Meet Hassan Ali: Promoting human rights in Afghanistan for the sake of humanity
9 December 2015, Kabul (Afghanistan) — Hassan Ali Faiz sees himself as working to stophumanity from vanishing amid the many wars around the globe. He draws his jobsatisfaction not from the successes he reaps, but from a strong sense that heis doing the right thing for his kind.
“I always call it a ‘double-paid’ job,” he says. “Youare paid in money and in altruism credits.”
It must be said that Hassan Ali is working to promotehuman rights in Afghanistan — a very complex and changing environment — wherechronic instability and conflict have left the economy and infrastructure inshambles. Yet he sticks to his goal, convinced that he is making a differencein decreasing the number of cases of torture and ill treatment in his country.
From the outside at least, it would seem that thingsin the landlocked, mountainous country are only getting worse. After theTalibans’ strict Islamic rule, a bloody civil war, a United States-led invasionof the country in 2001, the formal end of NATO’s security-keeping mission inDecember 2014, the Taliban are now making a comeback, with more and moresupporters of Islamic State in the country. All of this further threatens theAfghan Government’s nascent peace efforts.
The power struggle between the June 2014 presidential electioncontenders (turned president and chief executive) and the growing pressure fromTaliban insurgents, has, according to Human Rights Watch, contributed to adecline in respect for human rights throughout the country: unpunished abusesby security forces, threats to women’s rights and freedom of expression, andindiscriminate attacks on civilians.
Though the Government of Afghanistan ratified theConvention against Torture in June 1987, and punishes public officialsusing torture for the purpose of obtaining a confession with a 15-year jailsentence, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment are regularly used duringinterrogation in government detention facilities across the country, accordingto February 2015 report of the Human Rights Unit of the United NationsAssistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Out of 635 conflict-relateddetainees, 326 were tortured, the report said, also denouncing widespreadinhuman treatment. Afghanistan, which is expected in coming months to submitits latest report on its implementation of the UN Convention Against Torture,denies the use of torture in its detention facilities.
At 34, Hassan Ali, who holds a Master’s degree inIslamic studies, has already been working in the field of human rights for overa decade. As Senior Researcher for the CivilSociety and Human Rights Network (CSHRN), an umbrella organization comprising 138members aiming to promote a collective voice for civil society and human rightsin Afghanistan, he produces reports and research on human rights and women’srights issues.
Hassan Ali also contributes to the job an insider’sview of the State’s functioning having been, from 2010 to 2013, head of theHuman Rights Unit of the Afghan Ministry of Justice with support from UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP). He at times laments the “snail pace” atwhich his work advances in the face of the Government’s lack of cooperation.The reasons to keep going are, however, imperative.
“Torture induces a culture of fear among citizenswhich in turn affects many rights such as freedom of expression,” he says.“Torture costs society financially, socially and spiritually.”
Founded in 2004, in the aftermath of the demise of theTaliban regime in 2001, CSHRN acts as a human rights watchdog while trying toreach out and influence the State in order to give way to “a society based ondemocracy, rule of law in accordance with human rights for all males andfemales in Afghanistan.” (CSHRN Strategy Document, March 2011). Sharing moreWestern liberal-democratic values than traditional fringes of Afghan civilsociety, CSHRN is significantly dependent on international assistance for itsexistence. It was set up with core funding from Danish agency for developmentcooperation, DANIDA.
Through radio programmes raising public awareness ontorture, securing funding for the Government to develop its CAT report, orhosting a number of debates on human rights, CSHRN is seen to be contributingto bring about a more stable and democratic Afghanistan. It is often the firststeps that are the most costly.
“I still deeply believe that ‘Many drops make a river,’says Hassan Ali.
— by Lori Brumat in Geneva
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