Afghan: Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Discriminatory Practices
An April report by UNAMA documented the highest levels of torture of conflict-related detainees in police custody since 2010. The report singled out the Kandahar police for torturing 91 percent of detainees by forcibly pumping water into their stomachs, crushing their testicles with clamps, suffocating them to the point of losing consciousness, and applying electric current to their genitals.
In a significant sign of progress in curbing torture, the government in March enacted anti-torture legislation, as part of the new penal code. The law left out a compensation system for victims of torture by state security forces, but in August the cabinet approved an annex to provide for victim redress.
Although the Afghan Constitution prohibits torture, the new provisions expand the definition in conformity with the UN Convention Against Torture, and create a new monitoring body, the Commission Against Torture; however, as of December it was not clear whether this would include staff from the AIHRC. The government did not prosecute any senior officials accused of torture.
In May, a report by the UN Committee Against Torture described “numerous and credible allegations” of severe human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings, and urged that all alleged perpetrators “be duly prosecuted and, if found guilty, convicted with penalties that are commensurate with the grave nature of their crimes.”
In January 2017, the Afghan attorney general ordered nine of First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum’s guards to answer questions in connection with the abduction, illegal imprisonment, and sexual assault of rival Uzbek politician Ahmad Ischi. Dostum refused to allow his guards to report to the attorney general, who then settled for interviewing seven of them on the premises of Dostum’s compound. On November 1, seven of the bodyguards were convicted in absentia of sexual assault and illegal imprisonment, and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. As of December 2017, none was in custody.
In Afghanistan, same-sex relations are punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison under a law that bans all sex between individuals not married to each other.
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