HUMANITARIAN AGENDA FOR AFGHANISTAN:
A CARE INTERNATIONAL POLICY PAPER
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I. SUMMARY

Afghanistan is in the grips of a grave humanitarian crisis, with 7.5 million Afghans estimated by the United Nations to be at risk. The people of Afghanistan, still suffering from the aftermath of more than 20 years of conflict and three years of severe drought, now face heightened risk and fear as winter approaches and as they react to the international military response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

CARE urges all parties to accord highest priority to the provision of humanitarian assistance to the millions of innocent Afghan civilians caught up in the crisis. We urge the international community and all Afghan authorities to adopt a humanitarian agenda for Afghanistan, with the following six elements at its core:

II. HUMANITARIAN AGENDA

Following are the key points to be considered under each element of the proposed humanitarian agenda:

1. Right to Humanitarian Assistance:

  1. Afghanistan is already in a humanitarian crisis. The scale of this crisis is enormous, with some 7.5 million Afghans estimated to be at risk. The situation has deteriorated since September 11, with aid efforts disrupted and hundreds of thousands more Afghans fleeing their homes for safety.
  2. There is a need for urgent, massive relief assistance prior to the onset of winter. Harsh winter conditions in Afghanistan render roads to remote parts of the country impassable from mid-November until March, making it difficult for large numbers of Afghans to reach aid or for aid to reach them;
  3. Donor governments and institutions should immediately commit incremental resources to deal with this crisis. Considerable uncertainty remains regarding the magnitude and direction of population movements, and donors and humanitarian agencies should be flexible regarding the locations where food and other relief supplies are ultimately directed.
2. Protection of Civilians in Conflict Areas:
  1. The people of Afghanistan have suffered through more than 20 years of conflict and instability. More than anything, they fear a descent of the country into widespread civil war and the complete anarchy and large-scale loss of life that they have experienced first-hand in recent Afghan history;
  2. All Afghan parties engaged in conflict inside the country should respect international law regarding the treatment of civilians in conflict areas and curtail abuses of the human rights of the Afghan people.
  3. Any international military response in Afghanistan should respect the distinction between innocent civilians and the individuals identified as responsible for planning, supporting and carrying out terrorist actions. Civilian deaths and injuries must be avoided.
3. Humanitarian Access:
  1. Humanitarian organizations, including NGOs and the UN, must be afforded access to all affected civilian populations, both inside Afghanistan and in neighboring countries;
  2. It is imperative that the international community create secure humanitarian space for the resumption of large-scale humanitarian operations inside Afghanistan. For this to be possible, however, the conditions under which humanitarian organizations can operate in Afghanistan must be greatly improved to provide greater security for humanitarian workers, adequate access to communications facilities, etc. Such steps are necessary both to promote the safety of aid workers and the ability of humanitarian organizations to operate independently;
  3. If security conditions do not permit "normal" humanitarian operations to reach large numbers of those affected, extraordinary measures (airlifts/drops, humanitarian corridors, etc.) should be considered on a very temporary basis.
4. Integrity of Humanitarian Action
  1. For aid delivered in Afghanistan, maximum effort must be made to target assistance to those in greatest need and minimize any diversions by combatants. The situation must be monitored carefully and, in the event that aid is judged to not be providing significant net benefits to the intended recipients in any given area, it should be suspended or terminated promptly;
  2. Humanitarian aid should be provided consistent with the principle of impartiality. Innocent civilians in all parts of the country, regardless of ethnic, gender, religious and other such distinctions, should be served. Every effort should be made to reach those in greatest need in both Taliban and opposition-controlled areas;
  3. Aid delivery decisions should be rooted in the humanitarian imperative and should not be used to further any partisan political or military agenda. The humanitarian effort should be under civilian leadership, and any interaction by humanitarian organizations with military forces should be limited to the provision of assistance to needy civilian populations and should serve always to promote human rights.
5. Treatment of refugees:
  1. Neighboring states should open their borders to refugees needing to flee the crisis in Afghanistan, subject to the security screening needed to separate combatants from genuine refugees and avoid further destabilization of border areas;
  2. All refugees have a right to be provided an adequate standard of protection, food, water, shelter, and other basic needs. All refugee camps should be established and managed in accordance with international conventions and humanitarian (e.g. SPHERE) standards;
  3. Some of the planning to date for refugee camps in Pakistan raises serious concerns in the humanitarian NGO community, including camps being sited too close to the Afghan border and in inhospitable locations, possible restrictions by local military and civilian authorities on access of international humanitarian workers to refugee camps, and the potential militarization of camps. Every effort should be made by the international community and host countries to adhere to best practice in the management of refugee camps and to build on lessons learned from previous refugee crises.
6. Reconstruction and Development:
  1. While the international community must focus at present on the need for immediate, massive humanitarian assistance, our efforts should be informed by a desire to help the Afghan people break the cycle of conflict, extreme poverty and despair. We must seek to support and encourage those working for peace and avoid actions that propel Afghanistan down the path of intensified civil war and the complete breakdown of security. The only stable, long-term solutions to the current crisis are ones rooted in the right of the Afghan people to determine their own destiny.
  2. Essential to creating a climate of hope for the future among the Afghan people is an international commitment to aid in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan, a country ravaged by more than 20 years of conflict. Such a commitment could provide an important incentive for a broad range of parties in Afghanistan to intensify efforts to address the country's fundamental problems. Among the minimum conditions for a major program of long-term assistance to Afghanistan should be respect for the rights of all of its own citizens, including women, minorities, and other vulnerable groups, as well as adherence to important legal and diplomatic norms in the country's dealings with the rest of the international community.

 

Final Draft October 9, 2001