U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM | ANNUAL REPORT 2017 www.USCIRF.gov | [email protected] | @USCIRF AFGHANISTAN TIER 2 • Designate the Taliban as an “entity of particular concern” under December 2016 amendments to IRFA; • Continue to raise directly with Afghani- stan’s president and chief executive officer the importance of religious freedom; • Encourage Afghan government officials to publicly promote freedom of religion or belief and work toward creating a civic space for the open discussion of diverse opinions on matters of religion and society in the country; • Urge the government to reform the Afghan constitution and laws to comply with international standards of freedom of religion or belief, including by revoking the 2004 media law prohibiting writings deemed un-Islamic and the 2007 ruling that the Baha’i faith is blasphemous and converts to it are apostates; • Ensure the integration of religious freedom issues into State Department and Defense Department strategies concerning Afghanistan, including by reviving the interagency U.S. government taskforce that operated between 2013 and 2015 and prioritized countering reli- gious extremism, attacks on non-Muslim communities, and Sunni-Shi’a violence; • Include a special working group on religious freedom in U.S.-Afghan strategic dialogues; • Encourage the Afghan government to sponsor, with official and semi-of- ficial religious bodies, an initiative on interfaith dialogue that focuses on both intra-Islamic dialogue and engagement with different faiths; and • Ensure that human rights concerns, including freedom of religion or belief, are integrated into all bilateral or multilateral talks seeking peace and reconciliation between the Afghan gov- ernment and the Taliban, and that the parties to any peace agreement pledge to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Afghanistan’s overall stability and security remain precarious despite a sustained U.S.-led international effort to combat the Afghan Taliban and other extremist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. These groups’ violent ideologies and attacks threaten all Afghans, including the minority Shi’a Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, and Baha’i communities. In 2016, with international assistance, the Afghan government made some progress in ousting the Taliban from areas it controlled in previous years. However, the government lacks the capacity to protect civilians from attacks due to its internal political instability; fragmented police, mili- tary, and intelligence forces; corruption; and weak economy. In addition, the country’s constitution and other laws are contrary to international standards for freedom of religion or belief. Based on these concerns, and recognizing that the Afghan government faces significant challenges in combating the Taliban and other violent extremist groups and generally lacks the capacity to protect religious and ethnic communities from violent attacks, in 2017 USCIRF again places Afghanistan on Tier 2, where it has been since 2006. In 2017, USCIRF also finds that the Taliban merits designation as an “entity of particular concern” for religious freedom violations under December 2016 amendments to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA). RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT KEY FINDINGS
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U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM | ANNUAL REPORT 2017
• Designate the Taliban as an “entity of particular concern” under December 2016 amendments to IRFA;
• Continue to raise directly with Afghani-stan’s president and chief executive officer the importance of religious freedom;
• Encourage Afghan government officials to publicly promote freedom of religion or belief and work toward creating a civic space for the open discussion of diverse opinions on matters of religion and society in the country;
• Urge the government to reform the Afghan constitution and laws to comply with international standards of freedom of religion or belief, including by revoking
the 2004 media law prohibiting writings deemed un-Islamic and the 2007 ruling that the Baha’i faith is blasphemous and converts to it are apostates;
• Ensure the integration of religious freedom issues into State Department and Defense Department strategies concerning Afghanistan, including by reviving the interagency U.S. government taskforce that operated between 2013 and 2015 and prioritized countering reli-gious extremism, attacks on non-Muslim communities, and Sunni-Shi’a violence;
• Include a special working group on religious freedom in U.S.-Afghan strategic dialogues;
• Encourage the Afghan government to sponsor, with official and semi-of-ficial religious bodies, an initiative on interfaith dialogue that focuses on both intra-Islamic dialogue and engagement with different faiths; and
• Ensure that human rights concerns, including freedom of religion or belief, are integrated into all bilateral or multilateral talks seeking peace and reconciliation between the Afghan gov-ernment and the Taliban, and that the parties to any peace agreement pledge to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Afghanistan’s overall stability and security remain precarious despite a sustained U.S.-led international effort to combat the Afghan Taliban and other extremist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. These groups’ violent ideologies and attacks threaten all Afghans, including the minority Shi’a Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, and Baha’i communities. In 2016, with international assistance, the Afghan government made some progress in ousting the Taliban from areas it controlled in previous years. However, the government lacks the capacity to protect civilians from attacks due to its internal political instability; fragmented police, mili-tary, and intelligence forces; corruption; and weak economy. In
addition, the country’s constitution and other laws are contrary to international standards for freedom of religion or belief. Based on these concerns, and recognizing that the Afghan government faces significant challenges in combating the Taliban and other violent extremist groups and generally lacks the capacity to protect religious and ethnic communities from violent attacks, in 2017 USCIRF again places Afghanistan on Tier 2, where it has been since 2006. In 2017, USCIRF also finds that the Taliban merits designation as an “entity of particular concern” for religious freedom violations under December 2016 amendments to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA).
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
KEY FINDINGS
U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM | ANNUAL REPORT 2017