Commission on Human Rights Reports and Recommends Legal Transformations to Deal with Continuing Problems in Afghanistan

On September 1, 2004, Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, an independent expert of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, submitted a report on the security, criminal justice, and international human rights problems facing Afghanistan and made recommendation to address them. Professor Bassiouni was appointed in April 2004 and undertook his mission to Afghanistan from August 14 to 22, 2004. The report was made pursuant to the mandate of the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 2003/77 adopted at its fifty-ninth session. The report surveys some of the major issues influencing the human rights situation in Afghanistan, including past and present violations committed by State and non-State actors, both as elements of widespread and systematic policies, and as a result of individuals operating beyond the reach of the law. The report underscores the problems of security due to domination by the military power of warlords and local commanders, and by the rising economic power of persons engaged in poppy cultivation and heroin traffic...[more]