The Commitment of the Afghan State to International Human Rights

Abstract

The promotion and protection of human rights is one of the most essential responsibilities of the international community. Based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Charter and other human rights instruments the international community is required to cooperate and collaborate with each other in order to protect and promote human rights worldwide. International human rights principles are also the value- based source of the Afghan Constitution. Based on its Constitution the Afghan state is responsible to implement international human rights standards into the national legal system. Afghanistan is a signatory of seven international human rights conventions. Consequently, the country is a member of several UN structures established according to the requirements of international human rights principles. This article offers a short description of international law and international relations as such, international law as a source of the Afghan Constitution and, more specifically, the importance of international human rights law for the national context. It further examines the Afghan state in its function as an actor in international law as well as its acts taken in order to implement human rights standards and to monitor and report to the relevant international human rights bodies. In this context the article also draws attention to civil society and national human rights institutions in general, which undertake efforts to ensure the promotion of human rights, such as their fulfillment of state reporting duties.