Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

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

1. The Committee notes with regret that no report has been received from the Government. Further to its previous observations, the Committee notes with increasing concern the communication of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) dated 15 October 1999, alleging violation of the Convention by the Taliban authorities. In its communication, the ICFTU draws attention to the following United Nations documents: the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/1999/40), the Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1999/9 on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, the Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation of Women and Girls in Afghanistan of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/13) and the Sub-Commission Resolution 1999/14 on the Situation of Women and Girls in Afghanistan. The communication was transmitted to the Government for comment on 12 November 1999. Further, the Committee notes the concerns expressed by the Worker and Employer members at the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards in June 1999 on the application of the Convention by Afghanistan.

2. In its previous observation, the Committee had noted with deep concern the continuing grave abuses of the human rights of women in Afghanistan, and in particular the severe restrictions on their education and employment. It noted not only that the widespread discrimination imposing harsh conditions upon women and girls had remained one of the most preoccupying aspects of the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, but that the situation had dramatically deteriorated throughout 1997 and 1998. Further, the Committee noted with grave concern the information contained in the Report of the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (A/52/493 of 16 October 1997) and the Report of the United Nations Secretary-General (E/CN.4/1998/71 of 12 March 1998), which confirmed earlier comments received in 1997 from the ICFTU, and noted by the Committee, alleging serious violations of the Convention. The Committee also took notice of a number of texts of regulations issued by the Department for the Preservation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice of Afghanistan restricting women's employment as regards jobs in international and national agencies and in hospitals and clinics. It considered such regulations to constitute a further confirmation of the policy of discrimination against women and girls in education and employment. Noting also that male education has suffered significantly since the banning of female employment and education by the Taliban authorities and that even the delivery of humanitarian assistance had been seriously obstructed, the Committee requested the Government to provide detailed information on all the measures being taken to remove the restrictions and prohibitions on females in education and employment.

3. Noting the information contained in the abovementioned reports of 1999 of the United Nations, as well as in the latest Interim Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan (A/54/422 of 30 September 1999), the Committee remains very concerned about the continuing grave violations of the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. The Committee notes from the 1999 Reports of the UN Secretary-General that women continue to be denied the most basic rights, including the right to all levels and types of education and employment outside the home. The impact of the restrictions on women's employment and education has been felt most profoundly in urban areas where women used to work in all sectors of employment, including in scientific, academic and technical fields as well as in government positions. Moreover, the reports indicate that, in certain areas, restrictions imposed by the Department for the Preservation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice of Afghanistan have been enforced through the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and ill-treatment, including the beating of women by Taliban guards in public places. The Committee further notes that "hardly any girls and only 24 per cent of the boys attend school" and "that in most parts of the country, women continue to suffer widespread poverty, low literacy levels, limited opportunities to participate in public life, limited availability to heath care facilities and restrictions on their employment in urban areas".

4. In its previous observation, the Committee noted the decision of the Kabul Caretaker Shura of 28 April 1998 concerning the employment of female professionals, and hoped that this decision signalled a change in the restrictive policy on women's employment. In this connection, the Committee notes that the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan observed some relaxations of the restrictions imposed on the rights of women, notably, that Afghan women are currently allowed to work in the medical sector as doctors and nurses; that a recent edict of 1999 exempted needy widows from the restriction on employment in urban areas; and that on 24 April 1999, the Minister for Health issued a first protocol officially allowing Afghan women to work with a foreign aid organisation. The Committee also notes that a more flexible attitude was expressed by the Taliban representatives with regard to access of girls to education, and that Taliban authorities have allowed support for home-based schools for girls in Kandahar, parallel to improved education for boys. While noting these few positive indications with regard to the employment and education of women and girls, the Committee is, nevertheless, extremely disturbed by the findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, who visited Afghanistan in September 1999 and described the violations of human rights and discrimination against women as systematic. The Rapporteur found that the denial of employment to women had resulted in a rise in begging and prostitution in the country. Noting that the restrictions and prohibitions on females in education and employment, referred to in the Committee's previous observation, appear still to be in force and to have detrimental consequences on the livelihoods of women, the Committee urges the Government to remove these restrictions and prohibitions and to take the necessary steps to ensure respect for the basic rights of women and girls in employment and education. The Committee reiterates its previous request to indicate whether any female professionals have been hired or rehired pursuant to the abovementioned decision of the Kabul Caretaker Shura or the other agreements, and to provide general information on how the decision and agreements are applied in practice.

5. The Committee notes from the Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur (30 September 1999) that the Taliban authorities indicated that a Constitution was in preparation, but that no draft was yet available for discussion. The Committee would be grateful to receive a copy of the draft text of the Constitution, once available.

6. Discrimination on other grounds. In its previous observation, the Committee noted with concern that, according to the 1998 report of the UN Secretary General on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, former members of the Communist Party had suffered discrimination in employment. The Committee noted from the report that measures taken in 1997 affected some 70 professors and lecturers from Kabul University and the Polytechnic Institute, as well as 42 employees from the Taliban Ministry of Public Health and 122 military prosecutors, and it requested full information on all measures taken to ensure non-discrimination in employment and occupation on the basis of political opinion. The Committee has been informed that Afghan intellectuals, community leaders, former army officers and civil servants, as well as locally recruited staff of international organizations, have reportedly been arrested, and tortured or killed, on account of their political activities. It urges the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure non-discrimination in employment and occupation on the basis of political opinion and to provide full information in this regard. Further, the Committee notes that the abovementioned United Nations reports contain indications of grave human rights abuses on grounds of ethnicity, including restrictions on freedom of movement, in particular of the Hazaras in the Central Highlands. The Committee hopes that the next report will contain full information on all measures taken to protect members of ethnic minorities from discrimination in employment and occupation.

7. The Committee urges that full information be provided in the next report on all points covered in its comments which requested detailed information on the abovementioned violations of the Convention and on the points covered in the communication transmitted by the ICFTU in 1997. The Committee must express its growing outrage at the persistence of these developments, which constitute gross and systematic violations of the Convention and of the basic human rights that should be guaranteed to all women as well as men. Noting the detrimental consequences on the well-being of the society as a whole and in particular on the livelihoods of women, the Committee cannot not but urge the immediate cessation of all such reprehensible actions.