Challenges+Facing+Human+Rights+in+Afghanistan+(Period+2,+Lesson+3)


 * Jeffrey:** I was given the first paragraphs of the political chages facing human rights in Afghanistan. The system in Afghanistian is called regionalism in which there are mini-states within one nation state. Afghanistian doesn't have a strong central governmenn which is why each mini-state is governned by local leaders. The government hasn't been able to deliver adequate social or public services to the regions. There has been a rise of local warlords and also a rise of fundamentalism in Afghanistian. Afghanistian remains extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid, farming, and trade with neighboring countries. Much of the population suffers from limited access to housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs. In order for a soild system of stability to develop in Afghanistian, there has been serious commitment from the international community. The Afgham government and international donors remain committed to improving access to the basic necessities by prioritizing infrastructure development, education, housing development, jobs programs, and economic reform thus making sure that women and girls gain access to these services. Economic reconstruction is clearly directly related to human rights in that country.


 * Bryan:** I was asked to discuss some of the political challenges facing human rights in today's Afghanistan. One of the challenges is maintaining ethnic harmony. In the past history of Afghanistan there has been a lot of ethnic rivalries, largely due to the fact that larger groups, such as the Pahtuns and Tajiks have had more say in government, as opposed to the smaller and weaker ethnic groups. Because of this, some groups haven't always had the opportunity to speak out, a huge violation of human rights. According to my reading, ethnic harmony can be achieved if the government excercises programs that will call for more interaction and participation by all the ethnic groups, in order for them to all prosper together, and accept their differences. If ethnic harmony cannot be achieved then terrible things can happen. Civil War can break out between most of the groups, and then one group can begin to dominate the country and violate most of the human rights of the Afghani people. The other challenge facing Human rights is that National Integration, which is the unification of an entire population of a country despite differences in ethnicity, language and social backround has to be achieved. The only way this can be done is through a reform in all aspects of Afghani life, such as education, the economy, and political systems. If this occurs, than there will in fact be peace, and as a result, more human rights for individuals.

James** - Section 3.2 - Challenges Facing Human Rights in Afghanistan My part gives us a little introduction about the opium production in Afghanistan. Since the 1970s, the opium production in Afghanistan has been the highest and it single handedly supplies the world with 90% of it's opium. Opium is grown and transported out of here mostly because it is cheap, easy to store and transport and because it gross the most money that the country can afford. Warlords mostly profit from this plant, making about $3 billion dollars a year in a country whose average wage is less than $2 a day. Afghanistan because of opium has been labeled a key source of the black market and is constantly increasing the amount of crops of Opium that the country has. However, the warlord system of producing opium has displaced many people making the refugees especially women and children that cannot work in the fields. There are communities of these people called IDPs (internally displaced people) where the drug problem is very high. Many hospitals being found ill-equipped, many wounded soldiers and civilians get addicted to opium to numb the pain that they suffer. about 45,000 people are addicted to opium and some use it on their chuildren to calm them down and stop them from crying. This causes many more problems in life such as lung cancer and brain damage. Many pregnant women also use opiums because they are addicted and lose the babies and in some cases lose the ability to have babies altogether. Opium is not only damaging to people here in their herion, but has a horrible effect on the t people in Afghanistan that become addicted. I really feel that this is horrible and that opium should be taken out of their contry for the better of the people.
 * Afghanistan as a Narco State

The opium trade has also effected the government as removing the business would cause a collapse in the legal industries that also depend on this narcotics. Also the opium trade has had an effect on the health of people asthe sprays it takes to grow it is detrimental to the environment and the people. opium is used to make heroin, which is used through needles which can potentially give you HIV/AIDS. So opium is a serious problem.
 * Emilio:** I was given the last two pages of the reading which basically talks about the pros and cons of the opium trade issue in Afghanistan. The opium trades have had adverse effects on the economy, national security, government and the health of the population in Afghanistan. When it comes to the economy, the opium business has forced the population to rely on it as a main source of income. In addition, if the farmers and settlers there would like to change this and go back to more traditional agricultural products they would have to agree accept less money for the time being. So eliminating the opium trade would mean that the government would need to implement new economic regulation which would take away from basic human rights. In terms of national security, this business has led to deaths and fatalities which obviously effect human rights. Also because the opium trade puts money into the hands of warlords and dangerous people, whom in turn purchase weapons and more drugs. Finally the opium trade is said to be a mainstream way that terrorists recieve their money.