A/HRC/22/37
of the casualties were attributed to PGFs, including international military forces. The
remaining 15 per cent could not be attributed to any party in the conflict owing to the nature
of the incidents, such as crossfire. It is important to note that casualties attributed to AGEs
increased by 15 per cent, while those attributed to PGFs decreased by 16 per cent in 2012.
In 2012, nearly 200 children were killed and injured by detonations of unexploded
ordnances and explosive remnants of war, mostly during the seasonal rains period. Children
also lost lives and limbs through direct contact with unexploded ordnances and explosive
remnants of war.
28.
Targeting of children and schools is a direct violation of international humanitarian
law and all parties to the conflict have an obligation to cease any such activities. Yet, AGEs
continued to launch attacks on schools, especially targeting girls’ school and their staff. The
Country Task Force received reports on 102 incidents of attacks against schools and staff.
Only 25 incidents, however, were verifiable due to concerns of insecurity and lack of
resources. On 14 April, AGEs forcibly closed all schools in Andar and Dih Yak districts of
Ghazni province. Hospitals, health clinics and health staff were also affected.
29.
UNAMA/OHCHR received reports that AGEs were increasing recruitment and use
of children for conflict-related activities, especially in the north-eastern region. ANSF
reported that they had rescued several children who were reportedly being trained as suicide
bombers. Of a total of 40 reported incidents of child recruitment received during the year,
118 boys had been arrested for allegedly helping an armed group, following recruitment
into their ranks. ANSF, particularly ANP and ALP, also recruited boys to perform policing
duties. In December, the Ministry of Interior’s Director of Human Rights and Gender
offered UNAMA unimpeded access to monitor their recruitment centres throughout
Afghanistan. This will be one means to measure the rigorousness of training given to ANP
recruits on the prohibition of child recruitment and vetting of ANP recruits.
III. Protection from arbitrary detention and respect for fair trial
rights
30.
The Afghan prison population has been growing, putting a strain on the already
overcrowded system that was designed to hold 10,000 prisoners at any given time. October
2012 figures from the Ministry of Interior’s Central Prison Directorate reveal that the
Directorate is housing 24,027 sentenced prisoners and detainees. In addition, the Ministry
of Justice is housing 976 juvenile detainees and prisoners in Juvenile Rehabilitation Centres
in Afghanistan as of 20 October 2012. These statistics do not include the number of persons
detained by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and ANP, neither of which keeps
regular public statistics of their detainee populations. These numbers continued to increase
with the intensification of the conflict and security operations that result in arrests of
persons on suspicion of national security crimes. Widespread arbitrary detention has long
been a consequence of this situation, with lengthy pretrial detention of suspects for three
months or longer without charge or opportunity to be brought before a judge. In some
cases, suspects may be held by the arresting authority for over three months without ever
seeing a prosecutor, knowing the charges against them or having the opportunity to go on
trial.
31.
Access to conflict-related detainees is often limited for legal aid lawyers, defence
counsel and local human rights organizations, raising fair trial concerns. There is a serious
shortage of defence lawyers compared to the number of detainees requiring legal
representation. Although Afghan law gives detainees the right to access to defence counsel
at the time of arrest, UNAMA/OHCHR found that NDS almost never allowed counsels to
visit clients until after completion of the initial investigation.
9
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