When Rabbits are in Charge of Carrots: Land Grabbing, Transitional Justice and Economic-State Crime in Afghanistan

Abstract

Afghanistan constitutes a good example of how the absence of transitional justice measures leads human rights violators of past regimes to remain in positions of power with impunity and to continue to engage in other forms of crimes. In particular, this article focuses on land grabbing as a form of economic-state crime in the country. Relying on data gathered from fieldwork in Kabul in 2013 and 2014, we illustrate that economic crime, which is instigated, supported and carried out by the state apparatus, is a form of state crime, which criminology needs to address more seriously. Criminological literature on socio-economic rights violations as a form of economic and thus state crime is very limited, particularly in conflict and post-conflict situations. By focusing on economic-state crime in the (post-) conflict situation of Afghanistan, we aim at bridging the classical divide between transitional justice studies on one hand and criminology on the other hand.