Afghanistan’s Taliban dissolve country’s ‘unnecessary’ human rights commission

Taliban cites budget deficit behind decision to dissolve five government departments

The Taliban in Afghanistan dissolved the country’s human rights commission along with four other key government departments, deeming them “unnecessary” due to a financial crisis.

The country’s High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) – last headed by former president Abdullah Abdullah – the once high-powered National Security Council, and the commission for overseeing the implementation of the constitution were dissolved as well, Taliban officials announced on Monday.

“Because these departments were not deemed necessary and were not included in the budget, they have been dissolved,” Innamullah Samangani, the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman said.

The south Asian nation has been reeling under a severe financial crunch resulting in the starvation of millions following the Taliban's takeover in 15 August last year.

Afghanistan faces a budget deficit of $501m (£402m), the Islamist authorities announced in their first annual national budget.

Mr Samangani added that the budget was based on “objective facts” and used for departments that had been active and productive.

The Taliban has been accused of blatantly violating human rights in Afghanistan by targeting minority communities and imposing regressive decrees on women.

“As Taliban repression intensifies, Taliban authorities in Afghanistan dissolve the respected Afghan Human Rights Commission, conveniently deeming it ‘unnecessary in the face of a financial crunch’,” tweeted Kenneth Roth, executive director of advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

Rights group Amnesty International in an October 2021 report stated the Taliban had killed 13 people from the ethnic Hazara community, including a 17-year-old girl, in a single massacre after its takeover of Afghanistan.

The community has been historically targeted in the Sunni-majority country for belonging to Islam’s minority Shia sect.

The Islamist group had assured the west that it would govern the country with a more moderate approach compared to their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001, which was marked by public executions and women’s suppression.

Earlier this month, authorities ordered all Afghan women to wear an all-covering burqa in public that would cover their faces, in an effort to clip women’s authority in public.

Since wresting power, the Taliban have banned women from several government jobs, deprived girls from the sixth standard onwards access to education, stopped providing driving licenses to women and directed airlines not to let women board domestic or international flights without a male chaperone.

The sharp attacks on women’s rights, reminiscent of the group’s past, have been criticised by the west. The US threatened measures against the Taliban if the government did not reverse some of its recent diktats on women and girls.

“We’ve addressed it directly with the Taliban,” said state department spokesperson Ned Price.

“We have a number of tools that, if we feel these won’t be reversed, these won’t be undone, that we are prepared to move forward with,” he added.