The Fall of Kabul in 2021: Unravelling Global Perceptions Through Twitter Discourse

By the end of XX–the beginning of XXI century the importance of humanitarian and social issues in the world has sharply increased. Humanitarian and social means began to be intensively included in military and economic actions and play a significant independent role. As a result, there was an increase in the importance of “soft security” aspects, and an expansion of this field. This has affected the UN Security Council, which began to pay more attention to humanitarian and social issues, which was demonstrated with the statistical method. The range of humanitarian issues discussed by the Security Council and the list of actors sponsoring resolutions on humanitarian issues has expanded. In the late 1990s–early 2000s the Council begins to consider large amount of humanitarian issues: security issues of individuals in armed conflicts (civilians, children, women, UN and humanitarian personnel); civilian aspects of conflict management and peacebuilding; and separate issues of “soft security” (humanitarian assistance and such “soft threats” to security as HIV/AIDS epidemics, food crises and climate change). In addition, the Council also addresses human rights violations. The promotion of humanitarian issues in the Council on separate occasions was facilitated by high-ranking officials who put a premium on humanitarian issues; various UN bodies and organizations, mainly with humanitarian mandates; some non-permanent members of the Security Council who wanted to leave their mark in the Council’s history; various NGOs. In turn, some countries opposed the adoption of measures that they consider to be within the internal competence of their states. At the same time, the expansion of humanitarian and social problems in the world poses a dilemma for the Security Council: whether to include the entire range of these issues on the agenda, or it is beyond the scope of the Council’s mandate. There is no definite answer here. On the one hand, the world is moving along the path of strengthening humanitarian problems and its ever-greater involvement in security issues. On the other hand, an expanded interpretation of security can impede the work of the Council.

The Historical Dictionary of Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations, Third Edition defines the core concepts of human rights and humanitarian law. It relates the major international legal agreements related to human rights and names the diverse intergovernmental organizations which are responsible for implementing and maintaining these legal declarations, charters, conventions, or treaties. It also names and describes the several international non-governmental organizations which lobby states and international organizations with respect to human rights, which carry out programs of humanitarian assistance or relief, and which have played such a significant role in the evolution of human rights and humanitarianism in the modern era. Finally, it features the names and biographical accounts of major figures in the history of human rights and humanitarianism, along with figures that are active today on these issues. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on human rights concepts, major pieces of international law on human rights and humanitarian issues, major intergovernmental bodies responsible for implementing international laws on human rights and humanitarian issues, major international non-governmental organizations whose work focuses on human rights and humanitarian issues, and the names of important historical and contemporary figures who have contributed to the establishment and progress of human rights and humanitarianism.. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Human Rights.

The Historical Dictionary of Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations, Third Edition defines the core concepts of human rights and humanitarian law. It relates the major international legal agreements related to human rights and names the diverse intergovernmental organizations which are responsible for implementing and maintaining these legal declarations, charters, conventions, or treaties. It also names and describes the several international non-governmental organizations which lobby states and international organizations with respect to human rights, which carry out programs of humanitarian assistance or relief, and which have played such a significant role in the evolution of human rights and humanitarianism in the modern era. Finally, it features the names and biographical accounts of major figures in the history of human rights and humanitarianism, along with figures that are active today on these issues. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on human rights concepts, major pieces of international law on human rights and humanitarian issues, major intergovernmental bodies responsible for implementing international laws on human rights and humanitarian issues, major international non-governmental organizations whose work focuses on human rights and humanitarian issues, and the names of important historical and contemporary figures who have contributed to the establishment and progress of human rights and humanitarianism.. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Human Rights.

This article examines the impact of Taliban policies on women’s education in Afghanistan, focusing on the severe restrictions imposed since their return to power in 2021. Using a qualitative methodology, the study analyzes secondary data sources, including reports from human rights organizations, government documents, and educational statistics, to assess the implications of these restrictions. Findings reveal that the Taliban’s policies constitute gender apartheid and violate international human rights standards, causing significant setbacks in women’s educational achievements. The systematic denial of education has led to widespread mental health issues among Afghan women and girls, exacerbating anxiety, fear, and hopelessness. Moreover, these restrictions have profound socio-economic consequences, perpetuating cycles of poverty and hindering national development. The study underscores the urgent need for the international community to support Afghan women’s education through targeted policies, humanitarian aid, and diplomatic engagement with local women’s rights groups. Ultimately, access to education is crucial not only as a fundamental human right but also as a cornerstone for sustainable development and gender equality in Afghanistan. Continued advocacy and research are essential to understanding the long-term effects of educational denial and developing effective strategies for resistance and resilience among Afghan women.

The perception of humanist literacy is an individual's or society's understanding of concepts that focus on human aspects, such as tolerance, empathy, justice and human rights. Humanist literacy perceptions can help individuals or communities to understand and respond to social and humanitarian issues in a wiser way and encourage them to participate in life. This paper aims to analyze the perceptions of PAI teachers about humanist literacy. This study uses a qualitative approach with field research methods to uncover and collect research data through interview techniques and document studies. Through this research, results were found, namely teachers considered that with humanist literacy they could understand and appreciate cultural diversity, outlooks on life, and have the ability to think critically and reflectively on humanitarian and social issues.

The Taliban administration (1996–2001) undoubtedly inflicted unimaginable suffering on Afghan women, but the struggle for gender equality in Afghanistan has deep roots. In his novel, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini vividly portrays the harrowing experiences of women before, during, and after the war. To scrutinise the oppression of Afghan women as depicted in the novel, this study draws upon Iris Marion Young's theory of oppression. Young contended that women in a society endure oppression when they confront exploitation, marginalisation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence at the hands of men. This research unveils the physical, mental, and sexual abuse experienced by female characters, examining their inferior status through the lens of Young's ‘Five Faces of Oppression' and connecting it to the actual suffering of women in Afghanistan's male-dominated society. Therefore, it becomes unequivocally clear from this study that the female characters in Hosseini's narrative endure lives of oppression under the relentless dominion of patriarchy. The study further substantiates that Afghan women live lives marked by oppression, shedding light on their subjugation by patriarchal forces in Afghanistan's socio-cultural landscape.

Child and/or Soldier?From Resistance Movements to Human Rights Regiments Barbara Harlow (bio) According to most estimates from the United Nations to children's rights organizations, at least 300,000 children, perhaps as many as half a million, have been actively fighting or otherwise abetting the myriad armed conflicts around the world at the beginning of the second millennium (or twenty-first century, to sound the alarm less apocalyptically), from Myanmar/ Burma to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Iraq, Uganda, Sierra Leone—and on and on. According to Vanessa Pupuvac, their multifaceted but structurally conjoined stories have occasioned a "universal concern for children" that is, Pupuvac claims, "viewed as transcending political and social divides and able to mobilise societies to confront social problems and their right to self determination" (2001, 95). That same humanitarian concern has also generated an academic bibliography, a literary genre even, of "child soldier narratives," that are acquiring, if not canonical status, at least consumer and curricular interest. Take, just as examples, Ahmadou Kourouma, Allah Is Not Obliged (2000, Liberia); China Keitetsi, Child Soldier: Fighting for [End Page 195] My Life (2002, Uganda); Emmanuel Dongala, Johnny Mad Dog (2002, West Africa); Senait Mehari, Heart of Fire: From Child Soldier to Soul Singer (2004, Ethiopia/Eritrea); Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation (2005, Nigeria); Delia Jarrett-Macauley, Moses, Citizen and Me (2005, Sierra Leone); Dave Eggers, What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (2006, Sudan/ United States); Chris Abani, Song for Night (2007, West Africa); and Joshua Dysart, Unknown Soldier (2009, Uganda). Although the outrageously popular and even literary currency of these accumulating narratives might well, as Alexandra Schultheis has noted, derive from the fact that the "terms defining the relationship between humanitarian and 'victim' depend on global structural inequalities, masked by a discourse of universalized childhood" (2008, 35), their very purveyance also traces a well-nigh paradigmatic historical trajectory of the "once upon a time" genre: once there were children, then they became soldiers, now, please, if you will, just bring back the children. But where will they go, these disarmed and conflict-scarred youth? Who would want the "memoirs of a boy soldier" on a syllabus? Or a former "boy soldier" in the neighborhood? As Vera Achvarina and Simon Reich have advised, the "increasing use of child soldiers poses a long-term threat to the health and security of societies far beyond the borders of the war-torn fragile states in which these civil and ethnic conflicts take place" (2006, 130). Ninety miles from the continental United States, one of those child soldiers sits in prison in Guantánamo Bay. Just over a week before his inauguration on January 20, 2009, five prominent human rights organizations wrote to then president-elect Barack Obama regarding the immanent military trial of Guantánamo detainee Omar Khadr. "Dear President-elect Obama," wrote the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Human Rights First, and Human Rights Watch, We write to you regarding Omar Khadr, the 22-year-old Canadian national slated to be tried by military commission at Guantánamo for crimes allegedly [End Page 196] committed when he was aged 15. If the trial, now scheduled for January 26, 2009, is allowed to go forward, Omar Khadr, as noted by the letterwriter and the detainee's advocates, will become the first person in recent years to be tried by any western nation for war crimes committed as a child. Newly inaugurated President Obama did indeed, on his first full day in office, suspend Khadr's military trial—along with the pending hearings of twenty other Guantánamo detainees—for 120 days, in order, or so it was said by administration spokespeople, to "review the process." Omar, gently dubbed "Guantanamo's child" by Canadian journalist Michelle Shephard (2008), was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002—the sole, if seriously injured, survivor from inside a house of alleged al-Qaeda militants following a firefight that left one U.S. soldier dead as well. Whether Omar Khadr was responsible for the death of Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, an allegation that remains still...

Over the last decade, increased attention has been paid to terrorism, particularly to the new wave of terrorist groups, fundamentalist movements, and extremist organisations such as Al-Qaeda. September 11 marked the beginning of a turbulent phase in which states face a new kind of threat made up of a complex network of insidious revolutionary and nationalist forces. Such transformations have given rise to an unprecedented number of publications. However, both political violence and terrorism remain sources of endless disputes and controversies because of their political implications. At the same time, in the scientific community, terrorism studies lack conceptual and methodological uniformity. In his article, Domenico Tosini synthesises and discusses some major findings from this research. Courses using such a review will be confronted with the four major topics that any analysis of terrorism, to be comprehensive, should take into account: the definition of terrorism; its history and classification; its explanations; and an assessment of the consequences of counterterrorism policies.

The global community was alarmed at what will become the human rights situation of girls and women in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of the USA from the polity and the political ascendancy of the Taliban government in 2021. As expected, Afghan girls and women have been facing severe violations of human rights since the Taliban government gained political power; citing cultural relativism. This cultural relativist excuse of the Taliban government has however been countered by the universality of human rights that Afghan girls and women are entitled to certain freedoms by virtue of being humans. The UN Women, among other human rights vanguards, have been serving as a platform to provide safe haven for women against the violations of human rights by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Understanding that gender discrimination situation is what UN Women aims to address falls within the constructivist contention of relativity and universality of human rights, this study draws on secondary sources of data to examine the context of interplay between ethnicity, culture, politics and human rights of girls and women in Afghanistan. The study also interrogates counter-narratives of the Afghan people against the Taliban’s position and provides a clear argument of how UN Women has been able to provide support for Afghan women and girls. The study argues that UN Women, despite the Taliban’s unapologetic abuse and violations of women and girls rights, is able to provide support for women and girls who suffer gender discrimination in Afghanistan. The study concludes that the cultural relativist excuse of the Taliban does not, in its entirety, represent the cultural norms and attitudes of the Afghan societies. Gender apartheid was not a consistent order of the multi-ethnic configuration in Afghanistan and the political leaders who have ruled at different times had different policy dispositions to women.

Pakistan has been host to an estimated four million Afghan refugees for over four decades. However, in the wake of rising terrorism in the country, Pakistan announced the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP) to address its security challenges. This study, nevertheless argues that the IFRP lacks a gender-sensitive approach. The plan, which disproportionately affects Afghan women refugees, contradicts with Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), which advocates for gender equality and women's rights. This study critically examines the implications of IFRP on Afghan refugee women, who face increased vulnerabilities upon forced repatriation. It employs the Feminist Security Studies (FSS) framework, to highlight gendered experiences of conflict and displacement faced by Afghan women refugees. Using a qualitative case study methodology, the research draws on interviews with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Pak-Afghan Youth Forum, Afghan female refugees, and women’s rights organizations. Secondary sources, including government reports, UNHCR data, and media publications, have also been utilized. The major findings arising from the study highlight the implications of IFRP for Afghan Women refugees who are likely to face gender-based violence, poverty, and social isolation upon return. Furthermore, access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities for them remain severely limited under the repressive Taliban regime. As Pakistan seeks to adopt a balanced approach that preserves its national security while upholding humanitarian principles, it needs to reassess its repatriation plan by integrating gender-sensitive policies that protect vulnerable Afghan women and align with international human rights standards.

This chapter explains the struggle of Afghan women to meet the demands of education. The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) initially provided education and health services to Afghan refugee women and children in camps in Pakistan. It has helped to empower Afghan women and reestablish core ethics and values in Afghan society, while working to change the ideas of men about the role of women in the civil society. The ten concepts applied successfully in Afghanistan are reported. AIL now routinely offers leadership and human rights workshops to rural and urban women. The women's communities and families are supporting the programs of AIL, and Afghans are rediscovering the value of working together to implement the visionary, multifaceted programs supported by AIL. Education is important for Afghan women and girls. In order to be truly empowered, women must be able to make choices about the type of education they receive.

Violence against women in Afghanistan constitutes a persistent human rights violation, deeply embedded in patriarchal social norms and weakened legal institutions. This article explores the issue from a human rights perspective, analyzing Afghanistan’s obligations under international treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It further examines the country’s domestic legal framework, focusing on the 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the 2017 Penal Code of Afghanistan. The study employs doctrinal legal research methods, analyzing statutory texts, constitutional provisions, and international legal standards. Findings indicate that while international human rights law provides a comprehensive legal framework condemning gender-based violence, Afghanistan’s domestic laws offer fragmented protections. The Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women in Afghanistan criminalized 22 forms of violence against women, including child marriage, forced marriage, and domestic abuse; however, it lacked parliamentary ratification, limiting its enforceability. The 2017 Penal Code incorporated some protections but omitted many key provisions of the Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, creating significant legal gaps. The Taliban’s resurgence has further eroded legal protections and institutional support for victims. The article concludes that legal reforms alone are insufficient without effective enforcement, political commitment, and societal change. Strengthening Afghanistan’s legal regime, ensuring enforcement mechanisms, and fostering cultural transformation are essential for protecting women’s rights and fulfilling the country’s human rights obligations.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes See, for instance, a letter from Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 2008, http://www.mne.gov.pt/mne/pt/noticias/200812101640.htm. See, among others, Philippe Sands, Torture Team: Deception, Cruelty and the Compromise of Law (London: Allen Lane, 2008); Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (New York: Doubleday, 2008). It is unclear to what extent European forces in Afghanistan handed over detainees to the United States before 2004–05. Given that US forces were the only ones that had (and have) in-theatre detention facilities, at Bagram airbase and in Kandahar, it seems likely that transfers occurred. Such transfers were probably few, since the ISAF mandate was initially limited to Kabul and European states deployed relatively few troops under the Afghanistan-wide mandate of Operation Enduring Freedom. Amnesty International, Afghanistan – Detainees Transferred to Torture: ISAF Complicity?, 13 November 2007, ASA 11/011/2007, available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/473969ab2. html. The same applies to Canada. The US has reportedly also concluded a memorandum of understanding with the Afghan government. Interviews with Legal Advisor, German Ministry of Defence, Bonn, March 2007, and with NATO Legal Advisor, Mons, January 2007. Dick Marty, Alleged Secret Detentions and Unlawful Inter-state Transfers involving Council of Europe Member States (Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2006). For the UK case in particular see the documents compiled by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, http://www.extraordinaryrendition.org/. Relevant legal sources are the Convention Against Torture and, for European states, the European Convention on Human Rights. Paul Koring, ‘Amnesty Slams Canada over Afghan Detainees’, Globe and Mail, 21 February 2007. Phone interview with former Foreign and Commonwealth Office adviser in Helmand, December 2008. See for example Kirk Semple, ‘8 Prisoners Die in Uprising at Afghan Prison’, International Herald Tribune, 5 December 2008. ‘Interpol pushes Afghanistan to record “terrorist” prisoners’, Agence France- Press, 19 September 2008. Nils N. French, ‘The Sarposa Prison Break’, Canadian Army Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, Summer 2008, pp. 8–15. Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau, ‘Afghan Prison Blues’, Newsweek, 11 February 2008. According to German General Hans- Christoph Ammon, head of the German Special Forces, this failure was due to insufficient funding and an inappropriate training approach. Judy Dempsey, ‘German General Breaks Silence on Afghanistan’, International Herald Tribune, 30 November 2008. Poor police training is widely believed to increase the likelihood of torture and ill-treatment. The EU endorses the provision of effective police and judiciary training as one of the core instruments in its efforts to prevent torture in third countries. See Guidelines to EU Policy towards Third Countries on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Luxembourg: General Affairs Council, 9 April 2001). The Dutch forces seem to work on this assumption as well, since they are reported to transfer detainees only to those Afghan forces that they themselves have trained. See Ashley Deeks, ‘Administrative Detention in Armed Conflict’, Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, vol. 40, no. 3, 2008–2009 (forthcoming). Letter from Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. See Laurel E. Fletcher and Eric Stover, Guantanamo and Its Aftermath: U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices and Their Impact on Former Detainees (Berkeley, CA: Human Rights Center, 2008). Additional informationNotes on contributorsSibylle ScheipersSibylle Scheipers is Director of Studies, Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.

Since the fall of Taliban regime in 2001, the government of Afghanistan, in a bid to promote human rights and specifically women’s rights, made several legislative and institutional advances. These included the establishment of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) as a national human rights institution, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Departments of Women’s Affairs and Gender, Human Rights Units in various ministries and the passing of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW Law) through a Presidential Decree in 2009. Afghanistan is a signatory to several international human rights instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). International treaties and Conventions to which Afghanistan is a signatory forbid all types of discrimination against girls and women and oblige Afghanistan to eliminate all types of discrimination, violence and other possible detrimental practices against women. This paper aims to critically analyse the international obligations of Afghanistan concerning violence against women and the necessary legal and institutional amendments for providing better protection for such victims. This paper has pursued a reformist agenda to eliminate violence against women, which is largely caused by weaknesses in Afghanistan’s legal, institutional and policy frameworks regarding women. The existing legal environment in Afghanistan comprises three incoherent sources of law—State legal code, customary practices and Islamic sharia law. Adopting and implementing the recommendations are likely to contribute significantly to the emancipation of women in Afghanistan. Thus, as part of the reformist agenda adopted by this paper, violence against women warrants urgent legal, institutional and policy reforms.

Gynecological cancers constitute an important global health problem with increasing incidence and prevalence. The aim of this study was to explain gynecologic cancer knowledge, attitudes, and cultural beliefs of Afghan refugee women living in Türkiye. This research was carried out as a descriptive phenomenological design for qualitative research. The study was conducted at the Refugee Support Center Association in Eskişehir, Türkiye, and data were collected between January and April 2023, guided by a semi-structured interview guide. Nineteen Afghan refugee women were interviewed. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit participants. Content analysis method was used for data analysis. Four overarching themes that described Afghan women's gynecologic cancer knowledge, attitudes, and cultural beliefs were identified: (a) limited awareness and knowledge of gynecological cancer among women, (b) women's attitudes toward gynecological cancers, (c) women's cultural beliefs regarding gynecological cancer, and (d) healthcare system factors. In line with the main themes, subthemes were created for each main theme. Afghan refugee women, who were in the double risk group as both women and refugees, had insufficient knowledge of gynecological cancers, and their cultural beliefs and attitudes played an essential role in their access to gynecological cancer-related preventive healthcare services. It is recommended that training be planned to increase the awareness and knowledge of Afghan women on gynecological cancers, considering their cultural characteristics.