Human rights in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime are severely restricted and considered among the worst in the world. According to a 2024 report by Freedom House, Political Freedom is rated a 1 out of 40 with Civil Liberties at 5 out of 60, with the overall score of 6 out of 100 due to various factors including but not limited to: women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, ethnic minority rights, torture, and freedom of speech. Women's rights and freedom are severely restricted, as they are banned from most public spaces and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven. The Taliban's policies towards women are categorized as a gender apartheid. Minority groups such as Hazaras, Uzbek, Turkmen, and Tajik face persecution and eviction from their lands.
The Taliban restricts the rights of particular minority groups to remain as close to their extremist interpretation of Islamist Law. These patriarchal norms are meant to uphold a controlling environment in public and private life as well as solidify the Talibans control. Authorities have used physical violence, raids, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances of activists and political opponents. The media is tightly controlled with almost no freedom, with intrusive and strict monitoring in play. The strict media control is primarily used to further their interpretation of Islamic law as well as make sure that they stifle criticism or any dissent against their government. By doing so, the Taliban faithfully eliminates any narrative that may oppose their regime or promote different ideologies, monopolizing information.
History Under the monarchy of Zahir Shah, human rights were usually respected. As of 1949, the Afghan Prime Minister Shah Mahmud Khan, increased press freedom, but these moves were soon reversed. The Press Law which was implemented in July 1965, gave considerable freedom to the press for the first time. While the press was mostly free, in some cases the King closed down media from dissidents that were considered threatening. The communist Khalq republic that governed Afghanistan after the Saur Revolution in 1978 was brutal, vigorously suppressing opposition. The government abducted and executed thousands of prisoners as well as rural civilian dissidents.Derailing Democracy in Afghanistan: Elections in an Unstable Political Landscape by Noah Coburn, Anna Larson.
In April 1987, Afghanistan ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT), which prevents the state from inflicting torture on any individual. New leader Babrak Karmal promised to end the Khalq's brutality, which it partly did, but human rights abuses still continued. The government along with the Soviets (during the Soviet–Afghan War) intentionally targeted civilian settlements in rural areas. Under President Mohammad Najibullah's reforms, freedom of expression was further improved but human rights overall remained restricted.
In the 1990s, many atrocities were committed by various militias against civilians. Indiscriminate rocket attacks during the Battle of Kabul, especially those by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's militia, killed thousands of civilians. The Taliban, in power from 1996, imposed strong restrictions on women, performed public executions, and prevented international aid from entering the country for starving civilians.
The presidential government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which previously ruled Afghanistan, from 2004 until the Taliban overthrew it in 2021, had a strong human rights framework in its constitution. A bill of rights was enshrined in chapter two of the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan. The right to life and liberty were constitutionally protected, as were the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence for all persons. That gave the Islamic Republic a strong human rights framework that was guaranteed to all citizens.
Contemporary human rights issues
The Bonn Agreement of 2001 established the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) as a national human rights institution to protect and promote human rights and to investigate human rights abuses and war crimes. The Afghanistan Constitution of 2004 entrenched the existence of the AIHRC. While the ongoing turmoil, violence and reconstruction efforts often make it difficult to get an accurate sense of what is going on. Reports from NGOs have accused various branches of the Afghan government of engaging in human rights violations. There has been a noticeable shift in recent years, with more information coming to light regarding the abuse of minority groups due to this extremist regime; organizations like Hagar USA are dedicated to spreading information on the dangers of life in Afghanistan with the goal of helping its people. With statistics that claim that 86% of people in Afghanistan are at-risk of human trafficking or slavery, 9/10 Afghan people are living below the poverty line and 30% of girls who are under 18 are married. By publishing this information, they hope to encourage people to learn more about the countries suffering population and join them on their mission to help.
Additionally, a lot of organizations and American media face constant backlash and criticism when discussing the topic because of reports of American soldiers abusing and harming Afghan civilians. During the war that ranged from 2001-2021 where millions of American soldiers were deployed in Afghanistan there were several reports made documenting the psychological and physical abuse endured by citizens in detention facilities as well as blatant use of excessive force on civilians. There have also been various human rights abuses by American soldiers on Afghan civilians, most notably in the Baghram prisons where innocent civilians endured torture, humiliating conditions, and inhumane treatment. The United States was heavily criticized for lenient sentencing for the soldiers responsible. Former Afghan warlords and political strongmen supported by the US during the ousting of the Taliban were responsible for numerous human rights violations in 2003 including kidnapping, rape, robbery, and extortion.Afghanistan: Warlords Implicated in New Abuses 29 July 2003
Some members of the Afghan National Security Forces were involved in killing civilians in ground operations as well as in air strikes.
Torture agreement In March 2002, ABC News claimed top officials at the CIA authorized controversial, harsh interrogation techniques. The possible interrogation techniques included shaking and slapping, shackling prisoners in a standing position, keeping the prisoner in a cold cell and dousing them with water, and water boarding. A United Nations study in 2011 reported on interviews with 379 detainees. It found those held by police or intelligence services were subjected to beatings, removal of toenails and electric shocks.
Justice system
Afghanistan has two dominant justice systems: the formal state system and the informal traditional system. Despite the existence of ordinary judicial system e.g. Supreme Court, National Security Court (dealing with terrorism-related cases), first and second instance courts, "jirga" and "shura"-traditional institutions are operating.
Under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the justice system has been marked by strict interpretations of Islamic law. In April 2025, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada defended executions, stating they were an integral part of Islam. This statement followed the execution of four men convicted of murder, which took place in sports stadiums; the largest such mass execution since the Taliban regained power in 2021. The Supreme Court of Afghanistan upheld the death sentence after victims' families refused to grant amnesty. The executions were widely condemned by human rights organizations and the United Nations. Akhundzada emphasized the importance of implementing all divine commands and rejected Western legal frameworks, reinforcing the Taliban's focus on enforcing Islamic law.
Law and order
Some members of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) have been accused of running their own prisons, torturing suspects, and harassing journalists. They have also been accused of deliberately killing civilians during government raids.
The security forces of local militias, which also have their own prisons, have been accused of torture and arbitrary killings. Warlords in the north have used property destruction, rape, and murder to discourage displaced Pashtuns from reclaiming their homes. Child labor and human trafficking remain common outside Kabul. Civilians have been killed frequently in battles between warlord forces. Poor conditions in overcrowded prisons have contributed to illness and death among prisoners. To stop it, a prison rehabilitation program had begun in 2003.
In the absence of an effective national judicial system, the right to judicial protection has been compromised as uneven local standards have prevailed in criminal trials. Fair trial principles are enshrined in the Afghan constitution and the criminal procedure but frequently violated for various reasons, including the lack of well-educated, professional staff (especially defence lawyers), lack of material resources, corruption and unlawful interference by warlords and politicians.See Tilmann J. Röder, 'Human Rights Standards in Afghan Courtrooms: The Theory and Reality of the Right to a Fair Trial', in: 'Islam and Human Rights', ed. by H. Elliesie, Peter Lang Verlag (Frankfurt am Main) 2010. Several thousands of people in Afghanistan have been victims of enforced disappearance over the past four decades."Agony of Afghanistan's Enforced Disappearances"
On 27 June 2020, two human rights defenders associated with Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) were killed in a bomb attack. They died after an explosive device attached to their vehicle detonated. The attack came less than a week after two prosecutors and three other employees from the attorney general's office were shot dead by gunmen in Kabul.
On August 14, 2020, the United Nations experts demanded the Afghanistan government take an early decisive action to prevent the killing of human rights defenders. Nine human rights defenders have been killed since the start of 2020. The number has already surpassed 2019's figure.
Since 2021, when the Taliban established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, 100 former government officials and affiliates have been killed. Human rights activists, civil rights activists and media workers are under "constant attack" (threats and intimidation) under this new government.
Freedom of speech and the media
Article 34 of the Afghan Constitution allows freedom of speech and press, though there are restrictions on media that may invoke Islamic law or be offensive to other sects. However, there has been harassment and threats targeting journalists and legal experts, especially outside Kabul. Freedom of the press was guaranteed by interim President Hamid Karzai in February 2002. The 2004 Media Law was signed by Karzai in 2005. In 2008, documentary filmmaker Nasir Fayaz was arrested for criticising politicians from the President's cabinet on his weekly show on Ariana TV. The arrest caused an outcry from journalists and it violated Article 34 which reads "Freedom of expression shall be inviolable". Afghanistan ranks 122nd in the 2020 dropping by 2 points from 120th rank in 2017 according to Press Freedom Index. But still, it stands in a better position than all its neighbors.