Man suffers, not only when the part of the world in which he is residing is hit by natural calamities like earthquakes, famines, floods, diseases, etc., but occasionally also at the hands of men driven mad by political, economic or social power. In both types of situations response from the rest of humanity is spontaneous. In the former case, it takes the form of efforts to bring relief to the stricken. But whenever man has been made to suffer at the hands of other men, the conscience of humanity has been outraged, and the cry has gone round for some sort of guarantees to afford protection to him against the tyranny of his fellow human beings, so that he can be assured of at least his rights to life, liberty and security.
Man undeniably is begotten to subsist and serve the interest of humanity; perhaps the underlining reason behind being entitled as a supreme creature. The selfless efforts of some individuals crystallized by the end of the day getting us closer to the warehouse substantiated with every necessity that could effectively be used bridging the physical distance between far stretched human beings. The countless endeavors of those individuals bore fruit and turned the world into global village where the agonies, miseries, pains of individuals could be unaffectedly felt by fellow individuals and likely would be done away with. Notwithstanding, the individuals driven by evil motives, fear of losing what they owned, lust of having numerous monetary gains put them in the black race of domination, subjugation leading to formation of a human society we witness at the moment, characterized by rule of mob, violence, aggression, innumerable bloodshed and ruthless killings of fellowmen. Unluckily our society at present is governed by some of identical dilemmas.
Formerly, a group of insurgent launched an attack on attorney’s office in Mazar-i-Sharif, Khost and Ghazni provinces that claimed lives of dozens of people and wounding around seventy others. According to the local security officials the attack was launched by four insurgents who were all killed following clashes which lasted for almost seven hours. According to medical staff in the city, the dead and injured include police, prosecutors, court staff, women and children.
President Mohammad Ashraf Gahni has strongly condemned the terrorist attack saying enemies are not able to stand in front of security forces so they attack public gathering areas and kill civilians. The NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission too, strongly condemned attack on attorney general’s office, whilst expressing its condolences to the families of those killed and wounded in today’s attack.
Earlier, at least 16 civilians were killed in two separate incidents in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province as result of road side blast and Jalalabad city of Nangarhar province as a result of suicide blast of Afghanistan. The report released earlier confirms the great sum of lives claimed by year’s long war on terror in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. The report titled Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the ‘War on Terror” was released by the Nobel Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, along with Physicians for Social Responsibility and Physicians for Global Survival. The study concluded that around 1.3 million people were killed, both directly and indirectly, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as a result of US-led wars in the region in more than a decade.
The data gathered consisted were from individual studies and data published by United Nations organizations, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. It added that one million people were killed in Iraq, 220,000 in Afghanistan as a result of the war and 80,000 people in Pakistan. According to the report the figure “is approximately 10 times greater than that of which the public, experts and decision makers are aware of and propagated by the media and major NGOs. Following the 9/11 attacks this is the highest figure which is concerning for all of human rights organizations.
Many conflicts within a country is sparked by a failure to protect human rights, and the trauma that results from severe human rights violations often leads to new human rights violations. As conflict intensifies, hatred accumulates and makes restoration of peace more difficult. In order to stop this cycle of violence, states must institute policies aimed at human rights protection.
The values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are essential elements of democracy. In turn, democracy provides the natural environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights. These values are embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and further developed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which enshrine a host of political rights and civil liberties underpinning meaningful democracies.
Irrespective to the aforementioned declaration of human rights, Afghanistan shows a dismal picture of law and order accompanied with the rampant human right violation. Insecurity, crimes against humanity, increasing violence against women and children, lack of access to education, torture and killing of the innocent people either by Taliban, NATO forces or Afghan forces are just some of the human rights violations happening in our country.
When we sit to carve a way forth and talk of human fundamental rights to pursue happiness and liberty, we shouldn’t forget the right to live a dignified life devoid of fear of assassination, suppression and mass murder, stands primary to all other rights. The true sense of happiness and liberty can only be realized provided one leads a life free of being terrorized and harassed. Consequently, putting an end to one’s life is deemed one of the gravest human rights violations, which is a matter of routine in every war-torn country like Afghanistan.
These human rights violations are the matter of great concern for international community extending donation in various fields’ human endeavors. The government must take prior measures in protecting and promoting human rights. It should be noted the rational laws devoid discriminating and individual on grounds of gender, sect, cast and ethnicity must be formulated and be put into operation alike. We have to make it dead certain; without having the law unequivocally applied the claims of human rights violation renders rhetoric.