Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Afghanistan (Ratification: 1969)

1. The Committee notes that no report has been received from the Government. Further to its previous observation, the Committee notes the communication of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) dated 4 August 1997, alleging the violation of the Convention by the Taleban authorities, which includes two reports by Amnesty International, entitled "Amnesty International country report on Afghanistan: Grave abuses in the name of religion" (November 1996) and "Women in Afghanistan: The violations continue" (June 1997). This communication was transmitted for comment on 12 August 1997, but no reply to the observations has been received.

2. The Committee notes from the ICFTU communication the allegation that "The Taleban armed militia, which controls around two-thirds to three-quarters of the country, including the capital city, Kabul, enforces a strict code of behaviour in regions under its control. This includes edicts, issued arbitrarily, which restrict women to their homes and ban them from going to work. Girls and women are banned from going to school and attending higher education institutes. These bans have been imposed until further notice. As the Taleban have strengthened their control, there has been no relaxing of restrictions. In several instances, women defying these orders have been beaten in public by Taleban guards using long chains." It also notes from the November 1996 report of Amnesty International the comment that in November and December 1996:

... the humanitarian work of the United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (was) severely curtailed by the Taleban authorities, which do not permit women staff to participate in ongoing programmes outside of the health sector. Without women staff, agencies are not able to carry out needs assessment, distribution, monitoring and other activities vital to reaching individuals in need. Agencies have noted a dramatic increase in mine-related injuries suffered by women and children following the prohibition of women's participation in mine awareness programmes and the closure of schools by the Taleban ... The impact of the Taleban restrictions on women is most acutely felt in cities such as Herat and Kabul, where there are significant numbers of educated and professional women, compared with the countryside where women have traditionally been excluded from public life. Kabul University, which has closed since the Taleban took over, reportedly had about 8,000 women students while thousands of professional women worked in different capacities in the city. In Herat, about 3,000 women reportedly lost their jobs after the Taleban took control in September 1995 ... Working women in Herat and Kabul protested in vain against the rigid code the Taleban imposed. A woman from Herat informed Amnesty International that when the Taleban entered the city in September 1995, they closed certain government departments, women's public baths and girls' schools. Women who were government employees received their salaries without working for a while, but that too was then cut ... Female nurses form the backbone of the health system in Kabul. Those who had gone to help their patients in early October 1996 were repeatedly beaten up by the Taleban guards. In one hospital, the Taleban reportedly told all 80 female patients to go home as their modesty could not be preserved in an overcrowded ward.

3. The Committee also notes from the ICFTU communication that UNICEF estimates that 700,000 women have been widowed after nearly 20 years of war in the country and most of these women are now not permitted to work to support themselves and their families, although some exceptions have been made. The 1997 report of Amnesty International states, in this regard that:

In some exceptional circumstances, the Taleban have suspended their ban on Afghan women working outside the home. However, even these women who have permission to work are not secure in the areas controlled by the Taleban. In May 1997, members of the Taleban are reported to have beaten a group of Afghan women in Kabul who were employed by the aid agency CARE International. Taleban from the department for "preventing vice and fostering virtue" forced the five women out of the minibus in which they were travelling. The women were publicly humiliated in front of a large crowd and two of them were beaten. Foreign agencies have been warned by the Taleban not to employ local Afghan women, but CARE International stated that the five women in question had documents permitting them to continue working in the relief sector ... On a number of occasions in the past, the Taleban have stated that schooling for women and girls would be restored when the security situation in the country improved. However, this has been shown to be an empty promise as girls remain excluded from schools even in areas of southwestern Afghanistan where the Taleban have been in uncontested control for nearly three years.

4. The Committee notes these communications with grave concern. They indicate a lack of respect for the obligation to apply to girls and women the fundamental human rights covered by the Convention. The Committee is also conscious that measures of the type described would impose considerable hardship on the families of the women concerned, as well as on those who benefit in various ways from the activities undertaken by women. Noting that no response has been received either to the Committee's 1996 observation which requested detailed information on this matter, or to the communication transmitted by the ICFTU, the Committee urges the Government to communicate a full report on all of the measures being taken to restrict or prohibit the educational and employment opportunities of females.

[The Government is asked to supply full particulars to the Conference at its 86th Session.]