In September 2020, peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban began in Doha, Qatar. Underpinning the talks were high hopes for a negotiated end to four decades of incessant conflict in Afghanistan.
These hopes have been dashed as Afghanistan witnessed an increase in the targeted killings of human rights activists, journalists, peace activists, the religious, and social activists. In the run-up to the peace negotiations in Doha, the Taliban unabashedly used violence to secure political and military leverage against the United States and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. These events have reiterated the claims put forth by Afghans regarding the country being a victim of an undeclared proxy war involving a plethora of non–state actors backed covertly by some neighboring countries in the hope of securing nefarious geopolitical ends.
Attacks by magnetic mines have increased dramatically in many cities especially in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The insurgents place these explosive devices on civilian and government vehicles as their latest tactic in targeting their victims. In the last several months, many pillars of democracy — such as journalists, peace activists, and members of the religious — have been killed in terrorist attacks in Kabul. Several members of the security forces have lost their lives in various parts of the country. These targeted killings have cast a dark shadow on the ongoing peace talks. Accusations and counteraccusations flew thick and fast.
Afghans across all divides yearn for genuine peace. It has been an elusive dream, though.
In cold blood
The increasing number of assassinations of Afghan religious scholars over the last six months have raised concerns over escalating religious warfare between the moderates and the religious extremists. Undoubtedly, the assassination and removal of moderate scholars to promote violence and extremism is a project that will have dangerous social and cultural consequences for the future of Afghanistan and the region.
Violence against journalists, especially female journalists, has increased. They have faced threats, terrorist attacks, beatings, kidnappings, police detention, insults, and worse.
A case in point is the attack against Malala Maiwand, a journalist and presenter at Inakas Radio and Television (IRT) in the eastern province of Nangarhar and a representative of the Center for the Protection of Women Journalists in Afghanistan, on December 10, 2020. Maiwand and her driver were killed in cold blood while they were returning home from work. Furthermore, in two separate incidents which occurred on March 2, 2021, three female journalists of IRT were killed. Two other women employees were injured.
To date, the perpetrators of these attacks remain at large, thus emboldening those who use brute force to silence independent voices. Increasingly, female journalists have expressed grave concern about the growing violence against them. They are anxious that the absence of their voices from the Doha peace process may mean the loss of their freedom of speech.
The attacks on human rights and media representatives in Afghanistan are not new. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has been documenting the rising number of civilian casualties in the Afghan conflict since 2009.
A stinging critique
There has been a marked shift in the type of killings, though. UNAMA’s recent “Special Report: Killing of Human Rights Defenders, Journalists and Media Workers in Afghanistan 2018–21” records a total of 65 human rights defenders and media professionals killed in the period from January 1, 2018 to January 31, 2021. Thirty-two of the people killed were from the human rights sector, and 33 were from the media. Of these, 11 — five human rights defenders and six media — were killed in the four months from October 2020 to January 2021 alone.
“The Afghan people need and deserve a flourishing civic space — a society where people can think, write, and voice their views openly, without fear,” said Deborah Lyons, head of UNAMA. “The voices of human rights defenders and the media are critical for any open and decent society. At a time when dialogue and an end to the conflict through talks and political settlement should be the focus, the voices from human rights and the media need to be heard more than ever before, [but] instead, they are being silenced.”
In a stinging critique of the prevailing situation in this regard and of the international communities’ outlook towards the same, Shaharzad Akbar, chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, told the New York Times: “We die, there is a tweet, and people move on. The only tangible thing that has happened to Afghans under the peace process is that they used to know who their killers are, and now they don’t.”
Hard-won gains
Afghans across all divides yearn for peace. They are equally concerned that the pursuit of peace must not absolve the Taliban and the Afghan government of the responsibility to promote and protect human rights in the country. Both parties, using legal, administrative, and other necessary measures, must ensure that all citizens can enjoy all social, economic, political, and other freedoms. They must ensure justice for all victims of human rights abuses through the conduct of impartial investigations.
Keeping citizens safe and secure is the duty of each government, which must be carried out in the best possible way. However, the fact that the text of the Doha peace agreement does not make even a single mention of a commitment to protect human rights and the Afghan constitution does not bode well for the country’s future. This, coupled with sustained and systematic violence against human rights defenders and the press, will only undermine confidence in the Afghan government as well as the international community, and in the outcomes of the ongoing intra–Afghan peace negotiations. It will seriously compromise the hard-won democratic gains of the last two decades. These gains include freedom of expression, the establishment of national security forces, the opening of schools for girls, and the active participation of women in various political, economic, and social spheres in Afghanistan.
A framework for protection
The targeted killings intend to stifle the voices of peace while annihilating democracy. Those who are in the business of war understand that 
silencing dissent is vital to securing the domination of Afghanistan. This will not happen so long as journalists, religious scholars, and civic institutions are alive or thriving and actively defending democratic ideals.
As a researcher and a peacebuilder, I cannot stress enough the need for the following measures as Afghanistan pursues its path to peace.
- All parties, government and non-government alike, must respect non-war actors.
- Create a framework for the special protection and security of human rights activists, journalists, peace activists, especially religious actors, and social activists. Since Afghanistan is a predominantly Muslim country, the religious actors play a key role at the community level in forging a path to peace.
- Ensure that all human rights activists and journalists can pursue their advocacy or work without fear of retaliation or attack.
- Promote genuine accountability through the prompt prosecution and fair trial of suspected perpetrators of human rights violations.
- All parties must stop all killings of human rights activists and journalists.
- Condemn all the killings of human rights activists, journalists, peace activists, religious actors, and social activists.
- The international community must continue to emphasize the important role of human rights defenders and independent media for a united, independent, peaceful, and democratic Afghanistan in accordance with the declaration adopted on November 24, 2020 at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan.
Achieving a truly democratic Afghan, where justice and equal opportunities are accessible to all, is possible only if there is genuine peace in the country. ●
Mohammad Afzal Zarghoni is a researcher, peacebuilder, and fellow at the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna, Austria.
