The United Nations human rights organization called Thursday for the repeal of a controversial amnesty law in Afghanistan that shields alleged war criminals from prosecution. The Reconciliation and General Amnesty Law was passed by parliament in 2007 and quietly published in an official gazette in December 2008, local media and the US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) have said. The law was heavily criticized by Afghan and international human rights groups after it surfaced in the news earlier this year. “It's global UN position not just specific to Afghanistan. Blanket amnesty is our problem I think for very obvious reasons,” said Norah Niland, the Afghanistgan representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “For a country to move out of a crisis it needs to be able to deal with the past,” she told a news conference in Kabul. “So the amnesty law is a real concern because of the blanket amnesty.” Asked if the UN wanted the law to be repealed, she said: “Yes, the answer is the (UN) high commission for the human rights, Afghan civil society, human rights NGOs in and outside the country have asked that the law be repealed.” Under Afghanistan's legislative laws, a draft must be ratified by the parliament, signed by the president and published in an official gazette before it becomes law. In the case of the amnesty law, US-backed President Hamid Karzai apparently did not sign the document, notably because of heavy criticism from his Western backers, government officials have said. Despite that, the war-torn country's constitution allows drafts by the legislator to take effect as law, should the president refuse to approve it during a certain period of the time. Meeting with militants The top UN envoy for Afghanistan met Thursday with delegates from the country's second-biggest militant group, who are in Kabul for talks on a possible peace deal, the UN mission said. Staffan de Mistura, the special UN representative in Afghanistan, met with delegates from Hezb-e-Islami, headed by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is black-listed as a terrorist by the United Nations and United States. “The special representative listened to their points and indicated that their visit in Kabul and the ongoing discussions with Afghan authorities further underscored the importance of Afghan-led dialogue in order to bring stability to this country,” a UN statement said.
