23. Juli 2014

 

Die folgenden Ausschnitte aus ausgewählten Quellen enthalten Informationen zu oben genannter Fragestellung (Zugriff auf alle Quellen am 23. Juli 2014):

 

·      USCIRF - US Commission on International Religious Freedom: United States Commission on International Religious Freedom - Annual Report 2014 - 15th Anniversary Retrospective: Renewing the Commitment, 30. April 2014

http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/USCIRF 2014 Annual Report PDF.pdf

„Religious freedom conditions continue to be exceedingly poor for dissenting Sunni Muslims, as well as Shi’a Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Bahai’s. The Afghan constitution explicitly fails to protect the individual right to freedom of religion or belief, and it and other laws have been applied in ways that violate international human rights standards. The Taliban continues to target activity deemed ’un-Islamic,’ and the Afghan government remains unable to protect citizens against violence and intimidation. Afghan government agencies have at times also taken action against ’un-Islamic‘ activity. Based on these concerns, USCIRF places Afghanistan on its Tier 2 list in 2014. Afghanistan has been on this list every year since 2006. […]

Hindus and Sikhs face discrimination, harassment and at times violence, despite being allowed to practice their faith in places of public worship. They are represented in the parliament through Presidential appointments, but Parliament rejected Karzai’s request to create one reserved seat for both Hindus and Sikhs in the lower house. The communities have declined over the past 30 years, due to general instability and fighting as well as targeted repression; only one of the eight Sikh gurdwaras in Kabul is operating. Reports regularly arise of Afghan authorities and local residents preventing Sikhs from performing cremation ceremonies for their deceased. A Sikh member of the upper house of parliament has undertaken an initiative to build a town in eastern Kabul for Sikhs and Hindus, complete with schools and a crematorium. However, construction has not begun and community support is weak.” (USCIRF, 30. April 2014, S. 109-110)

·      USDOS - US Department of State: Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2013 - Afghanistan, 27. Februar 2014 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net)

http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/270628/399487_de.html

„Sikhs and Hindus continued to face discrimination, reporting unequal access to government jobs and harassment in school, as well as verbal and physical abuse in public places. In July Sikh leaders reported that their shops, properties, and houses were taken by force and that they were attacked during religious ceremonies.” (USDOS, 27. Februar 2014, Section 6)

„One seat in the upper house is reserved for the appointment of a Sikh or Hindu representative. On September 4, President Karzai issued a presidential decree reserving a seat in the lower house for a Sikh or Hindu in the next parliamentary elections in 2015. On December 15, the lower house voted to strike down the decree; final resolution was pending at year’s end.” (USDOS, 27. Februar 2014, Section 3)

·      Freedom House: Freedom in the World 2014 - Afghanistan, 23. Jänner 2014 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net)

http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/276413/405643_de.html

„Hindus, Sikhs, and Shiite Muslims – particularly those from the Hazara ethnic group –face official obstacles and discrimination by the Sunni Muslim majority.” (Freedom House, 23. Jänner 2014)

·      Tolo News: Hindus, Sikhs Suffer as Marginalized Minorities, 29. Juni 2014

http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/15423-hindus-sikhs-suffer-as-marginalized-minorities

„In a country where the overwhelming population is Muslim and the state religion is Islam, members of non-Muslim minority communities in Afghanistan face issues of harassment, poverty, unemployment, education deficits and forced conversion. After years in exile during the Taliban regime, many Hindus and Sikhs returned to Afghanistan with high hopes but years of marginalization and neglect have left them less hopeful, and in some cases, ready to leave again. […]

For now, Hindu and Sikh Afghans continue to face marginalization and inequality to such an extent that, for many of them, the hope they came to the country with after the fall of the Taliban has disappeared, and their desire to stay along with it.” (Tolo News, 29. Juni 2014)

·      RFE/RL - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Marginalized Sikhs 'Don’t Care' About Afghan Election, 2. April 2014

http://www.rferl.org/content/sikhs-afghanistan-election-minority-president/25318893.html

„While many in Afghanistan are gripped by election fever, members of the country’s tiny Sikh community say they couldn't care less. The around 3,000-member community has endured a long history of religious discrimination and harassment in Afghanistan. Sikhs numbered more than 100,000 several decades ago, but the outbreak of war and the onset of growing persecution pushed many out. Those who have stayed – many of them working as shopkeepers and fortune tellers – say they have been forgotten by the government and will boycott the April 5 presidential election in protest. One of them is Gujrat, a 55-year-old shopkeeper in Kabul. He says that even though he has a voter card, he will not be using it until the situation for his community improves. ‘Our lands were forcedly grabbed by warlords and militia leaders during the civil war,’ he says. ‘We cannot even bury our dead according to our own traditions. We have nothing here anymore.’ Gujrat says that even though he has faced many hardships, he will never leave Afghanistan, which he calls ’our land and the land of our fathers and grandfathers.” (RFE/RL, 2. April 2014)

·      Hasht-e Sobh: The senate’s admirable step, 25. Dezember 2013 (zitiert nach BBC Monitoring)

„Sikhs and Hindus have unfortunately been subjected to systematic discrimination in Afghanistan. Their properties have been seized illegally and have still not been returned to them. Even worse, there are plans to take away from them the venues, where they observe their religious rituals and cremate their dead. […] Followers of Sikh and Hindu religions in Afghanistan have previously played an important role in the economy of the country and lived amicably with their countrymen in Afghanistan. Their children went to public schools with other Afghans without facing any problems. Three decades of war and the culture of fundamentalism and hatred in the society have changed the situation in a fashion that prevents Sikh and Hindu children from going to public schools. Many people have also given themselves the right to grab property belonging to Sikhs and Hindus. The judiciary and other state institutions have unfortunately failed in the past 12 years to resolve this issue. Had this issue been resolved, the likelihood that Hindus and Sikhs would have brought their capital back to the country would have increased.” (Hasht-e Sobh, 25. Dezember 2013)

·      UNHCR - UN High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Afghanistan [HCR/EG/AFG/13/01], 6. August 2013 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net)

http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1930_1386162591_afghanistan-richtlinien2013dt.pdf

„Nicht-muslimische religiöse Minderheiten, insbesondere Christen, Hindus und Sikhs, werden weiterhin durch das geltende Recht diskriminiert. So wird beispielsweise nach der Verfassung in Situationen, in denen weder die Verfassung noch das kodifizierte Recht Afghanistans entsprechende Bestimmungen enthält, die sunnitische Hanafi-Rechtsprechung angewandt. Dies gilt für alle afghanischen Bürger, unabhängig von ihrer Religion. Die einzige Ausnahme bilden Personenstandsachen, bei denen alle Parteien schiitische Muslime sind. In diesem Fall wird das schiitische Recht für Personenstandsachen angewandt. Für andere religiöse Minderheiten gibt es kein eigenes Recht. Nicht-Muslime dürfen Berichten zufolge nur dann untereinander heiraten, wenn sie sich nicht öffentlich zu ihren nicht-islamischen Überzeugungen bekennen.

Nicht-muslimische Minderheitengruppen leiden Berichten zufolge unter gesellschaftlicher Schikanierung und in manchen Fällen unter Gewalt; Berichten zufolge schützt die Regierung religiöse Minderheiten nicht gegen derartige Misshandlungen“ (UNHCR, 6. August 2013, S. 50)

Weitere Informationen zur Lage von Sikhs in Afghanistan finden sich in folgenden Artikeln:

·      Al Jazeera: Afghanistan’s Sikhs face an uncertain future, 23. Februar 2014

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/afghanistan-sikhs-face-an-uncertain-future-201422312395677867.html

·      DW - Deutsche Welle: Afghanische Sikhs und Hindus fordern Rechte, 3. Dezember 2012

http://www.dw.de/afghanische-sikhs-und-hindus-fordern-rechte/a-16424448

·      Hafizullah Emadi: Minorities and marginality: pertinacity of Hindus and Sikhs in a repressive environment in Afghanistan. In: Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Vol. 42, No. 2, S. 307-320 (verfügbar auf tandfonline.com)

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00905992.2013.858313

 

Auch in folgender ACCORD-Anfragebeantwortung vom November 2013 finden sich weitere Informationen zur Lage von Sikhs in Afghanistan:

·      ACCORD - Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation: Anfragebeantwortung zu Afghanistan: Lage von Sikhs [a-8560], 21. November 2013 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net)

http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/270019/398487_de.html