Afghanistan’s humanitarian
crisis cannot be effectively addressed unless the United
States and other governments ease restrictions on the
country’s banking sector to facilitate legitimate economic
activity and humanitarian aid, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch issued an updated question-and-answer
document outlining the economic crisis and steps to
overcome it.
The US and other governments and the World Bank
Group revoked the credentials of the Central Bank of
Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021. The US
air strike on July 30, 2022, killing the al-Qaeda leader Ayman
al-Zawahri, should not derail ongoing discussions between the US
and Afghanistan to urgently reach an agreement allowing ordinary
Afghans to engage in legitimate commercial activity.
“Afghanistan’s intensifying hunger and health crisis is urgent
and at its root a banking crisis,” said John
Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
“Regardless of the Taliban’s status or credibility with outside
governments, international economic restrictions are still
driving the country’s catastrophe and hurting the Afghan
people.”
Despite actions by the US and others to license banking
transactions with Afghan entities, Afghanistan’s central bank
remains unable to access its foreign currency reserves or process
or receive most international transactions. As a result, the
country continues to suffer from a major liquidity crisis and
lack of banknotes. Businesses, humanitarian groups, and private
banks continue to report extensive restrictions on their
operational capacities. At the same time, because outside donors
have severely cut funding to support Afghanistan health,
education, and other essential sectors, millions of Afghans have
lost their incomes.
Acute malnutrition is entrenched across Afghanistan, even though
food and basic supplies are available in markets throughout the
country. An Afghan humanitarian official told Human Rights Watch
in mid-July, “People have nothing to eat. You may not imagine it,
but children are starving…. The situation is dire, especially if
you go to the villages.” He said he knew of one family who had
lost two children, ages 5 and 2, to starvation in the last two
months: “This is unbelievable in 2022.” He said that he knew of
no shortages in food supplies and that the causes of the crisis
were economic: “A functioning banking system is an immediate and
crucial need to address the humanitarian crisis.”
Almost 20 million people – half the population – are suffering
either level-3 “crisis” or level-4
“emergency” levels of food insecurity under the
assessment system of the World Food Programme (WFP).
Over one million children under 5 – especially at risk of dying
when deprived of food – are suffering from prolonged acute
malnutrition, meaning that even if they survive, they face
significant health problems, including stunting. Recently,
the WFP reported that tens
of thousands of people in one province, Ghor, had slipped into
“catastrophic” level-5 acute malnutrition, a precursor to
famine.
Overall, more than 90 percent of Afghans have been suffering from
some form of food insecurity since last August, skipping meals or
whole days of eating and engaging in extreme coping
mechanisms to pay for food, including sending children
to work. Afghanistan’s economic collapse was caused in part by a
collapse in most families’ incomes following the Taliban takeover
and foreign donors’ decisions to suspend outside budgetary
support for numerous government, humanitarian, and development
sectors, including education and health.
US and World Bank decisions to restrict Afghanistan’s banking
sector have significantly amplified the crisis by hampering most
legitimate economic activities, including humanitarian efforts.
The Central Bank of Afghanistan is unable to carry out basic
central banking functions, including holding currency auctions,
importing banknotes, and processing or settling legitimate
commercial and humanitarian transactions. Because of these
incapacities, even basic economic activities remain severely
curtailed.
“Importers are struggling to pay for goods, humanitarian groups
are facing problems with basic operations, and the Afghan
diaspora can’t send enough money to their relatives and friends,”
Sifton said. “Millions of hungry Afghans are experiencing the
abysmal reality of seeing food at the market but being unable to
purchase it.”
Making matters worse, Afghanistan’s economic crisis is occurring
as inflation and cost
increases have been accelerating, with an over 50
percent increase for basic household items since July 2021.
According to World Bank data, prices for
staples such as rice and wheat have almost doubled in the last
two months. At the same time, prices for agricultural inputs
like fertilizer and fuel have
doubled, and they are in short supply, meaning Afghanistan’s
own domestic food production is set to decrease in 2022.
The crisis’ impact on women and girls is especially severe. An
Afghan woman working for a civil society group said that
restrictions on women’s basic rights to freedom of movement and
work have made it difficult “even for educated women who used to
be financially independent,” and fall particularly hard on
widows. “Pregnant women are really affected by the situation,
especially because of the limited access to health care. I know
dozens of widowed women who send me messages every day asking for
help.”
Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation would be even worse had the
United Nations and other aid providers not substantially
increased their operations in 2022, Human Rights Watch said. As
the World Food Programme
stated in a food security assessment for June through
November 2022, “The severity of the situation is only partially
mitigated by the unprecedented surge of humanitarian assistance
that covers 38 percent of the total population of Afghanistan in
the current period. In the absence of such assistance, the
magnitude and severity of needs would be dramatically
higher.”
The Taliban leadership should recognize that their poor human
rights record is imperiling hopes to reach any agreements to
resolve the banking crisis, Human Rights Watch said. Since last
August, the authorities have imposed strict restrictions on women
and girls that violate their rights to education, work, health
care, and freedom of movement and speech. Taliban authorities
have also suppressed media and arbitrarily detained and at times
executed perceived critics or opponents.
Taliban authorities are reportedly prepared to accept
independent monitoring of the central bank by outside
auditors, a key demand of the US government and World Bank. But
they continue to reject key demands from governments to remove
sanctioned officials from the central bank’s leadership and to
reverse their position denying secondary education to girls and
women.
“The Taliban seem more interested in restricting the human rights
of Afghan women and girls than in preventing starvation,” Sifton
said. “If their leadership is seeking legitimacy, they need to
rethink their priorities.”
For a Q&A on the economic crisis in Afghanistan,
please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/04/economic-causes-afghanistans-humanitarian-crisis
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Afghanistan,
please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/asia/afghanistan
