4 December 2005

His Excellency Hamed Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,

In accordance with Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement within the borders of each State.

But as it is seen, people are recently facing serious problems in enjoying their right to freedom of movement and in accessing public places as a result of unjustifiable and irresponsible actions taken by a number of security institutions especially private security companies under the pretext of security measures.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) expresses its concern on the unjustifiable and irresponsible measures of security institutions especially private security companies in violating the right of people and Kabul citizens to freedom of movement, restricting the use of public places and misbehaving with the citizens and regards it as an infringement of the Governments commitments towards the principles and values of the Constitution and international human rights treaties.

The AIHRC, in its continual monitoring, has observed an increase in unjustifiable security measures for convening sessions, conferences and seminars that sometimes exceed the security requirements of those gatherings.

These measures have violated and restricted the right of people to freedom of movement and free use of public facilities and in addition, have led to inaccessible points in Kabul that sometimes prevent the access of people to emergency health care.

We urge Your Excellency to issue strong orders to solve such a problem and to design a procedure defining the mandate, duties and authorities of the security institutions particularly private security companies in their security measures in a way that does not impede the enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms.