By Husain Moen, a Human Rights Analyst

It is clear that justice and peace are among the most desired and universal values of human beings. Also, it is clear that these two values are vague. In some cases, numerous interpretations of these two values have caused contradiction for some people and compatibility for some others. Some people think that in case of having peace and reconciliation, justice is sacrificed. We should not prefer peace to justice. Some others think that there would be no justice without peace. Many others are of the opinion that in the absence of justice, peace would not remain stable. Now the question is this that, apart from different interpretations and conceptions from peace and justice, which one of the above stands can better match the current socio-political circumstances in Afghanistan and which one should be prefer for the time being?

First, we have to make it clear that reconciliation should not be interpreted as immunity of human rights’ violators from justice; meaning that if reconciliation and negotiation are made with individuals and groups who are accused of violating human rights, their lives and properties should be immune for the time being and they should never be granted legal amnesty in the long- term. In other words, these perpetrators of crimes should be brought to justice in the right time. Also, in reference to basics of law, no one and no authority can ignore the wasted rights of the people and release perpetrators of human rights violations. Thus, negotiation and reconciliation does not mean amnesty; it means that justice will be secured in an appropriate time with establishment of necessary mechanisms for prosecution of perpetrators. Otherwise, justice has always priority and preference over peace.

One has to know that if justice is sacrificed and perpetrators of human rights violation are granted amnesty, peace would not be stable and this kind of peace would be like a truce between two wars.

Experiences of various countries including Afghanistan have shown that amnesty and immunity granted to criminal individuals, gangs and perpetrators of human rights violation have destabilized peace, and have stirred another round of war. Amnesty granted to perpetrators of human rights violation leads to socio-political disorder, loss of peoples’ trust and confidence in the government and further distance between people and government. Particularly, the victims of past wars who expect/expected justice more than others are frustrated from the government. In this case, since they have lost their family members and have suffered grievance for many years, they protest, ready for revenge and eventually join the insurgents. It’s said that most of Taliban insurgent members, are the people who have lost one or several members of their families in the past conflicts and since they have been denied justice, they have joined the insurgents to take avenge or at least, avoid further cruelties that might be committed against them.

Stable peace and state building pertain to implementation and restoration of justice. If justice is not secured, the Afghan government would lose peoples’ support. Having stable peace without cooperation and support of the citizenry is very hard and even impossible. Conversely, securing justice increases transparency and accountability and cherishes the hope for future. And the people would be supportive of the government. It is worth mentioning that one of the major reasons of peoples’ discontent today is amnesty granted to persons and groups accused of human rights violations. Amnesty given to corrupt and bribable people, kidnappers, thieves, bandits and other ordinary criminals also has added to discontent and has taken away the peoples’ trust from the government.

The Afghan people are tired of war and support peace undoubtedly. But at the same time, they demand justice too. Presumably, taking the following initiatives and strategies can bring peace and justice, and make sure that reconciliation won’t turn into amnesty:

First, reconciliation and negotiation with the opposite groups should not be subject to amendment of the Constitution; because, the Constitution has respected most of the international charters of human rights. With enforcement of the Constitution most of the rights violated both in the past and present can be looked into, and the peoples’ rights can be defended. Probably, the ruling authorities and officials prefer peace to justice and ignore justice and the Constitution in order to get peace. But the civil society networks with coordinating and conducting appeal programs can prevent this. Promotion of people awareness is also very important. For this purpose, some awareness-raising programs and activities should be designed and carried out so that the authorities are put under the public opinion pressures and avoid violating and ignoring the victims’ rights and justice.

Documentation of ongoing conflicts is also of high importance. Documentation helps reconciliation and justice process and is of particular importance in securing justice. Collecting documents and evidences on war crimes and crimes against humanity leads to awareness promotion led by civil society networks and media groups. This way, the authorities would be pressured not to grant amnesty and immunity to the war criminals.

Yet, it is not clear that how many organizations or individuals have taken measures for collecting documents and evidences. But it is noticed that for the purpose of threatening and intimidating the people, the insurgents themselves also have collected, circulated and broadcast films and evidences about their crimes that are very effective for documentation purposes and finally their prosecution.