Open Letter from Civil Society Members of the General Assembly of the Afghanistan Open Government Partnership

To: Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More Governments, Founders, Civil Societies, UN Human RightsAn essential part of open government includes protecting the sacred freedoms and rights of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. T... Council, international media, and other human rights and donor organizations that receive the letter.

Subject: Attempts to kill some members of civil society of open government partnership of Afghanistan.

Date: 01/08/2022

Greetings from Afghanistan:

We are confident in your knowledge that you are aware of the current highly challenging circumstances in Afghanistan. Twenty years of collective efforts by international society “shoulder to shoulder” with their Afghan counterparts collapsed just in two weeks with an uncertain future. Which not only broke the hearts of Afghans but also seriously threatened the lives of civil society activists working to preserve civil values and human rights.

Millions of Afghan women and girls have been exposed to systematic genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... discrimination since August 15, 2021, in complete violation of the international law that Afghanistan has signed, and the future of women is in grave danger

Although the Taliban have declared a general amnesty since capturing Kabul, there are individuals and circles within them who pursue an agenda of torturing and killing civil and human rights activists. Because they consider the word “civil” to mean the West’s import to Afghanistan, they believe that the activities of civil and human rights activists as the agenda of Western countries provide the basis for achieving their goals in Afghanistan.

Now, with the symbolic invitation of some figures of the previous government, the Taliban want to deceive the international community and exploit the existence of those invited politically. But the truth is that employees at various levels of the previous government and civil and human rights activists who remain in Afghanistan are still at risk of torture and death.

Every month, dozens of people are arrested and mysteriously killed under different titles. But it is not reflected in the media. For example, at the beginning of July 2022, dozens of dead bodies of arrested people were found in Nangarhar province.

In June 2022, gunmen killed a local AYCN activist in Jalalabad. In the mentioned month, a former army general who returned from Iran to Afghanistan was arrested at the Kabul airport and his fate is unknown.

On 06/25/2022, the Taliban raided homes in the Khairkhana area of Kabul province, arrested 60 people, and transferred them to an unknown location. Former government employees and social activists are among those detained. The same day, the Taliban entered the house of Mohammad Moradi in Ghor province and killed Moradi, his wife, and his daughter. He was a colleague of the former government.

Arrests and killings by the Taliban in Afghanistan continue unabated, but due to media censorship, the Taliban’s ugly actions do not broadcast. And people do not dare to talk about these arrests and killings. Even the families of the victims are not willing to talk about the arrest and death of their relatives due to the fear of the Taliban.

In the first week of July, armed men attacked Mr. Afghan’s brother’s house, and in that attack, unfortunately, Mr. Afghan’s brother was killed by armed men. But Mr. Afghan had left his brother’s house two days before the attack. On 16/06/2022, Mr. Afghan wrote and published an open letter about the human rights crisis, especially the women’s rights crisis in Afghanistan. You can find the link to that open letter below.

https://www.facebook.com/102248192128758/posts/pfbid05v1zv52isbB8JGUUF5ig9hVGJPaz8QWNT7Bb69h3mRM1FHNrwAin3FbFE4LuXCFxl/

Some thought that the Taliban might have changed, but on the contrary, they are more violent than ever about civil and political liberties, especially the rights of women and girls, freedom of speech, and freedom of the media. They follow the policy of suppressing and excluding women from society. They mysteriously kill civil activists and those who can organize people in the community.

We, a group of civil society members of Open Government Partnership (“OGP”) Afghanistan, are writing this letter with immense hope. We hope that Open Government Partnership Governments, Founders, and international humanitarian agencies will help us overcome these challenges. We are writing this letter keeping in view the security concerns and life threats that we all are facing due to our work in terms of:

1. Implementing the principles which make the founding basis of OGP, including but not limited to increasing civic participation in government policies, empowerment of citizens particularly women, and ensuring justiceTo address barriers that prevent citizens from having their justice needs met, OGP participating governments are working to expand transparency, accountability, and inclusion into all systems of justi... to all citizens, in Afghanistan;
2. Working with the former Afghan government in achieving its commitments to OGP and ensuring implementation of the same through monitoring and joint working;
3. Standing against injustices against women and vulnerable citizens of Afghanistan;
4. Ensuring all members of the Afghan community have access to their basic rights; and
5. Elimination of injustices against women and vulnerable citizens of Afghanistan.

To ensure the people of Afghanistan live in an environment where they are no longer a victim of injustice, we have determinedly worked with the former Afghan government so it can fulfill all the 29 commitments it had made to OGP. In addition, we have led the supervision and monitoring of the same as well. We were successful in developing, supervising, and monitoring all the 29 commitments made by the former Afghan government to OGP. Below are a few of the commitments that were achieved with our assistance:

1. Revision of the Law on Processing, Publishing, and Enforcing of Legislative Documents;
2. Establishment of special courts for violence against women in 12 provinces of Afghanistan;
3. Developing the concept of protection of women in times of war and emergency;
4. Establishment of High Council of Women;
5. Developing a national plan for women empowerment;
6. Increasing transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More in the hiring process for prosecutors as a result of amendments in the Law on Structure and Powers of Attorney General’s Office;
7. Establishment of the Commission on Anti-Corruption with the participation of civil society organizations; and
8. Developing the concept on increased monitory role of the civil society in transparency and quality in educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ....

In line with our responsibilities, we had multiple meetings with the former Afghan government entities the record of which is still present in the mentioned entities. Our efforts were also widely published by the media. All of us are now subject to serious life-threatening risks as the regime is changed in Afghanistan. Our lives are in grave danger due to the activities that we have performed on behalf of OGP Afghanistan which is mentioned above.

Civil society members of the General Assembly of the Afghanistan Open Government Partnership are not only accused of collaborating with the previous Afghan government but they are also accused of collaborating with the International Forum for Open Government Partnership.

They allege that members of the civil society of the General Assembly of the Afghanistan Open Government Partnership worked for the agenda of Western countries in Afghanistan. That is why the members of the General Assembly of the Afghanistan Open Government Partnership are one of the most important targets of the assassination of terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

We the members of the civil society of the General Assembly of the Afghanistan Open Government Partnership, who are in a difficult situation, call on our international partners to help with their humanitarian aidMore and better information about aid helps partner countries and donor institutions plan and manage aid resources more effectively, parliaments and civil society to hold governments accountable for t... to get us out of Afghanistan.

Either help us to leave Afghanistan or, with the help of the UN Security Council, get a credible guarantee from the Taliban that they will not harm those OGP members in Afghanistan whom the Taliban want to assassinate. Of course, an acceptable guarantee, because the Taliban’s past shows that they are not fulfilling their obligations. They torture and ultimately destroy those who strive to preserve human values and those who can organize and mobilize the people.

If any member of the civil society organization of the General Assembly of the Open Government Partnership of Afghanistan is killed by terrorist groups, this issue could also damage the international reputation of the OGP.

We are hopeful that OGP Governments members, OGP Founders, and Human rights organizations will assist us in these difficult times as we have contributed tirelessly with implementing the principles on which OGP was established and which are strongly upheld by all the OGP members.

We have made tireless efforts to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and use new technologies to strengthen government and generally for good and open governance.

Now that we are in danger of death for trying to realize the goals of the OGP, it is not appropriate that our international partners leave us alone under the knife of terrorists in this difficult situation. If international friends do not take serious action in this field, in the future no one will believe the humanitarian claims of international partners.

We thank the OGP member governments and donors for their assistance to the OGP Support UnitThe OGP Support Unit is a small, permanent group of staff that work closely with the Steering Committee and the Independent Reporting Mechanism to advance the goals of the Open Government Partnership...., as a result of which a member of the General Assembly of the Afghanistan Open Government Partnership, Mr. Zia-ul-Haq Haqpal, and his family was transferred from Afghanistan to Macedonia.

Mr. Haqpal and his family were relocated to Macedonia in August 2021 during the evacuation process. And now resides in Canada.

It should be noted that the General Assembly of the Open Government Partnership of Afghanistan has 17 members of civil society organizations, most of whom were able to leave Afghanistan through their personal relationships with some international organizations. But four other members of the General Assembly of the Afghanistan Open Government Partnership, including Mr. Abdul Wadood Afghan, co-chair, are still in danger of death in Afghanistan.

In the end, we ask all the international media receiving this open letter to help us in reflecting on this letter and conveying our voice to human rights defenders.

Kind regards,

Civil society members – Open Government Partnership (OGP) Afghanistan