Ravadari calls for continued documentation of human rights abuses in Afghanistan
The human rights group Ravadari has called for continued and strengthened documentation of human rights violations in Afghanistan, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the republic and the Taliban’s return to power. The group said that despite widespread repression over the past five years, civil resistance by citizens, especially women and girls, has kept alive hopes for a future based on human rights and equality.
In a statement on Saturday, 24 August, Ravadari said civil society organisations, human rights defenders, the media and journalists have played an important role in recording human rights violations, collecting evidence and amplifying the voices of victims. The group stressed that continuing this process is essential to holding perpetrators accountable.
According to statistics published by Ravadari, at least 6,929 civilians were killed or injured in various incidents between 15 August 2021 and 31 December 2025. The organisation said these incidents included targeted, mysterious and extrajudicial killings, explosive and suicide attacks, unexploded ordnance and Pakistani military attacks.
The group also said that during this period at least 399 former government employees and members of their families were killed in targeted, mysterious and extrajudicial attacks. In addition, at least 47 protesters, including eight women, were killed for holding or taking part in peaceful protest gatherings.
Ravadari added that in the first four years of Taliban rule, at least 6,043 Afghan citizens, including 78 female protesters, were arbitrarily and unlawfully detained, mostly by Taliban intelligence agencies and the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Among those detained were at least 646 former government employees, 643 civil activists, journalists and human rights defenders, and 1,366 people accused of cooperating or having links with groups opposed to the Taliban administration.
According to Ravadari, during the same period at least 51 prisoners died as a result of severe torture in Taliban detention centres, while another 171 were forcibly disappeared. The victims included former government employees, civil activists, human rights defenders and other civilians.
The organisation said in its statement that Taliban courts had punished at least 2,423 people on various charges in an “extralegal, cruel and inhuman” manner over this period. Ravadari said these punishments included public execution of qisas and death sentences, flogging and blackening the faces of the accused.
Ravadari also said that despite this pressure, advocacy and resistance by women, civil activists and human rights defenders inside Afghanistan and abroad had continued. The organisation expressed hope that the continuation of civil struggles could help activate international mechanisms for justice and accountability and raise global awareness of the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
The Ravadari organisation was formed after the Taliban returned to power by a number of human rights activists outside Afghanistan and focuses on documenting human rights violations in the country.
