The International Seminar on Human Rights Violations Caused by U.S. Military Intervention of
Afghanistan is held. (Photo courtesy of the Human Rights Institute at the Southwest University of
Political Science and Law)
An international seminar themed “Human Rights Violations caused by U.S. Military Intervention
of Afghanistan” was held on Sept. 25. It was joined by some 40 experts, scholars, media
representatives and diplomats from China, France, Nepal, the Netherlands, Japan, Pakistan and
other countries.
They held discussions on a series of issues such as the human rights violations in the course of the
U.S. military actions in Afghanistan, the humanitarian crisis caused by U.S. military withdrawal,
and the Afghan refugee crisis caused by U.S.
Both Chinese and foreign attendees to the even said the U.S. should be condemned by the
international society for its human rights violations in Afghanistan.
The seminar, an online side event for the 48th Session of the United Nations Human Rights
Council, was sponsored by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and the Permanent
Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Other
International Organizations in Switzerland, and organized by the Human Rights Institute at the
Southwest University of Political Science and Law (SWUPL).
Yogeshwar Romkhami, former senior superintendent of Nepal Police and chief leader of the
People’s Party, Nepal, said the arbitrary airstrikes launched by the U.S. have displaced or even
killed massive refugees in Afghanistan, and the corruption of the U.S. military also poisoned the
country. He holds that the U.S. shall be responsible for the consequences it created.
The human rights violations committed by the U.S. in Afghanistan are beyond imagination, said
Wang Nan, an academic consultant for the Institute of Silk Road Strategy Studies, Shanghai
International Studies University. These violations, which were cruel and lasted long, impacted a
wide range of areas in Afghanistan and created both direct and indirect consequences, Wang
explained, adding that they had led to stagnant economy and social turbulence in Afghanistan.
Zhang Yonghe, executive dean of the Human Rights Institute at the SWUPL, believes that the
U.S. human rights violations in Afghanistan were just another example of Washington habitually
infringing upon human rights in other countries. Guided by the so-called “America first” and
hegemonic thinking, these actions completely deviated from the fundamental approaches in
human rights and trampled on the norms of international law and human conscience, Zhang said.
“The international society should investigate into the crimes committed by the U.S. in Afghanistan
and hold the U.S. to account, so as to give an explanation to the Afghan people and the world,”
said Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua
University.
He believes that the U.S. actions of indiscriminately slaughtering civilians in the name of counter-
terrorism, hurting children, abusing captives, and allowing the expansion of terrorist groups have
traumatized the international society.
Héctor Constant Rosales, the Ambassador Permanent Representative of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela to the United Nations in Geneva, noted that from the 1990s to the present time, the U.S.
is the most warmongering in the contemporary history of humanity. Its invasion into Afghanistan
has brought serious humanitarian crisis to the Afghans. These crimes committed in Afghanistan by
the armed forces of the United States and its NATO allies must be thoroughly and impartially
investigated in an exemplary manner, and the perpetrators brought to justice and ordered to
compensate the victims with adequate reparations. The Afghan people deserve peace, he said.
Cheng Xizhong, a senior research fellow of the Charhar Institute, said wars and military
operations waged by the U.S. in the name of anti-terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001 have claimed over
800,000 lives and displaced more than 38 million people. The country is the world’s biggest
human-rights violator, and the biggest challenge threatening human progress and peaceful
development, he added.
Peter Peverelli, professor of Cross Cultural Human Rights Center at Vrije University Amsterdam,
said the bellicosity of the U.S. have brought huge disasters to the world, and the American-style
democracy and human rights are nothing but a farce self-directed and performed by the U.S.
Fu Zitang, Vice President of the China Society for Human Rights Studies and President of
SWUPL, said the war waged by the U.S. in Afghanistan severely violated the human rights of the
Afghan people, and posed grave threats to the human rights of people in neighboring countries.
He criticized the U.S. for imposing its own concepts of democracy, freedom and human rights on
Afghanistan against the will of the Afghan people, adding that such hegemonic and interventionist
acts can only result in failure.
