Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), a network of 85 human rights organizations across 23 countries based in Thailand, has called for urgent and concrete international actions to protect the Shia and Hazara communities in Afghanistan.
In a statement on Friday, the forum stated that the Shia community of Afghanistan, whose members are predominantly Hazaras, is facing systematic discrimination, targeted attacks, marginalization, persecution, and harsh restrictions by the Taliban.
FORUM-ASIA also stated that the Taliban are responsible for the forced displacement and disappearance of Hazaras, their exclusion from humanitarian aid, as well as arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings of civilians across Afghanistan.
The forum’s Executive Director, Mary Aileen D. Bacalso, said that the situation of massive and systematic human rights violations against the Shia community is extremely alarming. She added that the persecution of the Shia community is fundamentally linked to the complete denial of their freedom of religion or belief.
“As a religious minority which has been historically persecuted by the Afghan state, terrorist groups such as the Taliban, ISIS, and other non-state actors—the Shia Hazaras in Afghanistan are currently at serious risk of a slow genocide,” part of the statement reads.
According to the forum, since the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, at least 700 Hazaras have suffered either death or injury in 13 targeted attacks by Islamic State affiliates. Additionally, humanitarian aid distribution through the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) has been hindered in Hazara regions due to Taliban intervention.
The forum highlighted that the Taliban has coerced members of the Shia-Ismaili community in Badakhshan province to convert to Sunni in order to receive humanitarian aid.
FORUM-ASIA urged the Taliban to immediately lift restrictions and uphold the fundamental rights of the people of Afghanistan, particularly women and girls and marginalized communities such as the Shia Hazara community.
The forum also called on the international community to support the establishment of an international investigative and accountability mechanism by the UN Human Rights Council to gather, preserve, and document evidence on all human rights violations in Afghanistan.
