Open Letter
Date: 27 August 2025
To:
H.E. Ms. Roza Otunbayeva
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
Member and Observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
Subject: Land Dispossession, Forced Displacement, and Violent Repression against Hazaras in Afghanistan– The Case of Rashak Village, Bamiyan Province
Dear Excellencies,
We, the undersigned human rights defenders from Afghanistan and civil society organizations, write to you to express our deepest concern and to urgently draw your attention to the ongoing forced evictions, land dispossession and forced displacement of the Hazara people in Afghanistan – in this case, the forced eviction of residents of Rashak village, Panjab district, Bamiyan province, by the Taliban authorities, based on the so-called claims of land ownership by the Kuchis (nomadic tribes who are ethnically Pashtun).
Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the Hazara communities in Afghanistan have been continually dispossessed of their ancestral lands or forced to buy back their own lands from Kuchi individuals and groups claiming ownership of the Hazara private lands. Under the pretext of land ownership, the Kuchis have raised claims of loss of property or other past disputes dating decades back when the Taliban and other repressive regimes ruled against the Hazaras, granted Hazara land-use documents to Kuchis and imposed additional taxes on the Hazaras.
Under these circumstances, on 27th July 2025, the Taliban authorities in Rashak village of Bamiyan accompanied by armed individuals and the Kuchis forcibly evicted 25 Hazara families (around 200 people including women, children and elderly persons) from their houses and sealed their house doors. The forced eviction occurred following claims of land ownership by the Kuchis and after a Taliban court decision ruled in favor of the Kuchis. The evicted families were pushed out to the margins of the village where they have stayed in temporary tents and in the village mosque, under strict security surveillance of Taliban. Since the eviction, four families have fled the village fearing forced compliance to land transfer to Kuchis. While some of the evicted families were allowed, after the eviction, to harvest their crops until autumn this year, however, they were pressured into arrangements to either leave the village after harvest season or to rent the lands and properties from the Kuchi occupants.
The Kuchi claimants, in this case originating from Paktia province, had primarily claimed ownership over half of the village land belonging to four families in the community, but as the Taliban’s court had decided in their favour, together with the local Taliban they raided the village and forcibly evicted the entire village on 27 July 2025. The four families who have been primary defendants against Kuchis have been forced to flee the village, fearing being coerced to accept the decision and transfer of their land to Kuchis.
Legal gaps, lack of fair trial and fraudulent judicial process are evident in the Taliban’s court decisions especially in this case. For example, upon an appeal by the Hazara defendants, in April 2025 the Bamiyan provincial court first overturned the district court’s ruling – which was in favor of Kuchis – citing lack of merit, specifically the absence of witnesses and insufficient evidence to support the Kuchi claim of the land ownership. Yet, in May 2025, the same provincial court endorsed the district court decision without the lower court (district court) addressing the flaws that led to its initial rejection.
The Hazara community in Rashak have resisted leaving their village, including the four defendant families who later had to flee the village when the Taliban raided the village for the second time on 3 August 2025 – ordering the arrest of women and children from the defendant families to coerce them into compliance. Owing to this, the four families, totaling, 41 people – 11 women, 7 men, 21 children, and 5 elderly persons – have fled to the mountains and remote areas, cutting off from each other, fearing detention, torture and forced acceptance of the Taliban’s decision.
The 2021 Taliban takeover in Afghanistan emboldened Kuchi claims against the Hazaras, who now make repeated incursions into Hazara villages and grazing thousands of livestock on Hazara farmland. Resistance by locals has been met with violence, and media censorship and intimidation have silenced reporting. Local people fear arrest if they share information, and journalists outside Afghanistan face threats against relatives inside the country. In summer 2025 alone, 11 ordinary Hazara villagers in Waras and Panjab districts of Bamiyan have been severely beaten by Kuchis, three of them sustaining life-threatening injuries. These violations remain uninvestigated and under-reported internationally, often dismissed as “sensitive” allowing impunity to persist and abuses to continue.
The forced eviction and land dispossession in Rashak is not an isolated case. In fact, as Afghanistan Analyst Network reported, there were 44 ongoing such land disputes in the Panjab district of Bamiyan alone. These imposed disputes are part of a wider pattern of exclusion and marginalization of the Hazara people, repeating over more than a century of persecution and state oppression, sparked by ethnic cleansing and genocide — including mass murders, pillaging, and enslavement — as under Amir Abdul Rahman Khan (1888–1893), who massacred more than half of the entire Hazara population, confiscated their lands, and distributed them to others, particularly among the Pashtun tribe.
The Hazara people, an ethnically distinct and predominantly Shia Muslim community, form one of Afghanistan’s largest ethnic groups but remain a religious minority in a Sunni-majority country. Since the return of the Taliban, they have been systematically discriminated against and removed from the public service, education and government positions. Local mechanisms such as the Kuchi-Settler Dispute Resolution Commission, the Committee to Prevent Land Grabbing, and the aid distribution units, have all been manipulated by the pro-Taliban figures including the Kuchis.
Concurrently with impunity, the Hazara communities have been facing ongoing attacks in all aspects of their lives by the Islamic State of Khorasan Provinces (ISKP), which, according to Human Rights Watch, amount to crimes against humanity. These attacks have consistently remained uninvestigated by both the Taliban since 2021 and the previous government of Afghanistan. When considered in the wider pattern of targeted attacks and rights violations against the community, these ongoing violations may amount to a crime against humanity of persecution, and even potentially genocide.
We, therefore, call on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures and the member States to:
- Press the Taliban to immediately end the security surveillance over Hazara families in Rashak village and to end the arrest order on the four Hazara families. All 41 family members hiding should be guaranteed protection, compensation and safe return to their houses, and Taliban authorities must urgently end the house blockade in Rashak village.
- Press the Taliban to restore the forcefully confiscated land and properties to dispossessed Hazaras. Demand reparation and ensure the investigation and prosecution of land related abuses.
- Press the Taliban to prevent Kuchi incursions on Hazara villages, lands, and homes. Urge the Taliban to provide assurances that these incursions, as a form of systemic violence against Hazaras, are prevented effectively.
- Immediately conduct a thorough investigation, continue and enhance documentation on the forced eviction, land dispossession, and forced displacement of the affected Hazara families as well as those experienced by other marginalized groups.
- Issue public statement and provide a comprehensive report on the human rights situation of marginalized groups and minorities in Afghanistan, highlighting the Hazara vulnerability under Taliban rule, including the ongoing cases of forced eviction and forced displacement faced by the Hazaras, Uzbeks, and other non-dominant groups.
- Call on the UN Human Rights Council to urgently establish an international accountability mechanism with the mandate and resources to investigate past and present grave human rights violations in Afghanistan, preserve evidence and information related to such violations, support criminal prosecutions of perpetrators and advance justice and accountability.
Without urgent action, the Hazara people under Taliban particularly the affected families from Rashak village face grave risk of collective punishment and further persecution.
Yours sincerely,
Signatories,
Civil Society Organizations:
- Hazara International www.hazarainternational.com
- Bolaq Analyst Network
- Edmonton Hazara Association
- Center for Human Rights Advocacy
- Civil Society and Human Rights Network-CSHRN
- Women’s Movement Towards Freedom (WMTF)
- Afghanistan Women’s Justice Movement (AWJM)
- Associazione di Solidarietà Donne per le Donne
- Casa della Cultura Asiatica, “Cultura, Advocacy e Ricerca”
- The Common Good Foundation, Inc (CGF)
- Sigma Human Rights Defenders Association
- Suomen Afganistanilaisten Järjestö KANUN ry, Finland www.afghanstan.fi
- Ghazni Human Rights Defender Association
- Bamyan Women Social Council (BWSC)
- Dehmazang.org
- Gharjistan e.V – Germany
- AHCSA MUHAMMET GÜL
- Hazara Kulturhaus e. V. Munich
- Baba Mazari Foundation Inc.
- Hazara Society Policy Center
- Canadian Hazara Advocacy Group(CHAG)
- Assembly of Hazara Social Organizations(AHSA)
- Afghanistan Future Group(AFG)
- Tegin Foundation
- Terrorism Victims Protection Organization(TVPO)
- Forward Together for Development Network(FTD-N)
- Shahmama Advocacy Collective of Canada (SACC)
- Hazarian – The Hazara Heritage Council
Human Rights Defenders:
- Hafizuallh Saeedi, Human Rights Defender and Independent Researcher
- Dr Homira M. Rezai, Member of Bolaq Analyst Network and Hazara Rights Defender
- Dr. Melissa Kerr Chiovenda, anthropologist, professor, and researcher, human rights activist
- Azadah Raz Mohammad, Jurist and PhD candidate at Melbourne Law School
- Bismellah Alizada, Human Rights Defender, Researcher on Hazara and minority issues, and PhD Candidate
- Timor Sharan, HAMRAH Program Director
- Habib Paiman – Managing Director of Bolaq Analysts Network
- Masooma Khawari, Former Minister of MCIT, Afghanistan
- Emily Prey, New Lines Institute
- Nabi Qanezadeh, head of Suomen Afganistanilaisten Järjestö KANUN ry, Finland
- Nigara Mirdad, Deputy Head of Mission Afghanistan Embassy Poland
- James Joseph, Director The Duty Legacy and The Alliance for the Prevention of Atrocity Crimes
- Parwana Ibrahim Khail Nijrabi,Founder of Women’s Movement for Peace and Freedom
- Artemis Akbary, Afghanistan LGBTIQ+ Organisation (ALO)
- Ofran Badakhshani, chairman of Gilgamesh Foundation, CEO of de filosoof
- Fatimah Karimi Women’s Rights Defenders member of Women’s Movement Towards Freedom and Bolaq Network analysis
- Kiamahr Haidari, PhD Candidate in Higher Education Management and Author
- Hazrat Khan Hoshmand, CSHRN, HRD+
- Ismail Zaki, CSHRN, HRD+
- Sayed Hussain Anosh, CSHRN, HRD+
- Natiq Malikzada, Journalist and Human Rights Advocate
- Yalda Bari, Business and Human Rights Researcher
- Nazeela Elmi, Research Fellow at RWI
- Ali Karimi, University of Calgary, Canada
- Mohebullah Naji, Founder of Afghan Primus Consulting
- Hoda Khamosh, Founder of Afghanistan Women’s Justice Movement
- Asif Yousufi, Social Activist
- Sima Noori, Deputy of Generation Outside Afghanistan and Human Rights Activist
- Rahmatullah Mohsini, Human rights defenders, director of Sigma Human Rights Defenders Association and member of Bolaq Network analysis
- Ghafur Sedaghat, Head of Hazara Kulturhaus e. V. Munich and Human Rights Defender
- Mastora Shafahi, Human Rights Defender
- Nilofar Moradi, Journalist and Human Rights Advocate
- Abdullah Mirzad, Videographer and Reporter at Hazarestan Media
- Atayee Hakkak, Human Rights Defenders
- Mohammad Rooish, Social Activist
- Sediqa Mushtaq, Women’s Rights Activist
- Ali Folladwand, Medical Doctor, Civil and Social Activist
- Razia Bromand, Human Rights Activist
- Besmellah Rezaee, Lawyer & CEO Baba Mazari Foundation
- Alireza Ahmadi, Civil & Social activist
- Mohammad Sharif Saiidi, poet and author.
- Keyhan Farahmand, Social Activist
- Rustam Ali Seerat, independent researcher
- Selsela Imamzada, Journalist
- Rahmatullah Nekqadami, Head of the Gharjistan Association – Germany
- Nilofar Ayoubi – Co-Founder and Head of Afghanistan Mission – Humanosh U.S.A
- Besmillah Taban, PhD Student in Security Studies.
- Ahmad Mohammadi, Social activist and politically active in DK
- Abdul Ahmad Malikyar Civil & Social Activist
- Ali Rizai, Chairman in Salsal federation Sweden
- Nasim Fekrat – University of California, Irvine
- Hamida Amiri – Co-founder of Afghan American Student Association – Chicago, Illinois
- Abdullah shafaee Civil & Social Activist
- Tahera Nasiri, Women and human rights defender and director of Women’s Movement Towards Freedom
- Mujtaba Ahmadi, social rights activist
- Mursel Sabir, Project Coordinator, Afghans For A Better Tomorrow
- Hussain Rezai, Co-Founder at Najiba Foundation
- Zahra Sepehr, Founder and Director of AWA Legal and Social Advisory Hub
- Nasir Kaihan, Founder & President of the Alekain Foundation, PhD Candidate at Arizona State University
- Asad Buda, Writer and Artist
- Eng Shafiq Ghazna, founder of hazara Global economic development network
- Sara Nabil,Artist and Human Rights Defender
- Hamida lesani, Women and Human Right
- Noor Mohammad Atapoor, former head of computer science department at Kabul University.
- Mohammad Mohsen Usyan, former civil society activist and co-founder of Uqi Foundation.
- Batool Haidari, PhD in Psychology
- Hassan Reza Mirzaie, Human Rights Defender
- Zara SELSAL, PhD Candidate in Civil Engineering & Human Rights Defender.
- Bazil Nicobin, Freelance Journalist and Media Activist.
- Dr Shakardokht Jafari, Education activist
- Dr Taqi Amini, The University of Auckland, New Zealand, social activist
- Mohammad Ali Akbari Sardar Dahi, Freelance Journalist and Media Activist.
- Ziagul Azizi, Women activist and School Teacher.
- Eda Tegin, Human Rights Defender
- Liam Nasrullah Jamshedi, civil rights activist
- Abdul Rashid Fasihi, civil & human rights activist
- Hussain Saramd, Human Rights Defender
- Mohamamd Yasin Samim, Human Rights Defender and member of CHAG
- Moharam Ali Delijam, Edmonton Hazara Association
- Sakina Amiri, Journalist
- Ayoub Shahryar, Human Rights Defender
- Hussein Ali Mohammadi
- Arif Yasa, Edmonton Hazara Association
- Mustafa Gholami, civil & AB Organization
- Shakor Nazari, human Rights defender, journalist and poet
- Mohammad Hussain Hazara Canadian Hazara Advocacy Group
- Hadi Tawhidi, Hazara Community of Scotland, Scotland, UK
- Mohammad Mustafa Raheal; Human Rights Researcher
- Rohullah Amin Human rights activist , Berlin
- Hussaini Bashir, membre de l’association Alternative
- Sadeq Naseri- University of York, Canada
- Ali Rahiq, Hazara National Association
- Reza Haidari, Human Rights Defender
- Mohammad Ibrahim Hazara, Member in BC Hazara Community Society
- Mohammed Shafiq Ghazna, founder of hazara Global Economic Development Network
- Shahrbanu Haidari, Vice chair of Hazara Council of Great Britain
- Mehrdad Mehrdad, Teacher & Education Activist
- Hafiz Abram, Educationlist
- Hassan Haidari, Human rights activist
- Najeeb Farzad; Author, Human Rights Activist and Cultural Practitioner.
- Sadiqa Sultan, Researcher, Activist, and Development Practitioner.
- Abdul Rahman Bigzad, Human rights activist
- Abdullah Ahmadi, Human Rights Defender
- Najeeb Maqsoodi, member Canadian Hazara Advocacy
- Sakina sakhi Human Rights Defender
- Hussain Hussaini, Developer
- Altaf Zaki, Civil Society Activist
- Shir Ali Salehi, Human rights Defender And Hazaravoice.
- Mohammad Taghi Gholami, Member of the Canadian Hazara Humanitarian Services
- Dr Abbas Ali Husseini, Professor, Researcher and Education Rights Activist
- Zabihullah Danesh, Directory Board Member of Optimist Club of Monaco South, Professor, Writer, Poet, Education Activist
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