is often above the
permitted hours per week. Most of them work
for long hours and under hazardous
environment and are exposed to unfair
treatment and physical and health dangers.
This report shows
that the livelihood situation of most of
the families is not stable, and 62% of
the interviewees reported that they were
indebted. Although it is nearly three
percent down from the numbers of
indebted households reported last year.
But there has been an increase in the
quantity and amount of depts. For
example the average amount of money
being owed last year was 77195 Afs and
our findings for this report show the
average amount to be 90002 Afghanis.
Effective and
equitable social protection and aid to
persons with disabilitieshas been extremely
politicized. For this reason a large
number of them have been discriminated
against. The AIHRC�s position in this
regard is that assistance to the persons
with disabilities should be given on the
basis of disability and need, not by
previous or current political
affiliation.
Underage marriage
disproportionately affects girls. Among
the families surveyed, 1662 children
were reported to marry underage. Of
these, 1494 (90%) are girls and 168
(10%) are boys. 10% of the families said
that they had their children married
before they reached their 16 years of
age. Fifty-five percent of the underage
marriages were taken place to solve
economic problems; another 30% were
Badal, also linking into economic
issues, because in Badal marriage cost
and expenses will go low.
Providing housing,
large return of refugees and increasing
of property prices have caused housing
issues in the cities. HRFM respondents
reported a number of cases of illegal
occupation, 208 households were forced
out of their homes by unknown
individuals; 146 by a member of their
own community, and 51 by a �commander�,
and finally 20 households had their
house occupied by government officials
and, 66 faced problems because they did
not have documents to prove the
ownership.
A considerable
number of households live without
consistent access to clean water and
basic sanitation facilities. According
to the Central Authority for Water
Supply and Sewerage, 70% of urban
dwellers lack access to safe drinking
water. The HRFM data shows that 40% of
urban vulnerable and 70% of rural
vulnerable households have problems with
water for household needs and sanitation
The HRFM data shows
that 37% of vulnerable populations make
less than 50 Afs per day while 22%
reported more than 50 Afs in daily
income. The remaining 41% did not
respond to the question; possible
reasons could be reluctance to report
illicit income or the absence of income.
Land allocation
scheme and building of small scale towns
for returnees have caused massive
problems for returnees. All these towns
have been built without any regard to
their geographical location. Most of
them lack enough infrastructures. Those
that have water lack road and those that
have schools lack clinics. No public
transportation system connects these
towns to main market. The average length
from towns to the closest bazaar is
12km, so travel can be extremely
difficult in Afghanistan�s hot summer
and cold winter.
The HRFM survey
shows that 15% of vulnerable people in
urban areas and 30% of those in rural
areas do not have access to any
government, NGO or private health
facilities, while only 22% of people in
urban areas and 2% in rural areas have
access to all
Despite
considerable achievements in the area of
education, Afghanistan faces several
problems in ensuring access to education
for all. The major concerns are
inadequate schools, and lack of access
to school as well as exclusion of girls
and women and minorities. Security
issues have had a detrimental effect on
education. In the reporting period,
Afghanistan has been witnessing
disruption of classes during conflict,
attacks on schools, and the intimidation
of teachers and female students by
militant groups.
Drop out rates are
extremely high. Only 11% of boys and 5%
of girls enrolled in primary school
continue on to grade 12 while almost 82%
of boys and 63% of girls only reach
grade six.
Attacks by
insurgents on schools have dramatically
been high in the last couple of years.
In 2007, there were 55 security threats
and more than 180 attacks carried out on
schools, killing 108 people and injuring
154. The first three months of 2008 saw
five threats and 24 attacks killing two
people
The third report on economic and social
rights in Afghanistan contains specific
recommendations in every section. In
addition, there are some general
recommendations to the Afghan Government to
address these issues upon the constitution,
the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and its other
commitments:
Most of the
vulnerable and isolated areas are
without food and this winter this will
cause them major problems. So the AIHRC
is requesting from the Afghan government
and the international community to start
their humanitarian aid in the vulnerable
areas before a humanitarian crisis
occurs.
The government of
Afghanistan should focus on
participatory development and develop
necessary coordination with relevant
government and non-government organs to
follow up and fulfill the recommendation
presented in this report.
The government
needs to implement the labor code,
particularly with regard to daily-wage
workers, work health and safety
regulations, and child labor, and
enforce the non-discrimination policy in
securing access to services such as
education and health care by women and
minorities.
The government of
Afghanistan needs to amend civil law
where stands in violation of the
Constitution and adopted international
legal standards. The difference in age
of majority and marriage between males
and females remains as major concern. It
is necessary to develop and implement
family law to prohibit paying dowry,
domestic violence and ensure protection
of women rights.
Assuring access to
the social and economic rights is one of
the key issues. The government of
Afghanistan should take effective
actions in terms of security of
people�s property and dignified return
of refugees and IDPs, development of
infrastructural services, establish
marriage, divorce and birth registration
facilities as well as offices issuing
national identification, providing of
health and educational services
To protect labor
migrants, the Government of Afghanistan
should strengthen its cross-border
relationship and efforts with Iran. And
focus on gender equality and women�s
equal access to service.The government of
Afghanistan has to develop a long-term
coping strategy to address food
insecurity
this includes programs to rehabilitate
and strengthen rural infrastructure;
decentralization of preventative
programs; increased investment in rural
development; and, food assistance to
vulnerable populations.
The government of
Afghanistan in coordination with
National and International forces should
take effective and inclusive actions to
provide adequate security support to
medical staff and health facility
centers.
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights
Commission is a national institution
mandated by the Afghanistan constitution to
promote and protect Human Rights and to
monitor the situation of Human Rights in
Afghanistan.
This report is available in the Commission�s
website,
http://www.aihrc.org.af in Dari Pashto
and English
For more information please contact us on:
0093202500676
0093202500677
0003700276784
Copyright � 2002-2009
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
Afghanistan, Kabul, Karti se, Pul-e-Surkh
