The mid-year report on the protection of civilians, produced by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), documented 1,319 civilian deaths and 2,533 injuries – a total of 3,852 civilian casualties – in the first half of 2013.

This marks an increase of 14 per cent in deaths and 28 per cent in injuries over the same period in 2012, the Mission stated in a news release. The increase reverses the decline recorded in 2012, and marks a return to the high numbers of civilian deaths and injuries documented in 2011.

“The violent impact of the conflict on Afghan civilians marked by the return of rising civilian casualties in 2013 demands even greater commitment and further efforts by parties to the conflict to protect civilians who are increasingly being killed and injured in the crossfire,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNAMA, Ján Kubiš.

“The increase in the indiscriminate use of IEDs and the deliberate targeting of civilians by anti-Government elements is particularly alarming and must stop,” he added.

The second biggest cause of civilian deaths and injuries were “ground engagements” between Afghan security forces and anti-Government elements, which UNAMA said poses an increasing threat to Afghan children, women and men.

“The growing loss of life and injuries to Afghan women and children in 2013 is particularly disturbing,” said UNAMA’s Director of Human Rights, Georgette Gagnon. “Deaths and injuries to women and children increased by 38 per cent in the first half of 2013 reflecting a grim reality of the conflict today in Afghanistan.”

In a unanimously adopted resolution extending the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) until 19 March 2014, the Council called on the world body, with the support of the international community, to back the Government’s so-called National Priority Programmes as it goes through the process of taking full control of security, governance and development.

The withdrawal of the bulk of United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops from Afghanistan is set to be completed by the end of 2014, while a transition of responsibility for security in the country from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to Afghan forces is already underway.

In its resolution, the Council said it “stresses the critical importance of a continued presence of UNAMA and other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes in the provinces, consistent with the transition process, in support of and in cooperation with the Afghan Government.”

Opening yesterday’s meeting, Mr. Ban said the UN must continue strong support to the Afghan Government up to and beyond the 2014 deadline for the Government’s assumption of responsibility.

“Let us work as hard as possible to ensure that this transition leads to the stable, prosperous and safe future that the country’s people deserve,” he told the 15-member body.

“We should continue providing good offices, including support for elections. We should maintain our work for reconciliation and regional cooperation. We must stand firm for human rights. And we must advance development,” he said.

He added that humanitarian action was also crucial to the UN’s future role, considering both Afghanistan’s “chronic vulnerability” and the impact of the transition as the numbers of international security personnel and others decrease dramatically.

Updating the Council on the situation in the country, the Secretary-General said that Afghanistan’s political climate is dominated by the 2014 elections. Broad participation and a credible process are essential to reaching the goal of a widely accepted leadership transition.

He also expressed his concern about the 20 per cent increase in civilian casualties among women and girls in 2012, as tallied in a UN report last month. He noted two statements from the Taliban perhaps indicating a willingness to engage and encouraged a meaningful dialogue to reduce the intolerable, continuing death toll.

Speaking to reporters, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNAMA, Jan Kubiš, affirmed that the transition to full Afghan responsibility was progressing. “Almost everything is in motion and changing,” he said.

In that atmosphere, he said he was looking very closely, in today’s mandate extension, for “any confirmation of the key tasks of the UN and UNAMA” in the country. “There are a lot of questions and uncertainties practically concerning all areas of life and work in Afghanistan.”

“I hope to see some signals and messages in the resolution of the Security Council [concerning] what could be the role of the United Nations in the post-2014 period,” he said. “We need to prepare ourselves.”

He said he recognized that UN’s mandate is not “a transition mandate,” which would only be discussed and delivered next year. However, general planning, budgeting for the next biennium and agreements between the Government and the UN system need to be put in place.

“We cannot wait until March 2014 to prepare for 2015, 2016,” he stressed.

Affirming also that upcoming elections were indeed the dominant topic around the country, he said that UNAMA continued to provide technical assistance at the request of the Government. “This is what we are doing and we intend to do it in the future,” he said.

The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) states that more than half of 635 conflict-related detainees interviewed experienced ill-treatment and torture, particularly in 34 facilities of the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the National Directorate of Security (NDS) between October 2011 and October 2012.

Torture took the form of abusive interrogation techniques in which Afghan officials inflicted severe pain and suffering on detainees during interrogations aimed mainly at obtaining a confession or information, UNAMA stated in a news release. Fourteen methods of torture and ill-treatment were described similar to practices previously documented by the Mission.

“The Government’s attention and efforts to address these abusive practices are visible and encouraging, and have produced some positive results but the system isn’t robust enough to eliminate ill-treatment of detainees,” said Jan Kubis, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNAMA. “Clearly, more needs to be done to end and prevent torture.”

Among other measures to improve detention practices, the Government carried out training programmes on prevention of the ill-treatment of detainees, issued policy directives, increased the number of inspections and reassigned personnel.

The Mission noted that while both the NDS and the Ministry of Interior stated that they investigated allegations of ill-treatment, it is unclear whether any of these internal probes resulted in the prosecution or loss of jobs of Afghan officials for involvement in torturing detainees or for having failed to prevent torture.

“UNAMA found a persistent lack of accountability for perpetrators of torture with few investigations and no prosecutions for those responsible,” said Georgette Gagnon, Director of Human Rights for UNAMA.

“The findings highlight that torture cannot be addressed by training, inspections and directives alone but requires sound accountability measures to stop and prevent its use. Without deterrents and disincentives to use torture, including a robust, independent investigation process, criminal prosecutions and courts’ consistent refusal to accept confessions gained through torture, Afghan officials have no incentive to stop torture.”

Over the reporting period, the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) implemented a detention facility monitoring programme to support Afghan authorities in reforming their interrogation and detainee treatment practices prior to resuming international transfers of detainees to several facilities.

In October 2012, following new reports of torture at several NDS and ANP facilities, including locations where ISAF had transferred detainees, ISAF suspended transfers for a second time. ISAF subsequently stopped transferring detainees to several Afghan facilities and implemented a process limiting transfer to a reduced number of Afghan facilities and increasing monitoring and accountability.

UNAMA stated that its findings reinforce the urgent and long-term need for reforms in the judiciary, prosecution and law enforcement sectors and offers 64 recommendations to the Government and international partners.

In addition to other measures, UNAMA recommends the creation of an independent national preventive mechanism on torture described in the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.

“Such a dedicated mechanism could be located within the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission with the authority and enhanced capacity and expertise to inspect all detention facilities, conduct follow-up investigations and make detailed technical recommendations on prosecution of perpetrators and remedial measures,” said the Mission.

“Establishing such a mechanism would require concerted and sustained support from the Afghan Government and the international community. UNAMA continues to observe the treatment of detainees and is working closely with Afghan authorities and international partners to bring positive change.”

The recommendations strengthen proposals in UNAMA’s October 2011 report which have not been fully implemented, the Mission added.

A suicide bomber has killed at least 41 people when he struck at a mosque in northern Afghanistan after Eid al-Adha prayers on Friday; dozens more were wounded as the bomb ripped through the crowd of worshippers in Maymana city in Faryab province and there are fears the death toll could rise.

The United Nations top political envoy for Afghanistan today condemned the suicide bomb attack: “This heinous attack at a mosque, killing and injuring Afghan civilians as they celebrated the Eid-al-Adha religious festival has no justification, and should be condemned by all in the strongest possible terms,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ján Kubiš.

Northern Afghanistan was relatively peaceful until now. The Taliban, who were ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001, used to concentrate their operations in the south and east of the country. But they have recently stepped up their activities in the north, despite the presence of more than 100,000 NATO troops in the country.

Mosques are protected places under international humanitarian law, which strictly prohibits attacks against both civilians and civilian objects, including places of worship, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) noted in a news release.

UNAMA also stated that suicide attacks that fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants are prohibited, but continue to be used by anti-government elements; representatives of the organization went on to express condolences to the families of those killed, and wishes of a speedy recovery for all those injured.

“These illegal and indiscriminate suicide attacks that kill and injure many Afghan civilians must stop,” Mr. Kubiš added. “Such attacks are completely unacceptable and those responsible are fully accountable for the deaths and injuries of civilians caused by their brutal acts.”

Ján Kubiš, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, told a meeting of the Security Council that, as reported by the UN-mandated international military force and the Afghan authorities, both the military campaign and the security transition are “on time and on track.”

Afghan authorities are working with the international community so that by 2014 they can assume full responsibility for security in all of the country’s 34 provinces. They are also working towards taking greater ownership of development in a country where more than one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, and one in every two children under five is chronically malnourished.

In his remarks, the UN envoy noted that on security, as stated in Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report, there has been a decrease in security incidents between May and July as compared to 2011.

“Yet many ordinary citizens and Government officials throughout Afghanistan continue to point out to the continuous fragility of the security situation in Afghanistan, to the fear and insecurity that impedes everyday life,” said Kubiš, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

In his report, Ban noted that improvements in the security situation have been registered against the record high incident levels of 2011.

“These gains have not, however, generated public perceptions of greater security and do not reflect improvements to the institutional structures required for longer-term stability,” wrote the UN chief. “Little has changed in the underlying dynamics to mitigate a deep-seated cycle of conflict.”

Kubiš said that even where there are no armed clashes, an “insidious campaign” of intimidation and targeted killings is claiming lives of government officials, women’s rights activists, tribal elders and community leaders, including those actively working for peace.

“The impact is visible in the curtailed delivery of development programmes and humanitarian aid,” the Special Representative said. “Outreach by Government services and personnel are limited in many part of the country. Internal displacement increases, people move to the relative safety of provincial and regional centres.”

Civilian casualties have also decreased overall through the first eight months of the year compared year on year, he pointed out. “However this trend began reversing during this summer with a greater number of civilian deaths and injuries occurring in July and August than in the same period last year,” Kubiš said.

In fact, he noted, August was the second deadliest month for civilians since UNAMA began recording civilian causalities with 374 civilians killed and 581 injured. Anti-government elements continue to cause the vast majority of civilian casualties, bearing responsibility for over 85 per cent of all civilian deaths and injuries during the summer period.

The envoy also noted that while security transition is important, the ultimate key to future stable Afghanistan is “successful Afghan-led and Afghan-owned political transition.”

The 2014 presidential elections are in the centre of attention, he said, adding that the conduct of credible polls with a mandate for the new country’s leadership is essential to national unity and legitimacy as well as a critical component of ongoing international support.