UN rights official cites Afghanistan’s ‘paradox’ of new opportunities for peace amid growing violence

21 April 2015 – At the end of a seven-day mission to Afghanistan, a senior United Nations’ human rights official today described the “paradoxical situation” in which the country finds itself.

“On the one hand, there are new opportunities for peace talks that would have been unimaginable only a few months ago,” said Ivan Šimonović, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights. “On the other, the conflict looks set to intensify as insurgents test the strength of the security forces hoping to gain leverage in future negotiations.”

Mr. Šimonović, who visited Kabul and the provinces of Nangarhar and Kapisa, said recent violence underlined the fact that it would be Afghan civilians who pay the price, with more work needed to be done to protect them.

“2014 was already a terrible year for the civilian population of Afghanistan and figures for the first quarter of 2015 have confirmed that negative trend,” he said referring to statistics compiled by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which pointed to the deaths of 655 civilians and injuries to 1,155 more in the first quarter of 2015.

During his second official visit to Afghanistan, the Assistant Secretary-General focused on the increasingly difficult security situation following the withdrawal of foreign troops and the transfer of security tasks to the Afghan National Security Forces.  Read More

UN rights official cites Afghanistan’s ‘paradox’ of new opportunities for peace amid growing violence