Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan

A/HRC/RES/60/2View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A document of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 2Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

16 versions · 1989–2025

2025A/HRC/RES/60/2Situation of human rights in AfghanistanLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/HRC/RES/57/3Situation of human rights in AfghanistanCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/54/1Situation of human rights in AfghanistanCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/51/20Situation of human rights in AfghanistanCompare with previous version
2021A/HRC/RES/48/1Situation of human rights in AfghanistanCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

10 topics

Accountability Afghanistan Criminal Investigation Evidence Gender Discrimination Human Rights Human Rights Violations Special Rapporteurs Trust Funds Women's Rights

What does this mandate say?

50 operative paragraphs

Continues to condemn in the strongest possible terms all violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law committed in Afghanistan, in particular those involving summary or extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention, torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, enforced disappearance, violence against peaceful protestors, human rights defenders, journalists and media representatives, in particular women journalists and media representatives, as well as former judges, prosecutors and other magistrates, civil servants and law enforcement and military personnel, reprisals, raids on offices of non-governmental organizations and civil society groups, including women’s rights organizations, violations and abuses of the human rights of all women, girls, children, persons with disabilities, persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities and other marginalized groups and persons in situations of vulnerability, and the targeting of those who have worked for the Government of Afghanistan and of former military personnel;

Deplores the Taliban’s institutionalization of its system of discrimination, segregation, domination, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls, and the harms that it has entrenched, which are unbearable, unjustifiable and should shock the conscience of humanity and require concerted action by the international community;

Strongly condemns the Taliban-imposed ban on the women of Afghanistan working for the United Nations in Afghanistan and national and international non-governmental organizations and all other forms of interference in non-governmental assistance activities, including aid delivery, which undermine the enjoyment of human rights and are inconsistent with humanitarian principles;

Continues to condemn in the strongest possible terms all forms of discrimination against women and girls, including women and girls with disabilities, and reminds all parties that all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including violence against women and girls, bacha bazi (sexual slavery of boys) and child, early and forced marriage, constitute violations and abuses of human rights and fundamental freedoms;

Calls for an immediate end to all violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law in Afghanistan, for strict respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to a fair trial, the right to an effective remedy, the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, housing, safe drinking water and sanitation, the rights to education, work and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, of religion or belief, of opinion and expression and the right to liberty of movement and freedom to leave the country, for opportunities for and access to inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels for women and girls, for the immediate and unconditional reopening of schools for girls of all ages, for equal and quality education for children at all levels and for the protection of civilians and critical civilian infrastructure, in particular medical and educational facilities in the country, and calls upon the Taliban to engage with the United Nations to adopt a plan of action to end and prevent grave violations against children;

Urges the Taliban to reverse its policies and practices that restrict the enjoyment of human rights by people in Afghanistan, including by repealing the recent so-called “Law on propagation of virtue and prevention of vice”, which institutionalizes a system of discrimination and oppression against women and girls, that may amount to crimes against humanity, including persecution on the grounds of gender, to render them consistent with the international human rights obligations of Afghanistan, in particular as a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, including policies and practices that restrict the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, including equality and non-discrimination, freedom of movement, peaceful assembly and association and of opinion and expression, the rights to education, work and public participation and to vote and be elected in genuine and periodic elections, and those that are discriminatory against persons belonging to marginalized groups or ethnic or religious minority groups, including Hazaras, and to prohibit and prevent discrimination and violence against them and ensure their representation in all decision-making;

Reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by all women, girls and all children in Afghanistan, including the rights to freedom of movement, peaceful assembly and association and of opinion and expression, the right to education, the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the right to work, the right to have access to justice on an equal basis with others and the right to public participation, and the importance of protecting women, girls and all children from violations or abuses, and in this regard notes that, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is anyone under 18 years of age;

Calls for respect for and the promotion and protection of the right of everyone to take part in cultural life, including the ability to have access to and to enjoy cultural heritage, and for the protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage consistent with article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the two optional protocols thereto, and urges all parties to refrain from any unlawful military use and the targeting of cultural property;

Reiterates its call for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process for the establishment of a participative, inclusive and representative government, including with regard to gender and all ethnic and religious minorities, ensuring the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and the inclusive and meaningful participation of young people in decision-making positions and processes;

Urges the international community to adjust further its engagement with any stakeholders in Afghanistan with regard to respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Afghans, including women, girls, children, persons with disabilities and persons belonging to marginalized groups, including ethnic and religious minorities, and respect for the rule of law, freedom of expression, including for journalists and media workers, with specific attention to human rights defenders, and respect for the obligations of Afghanistan under international human rights law, and to continue to call upon the Taliban to abide by the international human rights obligations of Afghanistan;

Reiterates the need to address the profound challenges facing Afghanistan, including through efforts to provide assistance in the fulfilment of human rights obligations arising from international treaties that Afghanistan has ratified, and to offer support and advice to civil society;

Encourages the international community to provide financial and political support for Afghan women’s rights organizations and for the creation of new platforms of exchange for Afghan women, while strengthening existing ones, in order to enable them to formulate their own vision for the future of Afghanistan in a safe environment, including through flexible, multi-year and direct funding, remote-programming modalities and risk-managed support for women- and minority-led organizations operating within Afghanistan and in exile;

Underscores the need for, and calls for further improvement in, the living conditions of the people of Afghanistan, and emphasizes the need to provide basic social services at the national, provincial and local levels, in particular education, clean water, sanitation, digital connectivity, adequate housing and public health services, with special attention given to the needs of all women, girls and disadvantaged and marginalized groups, including persons belonging to minority groups and persons with disabilities;

Calls upon the international community to offer greater support, including in the context of the food security crisis and the ongoing protection crisis, and to enhance efforts to bridge the funding gap, and urges all parties to allow immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, including across conflict lines, to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches all those in need, in particular internally displaced persons and those in situations of vulnerability, and to respect the independence of humanitarian agencies and guarantee the protection of humanitarian personnel, including women workers;

Encourages all stakeholders in Afghanistan to continue their engagement and cooperation with the United Nations, including with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other relevant United Nations entities;

Reiterates its call for the reopening of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and of an independent national human rights institution in line with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles), to protect and promote all human rights, receive complaints from the public, monitor places of detention and bring issues to the attention of the relevant authorities;

Calls for the provision of an enabling environment for civil society actors, especially women’s rights and women-led organizations and leaders whose work is impacted by restrictions targeting women, and the media to carry out their activities without hindrance or fear of reprisal, the investigation of cases of intimidation and attacks against members of civil society, including women’s rights organizations, cultural workers and journalists and media workers, bringing perpetrators to justice, and measures to promote respect for freedom of opinion and expression and access to information and support, both offline and online;

Condemns in the strongest terms the decision of the Taliban to no longer grant access to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and calls upon it to reverse its decision and to cooperate with United Nations human rights mechanisms;

Calls upon the Taliban and all actors to cease reprisals and threats against and surveillance of persons cooperating with United Nations mechanisms, including persons outside Afghanistan, and urges States to take measures against transnational repression targeting Afghans abroad;

Recognizes the need to strengthen existing mechanisms and to give consideration to ensuring the capacity for collecting, preserving and analysing evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law in a way that could be used to facilitate future accountability and transitional justice processes;

Takes note of the decision made by the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court on 5 March 2020 and the statement made on 29 November 2024 by the Prosecutor of the said Court regarding alleged crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court in relation to the situation in Afghanistan, and also of the referral of the situation in Afghanistan by Chile, Costa Rica, France, Luxembourg, Mexico and Spain to the Court, urging the consideration of gender-based persecution within the scope of the Court’s existing probe on Afghanistan, and requests the mechanism to cooperate fully with any of its ongoing and possible future investigations pertaining to human rights violations and abuses in Afghanistan;

Welcomes the initiative taken by Australia, Canada, Germany and the Kingdom of the Netherlands under article 29 (1) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to hold Afghanistan accountable for violations of the Convention;

Reiterates that delivering justice and redress to victims, and accountability to perpetrators, of gross human rights violations and abuses and serious violations of international humanitarian law through all available processes is an essential pillar needed for long-term sustainable peace, development and reconciliation in Afghanistan and is necessary for re-establishing the rule of law, strengthening the institutional protection of human rights and preventing the continued recurrence of grave violations and abuses, as well as restoring human dignity and rebuilding trust among the full range of members of Afghan society;

Also reiterates the urgency of a prompt, independent and impartial review of or investigation into all alleged violations or abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law to end impunity, ensure accountability through processes that are comprehensive, multidimensional, gender-responsive and victim-centred, apply a comprehensive approach to transitional justice and bring perpetrators to justice, guided by the principles elaborated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its report and as advocated by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan;

Decides to establish an ongoing independent investigative mechanism to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of international crimes and the most serious violations of international law, including those that may also amount to violations and abuses of international human rights law, committed in Afghanistan, including against women and girls, and to prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings, in accordance with international law standards, in national, regional or international courts or tribunals that have or may in the future have jurisdiction over these crimes, in accordance with international law;

Also decides that the mechanism shall:

Incrementally advance its work based on funding made available, and benefit from the experience of, and possible synergies with, existing investigative mechanisms, with no prejudice to their work;

Build on the work and findings of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and to this end be able to make use of relevant information collected by the Special Rapporteur, with the consent of information providers as appropriate, and continue to collect evidence;

Have the capacity to document and verify relevant information and evidence, including through field engagement and by cooperating with other entities, as appropriate;

Adopt procedures that are multidimensional, gender-responsive and victim-centred;

Identify, where possible, those individuals and entities allegedly responsible for international crimes and the most serious violations of international law, including those that may also amount to violations and abuses of international human rights law, with a view to ensuring that they are held accountable;

Report on its main activities on an annual basis to the Human Rights Council as of its sixty-fourth session, in an enhanced interactive dialogue, and to the General Assembly as of its eighty-second session;

Optimize possible synergies with existing investigative mechanisms, including to ensure cost-efficient use of its resources;

Work in complementarity with, and without risk of prejudice to, competent and robust existing national and international processes;

Cooperate closely with ongoing and future investigations by national, regional or international courts or tribunals, including those conducted by the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice, or other legal proceedings;

Requests the Secretary-General to establish a trust fund for voluntary contributions to the work of the investigative mechanism;

Also requests the Secretary-General to update the Human Rights Council on the establishment of the independent investigative mechanism at its sixty-first session, with the understanding that the mechanism could be established with a start-up team allowing it to begin operationalizing the mandate immediately, and decides to assess the operational capacity of the mechanism at its sixty-sixth session;

Requests the Secretary-General to appoint the staff of the mechanism as expeditiously as possible, taking into account the experience of other relevant mechanisms, and to recruit or allocate impartial and experienced staff with relevant skills and expertise, drawing upon the terms of reference prepared by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;

Calls upon all States, and encourages civil society, business enterprises and other relevant stakeholders, to cooperate fully with the mechanism so that it may effectively fulfil its mandate and, in particular, to provide it with any information or documentation they may possess or come to possess, or any other form of assistance pertaining to their respective mandate;

Requests the United Nations system as a whole to cooperate fully with the mechanism and to respond promptly to any request made by the mechanism, including access to all information and documentation;

Requests the Secretary-General to allocate the resources necessary for the implementation of the present resolution, including the logistical and technical resources necessary to support the functioning of the mechanism;

Decides to extend the mandate of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan for a period of one year, and requests the Special Rapporteur to present a report to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-third session, and to present that report, in combination with an oral update, to the General Assembly at its eighty-first session, in accordance with their respective programmes of work;

Requests the Special Rapporteur, with the support of other relevant special procedure mandate holders and treaty bodies and with temporary, specific and relevant expertise to be provided by the Office of the High Commissioner, to prepare a report on the situation of human rights of women and girls, adopting an intersectional approach, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-first session, to be followed by an enhanced interactive dialogue;

Decides that, in order to provide the necessary support to the mandate holder, the mandate holder shall benefit from additional dedicated and specific resources and expertise to be provided by the Office of the High Commissioner, as defined by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 54/1;

Also decides that the mandate of the Special Rapporteur to document and preserve information relating to human rights violations and abuses as outlined by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 51/20 and subsequent resolutions on Afghanistan will continue and remain valid until such time that the investigative mechanism is operational and the information collected can be safely preserved and, to the extent possible, transmitted to the investigative mechanism for its use, and that the Special Rapporteur should be supported with sufficient staff and other resources to carry out the mandate;

Calls upon all relevant actors in Afghanistan to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies and other international bodies seized of the situation in Afghanistan, to grant them unhindered access to the country without delay, to provide them with all information and support necessary to allow for the proper fulfilment of their mandates and to ensure that civil society organizations, human rights defenders, victims, survivors, their families and other individuals have unhindered access to the above-mentioned bodies and mechanisms without fear of reprisal, intimidation or attack;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to provide the Special Rapporteur with the assistance and resources necessary for the effective fulfilment of the mandate;

Also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to present, during an enhanced interactive dialogue also including the report of the Special Rapporteur requested in paragraph 34 above, a comprehensive report also reflecting victims’ and survivors’ perspectives on justice and redress;

Urges all relevant special procedure mandate holders, and invites the treaty bodies, to closely monitor and reflect on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan within the scope of their respective mandates;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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