World’s conscience on trial

An Afghan girl can die of starvation if the Taliban do not let her go to school. That in essence is the consequence of American-driven western policy to ensure the human rights of Afghan women and girls. As long as the Taliban deny these rights, Afghanistan is to be sanctioned and denied assistance despite the humanitarian crisis that has now gripped the country. Such an illogical policy effectively punishes the Afghan people, including women and girls, for alleged acts of omission and commission taken by their government which are deemed as violations of human rights, such as denial of the right to education for girls or the right to work for women. As such, the west has created a dichotomy between protection of human rights and preventing a humanitarian disaster.

According to the UB, 60% of 38 million Afghans face crisis levels of hunger. The World Food Programme estimates that 3.2 million Afghan children now face acute malnutrition. The World Health Organization fears that 1 million children under five will die of starvation this winter alone. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that there are now 665 thousand newly displaced people in Afghanistan due to the recent turmoil in addition to the 2.9 million people already displaced over the last 20 years.

Apart from this humanitarian toll, Afghanistan is facing an economic meltdown with shortages of cash and foreign exchange, rampant inflation, unemployment and shortages of food and other essential commodities. Such challenges would not only create political instability in Afghanistan but would also lead to increase in the number of refugees and proliferate drug trafficking, smuggling of weapons and other contraband goods. The resultant instability in the country would also enhance incidents of terrorism. Then there is the lingering threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. These challenges would not remain confined to Afghanistan but would spread across the region and beyond. The west would not be immune from the effects of these developments.

Pakistan recognised the dangers emanating from an unstable and fragile Afghanistan even before the Taliban came to power and the US completed its withdrawal from that country, repeatedly calling for a peaceful transition and a responsible withdrawal. But the US and its allies abandoned Afghanistan in their desperation to extricate themselves from their 20-year-long war. Now as conditions for engaging with the Taliban, they are demanding that the Taliban form an inclusive government; respect human rights, such as employment for women and schooling for girls; and combat terrorism. While these ends are desirable, much in this regard was not even achieved by the US and its partners during their occupation of more than two decades.

Accordingly, Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly stressed the need to incentivise the Taliban through engagement rather than isolation and ostracisation. His government has launched an intensive diplomatic campaign to mainstream the Taliban government and especially to build up international support for assisting the Afghan people. Bilaterally, Pakistan has provided critically needed supplies of food, medicine and other essential commodities. It even set aside differences with India to allow supplies of Indian wheat to Afghanistan, despite the malign Indian role to destabilise the Taliban government and previously the use of Afghan soil to promote terrorism in Pakistan. Internationally, Pakistan has urged the world community to step up its assistance, especially to avert a humanitarian disaster. The UN Secretary General and heads of other international organisations have recognised the urgency of the situation and called for an emergency assistance programme for Afghanistan in response to Pakistan’s outreach. Unfortunately, however, the international response, especially from the rich western countries, has been far below the requirement.

Pakistan’s role on humanitarian grounds is not new. In fact, it provided sanctuary to nearly 4 million Afghans following the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979 and since then an entirely new generation of Afghans has grown up in Pakistan — in what is the largest and longest refugee population in the world. Such humanitarianism has a pragmatic dimension as well, since instability and insecurity in Afghanistan has a direct impact on Pakistan. For all these reasons, Pakistan is playing a leading role for mitigating the current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Apart from cooperating with the UN and its associated Specialised Agencies, Pakistan has reached out to key international financial institutions and regional organisations such as the EU and especially the OIC. With the collaboration of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan has convened the OIC Foreign Ministers meeting on 19^th December 2021 in Islamabad to evolve a programme of action involving practical measures to deal with the Afghan humanitarian crisis. Apart from the participations of Islamic countries, several non-Islamic states and donor agencies would also be involved with implementing the OIC’s action plan, particularly for raising funds for the diverse humanitarian projects needed.

But the success of these efforts would depend to a large extent on the willingness of the western countries to support this humanitarian initiative. So far they have been reluctant to do so for political reasons as considered above. In their policy of compellence against the Taliban, the US and its allies have not only frozen Afghan reserves of over 10 billion dollars and assistance programmes in the pipeline but have also imposed sanctions and embargoes on any future assistance. Under such circumstances, only a trickle has been flowing for overcoming the massive humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. In the bargain, however, these countries are condemning the Afghan people, including women and girls, to face starvation and other forms of deprivation. As such, these countries are willing to sacrifice the right to life for the right to education or work. As such human rights and humanitarian principles are being turned on their head.

None of this should come as a surprise since protection of human rights and responsibility to protect are ideals that have been repeatedly used by major western powers as leverage to gain their geo-political objectives. Targeted countries such as Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Venezuela and others that pursue policies inconsistent with American/western interests have, therefore, become the targets of unilateral coercive measures through sanctions and embargoes. Afghanistan is the latest country to joint this group.

In such circumstances, the OIC meeting in Islamabad assumes immense significance. It will be confronting western pressure both on the OIC as an organisation and on its individual members. As the host, Pakistan will be singularly under scrutiny. Yet, this conference holds out the best opportunity so far to overcome the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Failure to do so would be disastrous — not just for the Afghans but for the entire international community. As such, the world’s conscience is on trial.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2021.

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