Office of Prison Administration in Afghanistan lacks adequate food and healthcare: UN

The Office of Prison Administration in Afghanistan lacks resources to ensure compliance with the minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners, including the provision of adequate food and healthcare, the United Nations said in a report released Monday.

By mid-September, the overall detainee population in prisons had surpassed 17,000 persons, an increase from the average of 10,000 which the Office of Prison Administration has aimed to maintain since mid-2022, the report released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

“This poses serious challenges for the de facto Office of Prison Administration, which lacks adequate resources to ensure compliance with the minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners, including the provision of adequate food and healthcare,” the report said.

The report about the human rights situation in Afghanistan covering July – September said the authorities of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) continue to implement public corporal punishment of convicted individuals across the country.

The report also mentioned authorities’ ban on women’s beauty salons and ban on women visiting Band-e-Amir National Park due to non-compliance with the hijab order.

It said that in early September, in Khost and Zabul, the Department of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice officials announced via loudspeaker that women are forbidden from going to local markets or shops without a mahram.

The Islamic Emirate says that this report is prepared based on wrong information.

“Unfortunately, the United Nations, especially UNAMA, instead of looking at the facts and seeing the issues closely, release a report from afar and based on rumors and false information. All the things they mentioned, unfortunately, they did not tell the truth. They propagated against the truth,” Zabihullah Mujahid said.

He also said that prisoners receive adequate food and healthcare.

“There is no cruelty in our prisons and the rights of the prisoners have been fully taken care of. There are suitable places for them. There is food. Their health is taken care of. Efforts have been made for their careers. They are not harassed. In this regard, a delegation can come and see that everything is going normally in Afghan prisons,” he said.

He also denied that former government officials or forces are arrested.

UNAMA said that in contrast with the same period in 2022, it documented far fewer civilian casualties, largely due to a significant reduction in improvised explosive device attacks.

Unexploded ordnance was the leading cause of civilian casualties during the period killing at least 24 people and wounding at least 38 others, it said.