The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan in May and June stated that at least 15 people were killed and 49 wounded as a result of IED attacks, the vast majority of them civilians.
The report stressed that majority of these casualties occurred in two attacks in Faizabad city, Badakhshan province, both claimed by self-identified Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant –Khorasan Province (ISIL-KP).
It also documented 45 civilian casualties (19 killed, 26 wounded) attributed to explosive remnants of war during the period.
According to this report, women are prevented from traveling abroad without a male guardian (sharia mahram), and in one case in June, a woman (a local employee of the United Nations in Afghanistan) was threatened with death by the forces of the Intelligence Directorate of Taliban, and after two days she resigned.
It has also been said that the forces of the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice continue to beat women, and in one case on June 19, a woman was beaten up and ordered her to leave a public park.
UNAMA also reported that the ban on women's work has affected the activities of this organization in Afghanistan, and since April 5, all UNAMA employees, including men and women, continue to work from home with this organization to prevent a discriminatory approach in the workplace.
The UN report still indicates that corporal punishment and execution of death sentences continue, and the second case of qisas punishment (death penalty) was on June 20.
The report emphasised that extra-judicial killings continue all over Afghanistan, and the UNAMA report has documented several cases of such killings, at least two of which were carried out by the Taliban forces in Takhar and Samangan provinces.
It added that arbitrary arrests and detentions of former government and military personnel – often accused of affiliation with the National Resistance Front – are also ongoing, particularly in Kabul and Panjshir provinces.
Apart from this, even killings of individuals accused of affiliation with ISIL-KP were also recorded in May and June in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, the report said.
The report also focused on freedom of media in Afghanistan and stated that the de facto authorities continue to arbitrarily arrest and detain journalists.
In fact, UNAMA stated that Taliban’s Departments of Information and Culture took steps to establish committees aimed at monitoring activities of the media in their respective provinces. UNAMA questioned the presence of such bodies and said that no announcement has been made explaining the exact mandate of these committees.
However, the report added that UNAMA has recorded at least one instance where a committee conducted an unannounced inspection at a private radio station in May and although the committee reportedly did not identify any concerns regarding the station’s activities, the unexpected nature of the visit led journalists to believe these committees may further jeopardise media independence.
The report also touched upon the activities of the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of the Taliban and said that the ministry continues to both enforce existing instructions and issue new directives, many of which interfere with the fundamental freedoms and daily lives of women and girls.
It said that UNAMA continues to record instances of Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice personnel arbitrarily arresting and ill-treating individuals who they view as not following their decrees, particularly those pertaining to hijab (for women) and beard length (for men).
