Promoting the accountability of the Afghan National Security Forces
Follow up briefing to No Time to Lose report
In May this year, Oxfam and partners released a report titled No Time to Lose: Promoting the Accountability of the Afghan National Security Forces. We argued in that report that as greater responsibility was handed over to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), there was a serious risk that unless adequate accountability mechanisms were put in place, violations of international human rights and humanitarian law would escalate, and Afghan civilians would pay the price. We argued that troop-contributing states had been slow to honour their moral and legal obligations to ensure the accountability of the national security forces, and that time to do so was running out.
This paper provides an update on the conduct and accountability of the ANSF, with a focus on the police, and reflects on progress made in recent months. We focus in particular on four issues we believe to be of critical importance in the lead up to transition: police training and professional development; the establishment of a gender-sensitive police force; accountability for police misconduct; and accountability for civilian casualties.