BRIEFING NOTES: (1) Israel/OPT; (2) Afghanistan/Pakistan

Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Ravina Shamdasani

Location: Geneva

Date: 27 October 2023

Subject: (1) Israel/OPT

(2) Afghanistan/Pakistan

1) Israel/OPT

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk is appealing to all sides to heed the calls for peace. The violence needs to end and there need to be strong efforts to seek an alternative to this carnage.

For almost three weeks now, Palestinian civilians in Gaza have endured relentless bombing by Israel from air, land and sea. Thousands killed, lying dead amongst destroyed residential buildings, mosques and bakeries. We receive harrowing testimonies of entire families killed by airstrikes on their homes including the families of our own staff members. Of parents writing children’s names on their arms to identify their future remains. Of the terrifying, sleepless nights people are spending in the open air, as airstrikes continue overhead. We mourn the loss of 57 UN colleagues and so many more civilians who are clearly, disproportionately impacted.

Despite its repeated orders to residents of northern Gaza to move to the south, suggesting it is safe, Israeli Forces’ strikes on two southern Governorates and Middle Gaza have intensified in recent days. Meanwhile, heavy strikes on northern communities, including in Gaza city, continue.

Nowhere is safe in Gaza.

Compelling people to evacuate in these circumstances, including to places such as “the Israeli designated area” of Al Mawasi, and while under a complete siege raises serious concerns over forcible transfer, which is a war crime.

Israel’s use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas has caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of civilian lives that, by all appearances, is difficult to reconcile with international humanitarian law.

Collective punishment is occurring through the choking-off of water, food, fuel and electricity. Fuel shortages forcing the closure of hospitals and bakeries. People forced into shelters in increasingly dire conditions; overcrowded, with poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water, bringing forward the specter of disease outbreak. A humanitarian catastrophe unfolds for the 2.2 million people locked inside Gaza who are being collectively punished.

Collective punishment is a war crime. Israel’s collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza must immediately cease. The use of dehumanizing language against Palestinians must also be halted.

Indiscriminate attacks by Palestinian armed groups, including through the launching of unguided rockets into Israel, must stop. They must immediately and unconditionally release all civilians who were captured and are still being held. The taking of hostages is also a war crime.

The High Commissioner is appealing for efforts to seek human rights-based, lasting pathways towards peace for the people of Palestine and Israel. Efforts must be made to bring this escalation to an immediate end. It is of utmost importance that all those with influence negotiate a way out of this protracted, disastrous situation.

Peace, security and justice will not be found down this current path. The cycle of vengeance and bloodshed needs to end.

2) Afghanistan/Pakistan

We are extremely alarmed by Pakistan’s announcement that it plans to deport “undocumented” foreign nationals remaining in the country after 1 November, a measure that will disproportionately impact more than 1.4 million undocumented Afghans who remain in Pakistan.

There are more than two million undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan, at least 600,000 of whom left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

We believe many of those facing deportation will be at grave risk of human rights violations if returned to Afghanistan, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, cruel and other inhuman treatment.

Those at particular risk are: civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders, former government officials and security force members, and of course women and girls as a whole, who, as a result of the abhorrent policies currently in place in Afghanistan, are banned from secondary and tertiary education, working in many sectors and other aspects of daily and public life.

Already, UNHCR and IOM have documented a sharp increase in returns to Afghanistan since the deadline was announced on 3 October. A recent flash report by UNHCR and IOM placed the number of Afghans who left Pakistan in the month to 15 October at 59,780 individuals. 78 percent of those returning cited fear of arrest as the reason for leaving Pakistan.

As the 1 November deadline approaches, we urge the Pakistan authorities to suspend forcible returns of Afghan nationals before it is too late to avoid a human rights catastrophe. We call on them to continue providing protection to those in need and ensure that any future returns are safe, dignified and voluntary and fully consistent with international law.

Deportations without individualized determinations of personal circumstances, including any mass deportations, would amount to refoulement in violation of international human rights law, in particular the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Pakistan is a State party, and of international refugee law.

And as winter approaches, any mass deportations are bound to deepen the dire humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, as it grapples with the devastating impact of a series of earthquakes that struck Herat Province this month, leaving at least 1,400 people dead and 1,800 injured, as per official figures. According to OCHA, close to 30 million people are currently in need of relief assistance in Afghanistan - out of a population of 43 million - and 3.3 million are internally displaced.

We remind the de facto authorities of the international human rights obligations that continue to bind Afghanistan as a state and their obligations to protect, promote and fulfil human rights.

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