Rawaadari urges continued documentation of human rights abuses in Afghanistan
The human rights organisation Rawaadari has marked the fifth anniversary of the سقوط of the republic and the Taliban administration’s return to power by calling for the continued and expanded documentation of human rights violations in Afghanistan. The group says that despite widespread repression over the past five years, the civil resistance of citizens, especially women and girls, has kept alive hope for a future based on human rights and equality.
In a statement on Saturday, 24 Asad, Rawaadari said civil society organisations, human rights defenders, media outlets 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 figures published by Rawaadari, at least 6,929 civilians were killed or injured in various incidents from 15 August 2021 to 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.
Rawaadari added that in the first four years of Taliban rule, at least 6,043 Afghan citizens, including 78 female protesters, were arbitrarily and illegally detained, mostly by Taliban intelligence 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 society activists, journalists and human rights defenders, and 1,366 people accused of cooperating with or having links to groups opposing the Taliban administration.
According to Rawaadari, during the same period at least 51 prisoners died as a result of severe torture in Taliban detention centres and 171 others were forcibly disappeared. The victims included former government employees, civil society 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 through what it described as “extralegal, cruel and inhuman” methods during this period. Rawaadari said these punishments included public execution of qisas and death sentences, flogging and blackening the faces of the accused.
Rawaadari also said that despite these pressures, the advocacy and resistance of women, civil society activists and human rights defenders inside and outside Afghanistan has continued. The group expressed hope that the continuation of civil struggles could help activate international justice and accountability mechanisms and raise global awareness of the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
Rawaadari was founded 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.
