Afghan peace process
[3][4] During the Hamid Karzai presidency (2004–2014), local peace deals took place without high-level support,[5] weakly effective disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs were organised,[6] and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission proposed an Action Plan for Peace, Reconciliation and Justice for transitional justice that was formally adopted by the Afghan government in 2005, to little practical effect.
[11] The US–Taliban deal, resulting from negotiations starting in 2018 in Doha,[12] led to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, the collapse of the Afghan Army,[13] and the August 2021 Fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
[16] During the government of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the National Reconciliation Policy was developed from the mid-1980s to 1992 by two successive Afghan leaders, Babrak Karmal and Mohammad Najibullah, aiming to end the armed conflict with the Mujahideen and integrate the Mujahideen into a multi-party political process; to get the Soviet Union security forces to withdraw from Afghanistan; and to develop a new constitution.
The 1988 Geneva Accords did not require political processes to link with these local peace arrangements; it was limited to withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
[19] Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, transitional justice and human rights were seen as low priorities in the 2001 Bonn peace process.
The peace process also resulted in giving strong positions to warlords with track records of war crimes and other serious human rights abuses.
[18] Several peace processes took place during the presidency of Hamid Karzai (2004–2014), including local peace processes in Helmand province,[5] the emergence of grassroots nonviolent resistance movements in the mid-2010s,[8] and the successive and weakly effective disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and Disbandment of illegal armed groups programs.
The Action Plan was formally adopted by the Afghan government in December 2005, and included as a benchmark in the Afghanistan Compact established in 2006.
Factors in the failure of the second USV peace agreement included destabilisation by US forces and a lack of support by the national government.
[5] Significant reductions in violence occurred while the Musa Qala and Upper Sangin Valley peace agreements were in place.
The program itself had been intended to start in May 2003, but was delayed by a dispute about the number of AMF forces coordinated by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).
The MOD accepted, in principle, that ten percent of the demobilised AMF members would constitute the new Afghan armed forces.
Armed groups frequently collected old weapons from ordinary civilians and gave these to the authorities instead of giving up their own modern weapons; this had the double effect of not genuinely disarming the militias, and of disarming ordinary citizens, making them easy targets for the militias.
[23] The Afghan High Peace Council was created as a 70-member body (including nine women), together with a Joint Secretariat, to oversee the implementation of APRP.
Among the few women in the APRP design team, several received threats of violence and verbal or sexual abuse; some were injured after having been warned.
[3] The Joint Secretariat met with human rights activists and other civil society representatives after the APRP design had been set.
[24] As of 2013, the APRP contributed to giving an impression that impunity for war crimes under an amnesty was a necessary part of a peace process, rather than encouraging transitional justice.
[27][9][10][11] The US–Taliban deal, resulting from negotiations starting in 2018 in Doha,[12] led to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, the collapse of the Afghan Army,[13] and the August 2021 Fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
Arriving in Kabul on 18 June, they protested outside UNAMA offices and nearby embassies and met with president Ashraf Ghani.
"[15] On 5 September 2021, Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan involved in the Republican insurgency in Afghanistan that started following the Taliban takeover, called for a mutual ceasefire between the insurgency and the Taliban, to be mediated by the Ulema council of religious scholars.
