In late 1999, intensifying armed hostilities in Afghanistan (between the Taliban movement, which had assumed de facto authority over the Government, and an opposition coalition known as the United Front) and widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law by both sides, garnered the attention of a range of UN bodies and actors.1 This led to the dispatch of an investigatory team by the OHCHR in May 1998 (A/53/695, para. 58; S/1998/1109, para. 58)2 and an August 1998 SC resolution that requested the Secretary-General to “continue investigations into alleged mass killings of prisoners of war and civilians as well as ethnically based forced displacement of large groups of the population and other forms of mass persecution in Afghanistan” (S/RES/1193, para. 13).
Distinct from these other bodies’ investigatory processes, but connected to them, on 17 December 1999, the GA adopted resolution 54/185, inviting the Secretary-General and the OHCHR “to proceed without delay to investigate fully reports of mass killings of prisoners of war and civilians, rape and cruel treatment in Afghanistan” (A/RES/54/185, para. 13).3 The resolution is understood as creating a distinct FFM on Afghanistan, distinct from the one mandated by the OHCHR a year earlier, albeit also to be taken forward by members of the OHCHR.4 According to UN records, the investigative team’s report was not published as an official document.5
Notes
- For descriptions of the situation, see, for example, A/54/422. In an October 1999 statement, the President of the SC “deplore[d] the worsening human rights situation in Afghanistan”, particularly the “forced displacement of the civilian population … the deliberate abuse and arbitrary detentions of civilians, violence and continuing discrimination against women and girls … and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Afghanistan”. See S/PRST/1999/29. ↩︎
- The OHCHR preliminary mission was to assess the possibility of investigating reported serious human rights violations and breaches of IHL that occurred in 1997 (A/53/695; S/1998/1109). The mission was completed by November 1999, and its report found that while there were clear indications that violations of IHL and human rights in Afghanistan had taken place, it was not possible to fully establish the facts or identify those responsible. The Secretary-General noted that “under the circumstances, it would not be feasible to conduct a further investigation of these events” (A/54/536, para. 62). ↩︎
- The resolution condemned “the mass killings and systematic human rights violations against civilians and prisoners of war, including in the areas of Mazar-e Sharif and Bamian”, and noted “with alarm the resumption by the Taliban of the wider conflict”, resulting in massive, forced displacement in some areas (A/RES/54/185, para. 2). ↩︎
- United Nations, “International commissions of inquiry, fact-finding missions: Asia and Pacific”, United Nations Research Guides. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎