Posted By: Erica For the past two weeks the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary executions has been in Afghanistan on a fact-finding mission (See here for a Special Rapporteur definition). His mandate is to look into all violations of the “right to life” in Afghanistan, and provide recommendations for improving respect…
Posted By: Erica Today [May 18, 2008] I received the following, very sad story in an email from one of the co-workers at my Afghan NGO: Today at noontime one of the women who works with our Helmand treatment center as a social worker popped in with a few questions. At the polite – to…
Posted By: Erica Since the end of April, hundreds of Afghan families have fled the Garmsir region of Helmand province due to fighting between insurgents and US-led forces. High estimates by the Afghan Red Crescent Society and by the UN agency for refugees in Afghanistan have suggested that as many as 1000 families have fled.…
Posted By: Erica When I met Nazir and Amin they were doing much better – they had received assistance from ACAP (the US funded program that supports war victims) that allowed them to run their own family grocery businesses. Although they were satisfied with the assistance and their current situation, I could not help worrying…
Posted By: Ana, working on human rights issues in Afghanistan Just as any other morning my driver was waiting for me outside. I got into the car hoping that my coffee-mug will ease the misery of an early Saturday morning pick-up. Our usual greeting routine was full of how are you and how was your…
Posted By: Erica In December 2001, the Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan were believed to be the last refuge of Osama bin Laden. US air strikes barraged the Tora Bora area, dropping hundreds of bombs and artillery shells. Unfortunately, Bin Laden and associates were not the only ones hiding in the caves. Though sparsely…
Posted By: Michael, an aid and peace-building expert working in Darfur. I recently spent a few days in Darfur, on a short-term assignment for an NGO working in the region. I was there to support the organization’s peace-building work, which seeks to create grassroots dialogue between and among tribes which live in the same area.…
Posted By: Erica Yesterday I met with several officers of the United Nations mission here, referred to as UNAMA. The folks at UNAMA have themselves been trying to figure out how to coordinate support for civilian casualties. They agree with CIVIC that the international community should provide support for civilian casualties caused by international troops.…
Posted By: Erica Last week, an Afghan organization I’m helping here in Kabul co-hosted a conflict resolution workshop with a Washington-DC based institution. Two trainers flew out from Washington to lead the three-day training session for about 20 Afghan NGO employees — from both international and local NGOs.