EASO COI Report. Criminal law, customary justice and informal dispute resolution

English

This report provides an overview of the pluralistic legal system of codified and uncodified, formal and informal (customary) norms which govern Afghan society. The report also focuses on the topic of land dispute as one of the main sources of conflict in Afghanistan, providing information on formal and informal mechanism of dispute resolution, including Taliban’s involvement in resolving land disputes. Finally, it describes the practices of blood feuds and revenge killing, including customary blood feud resolution and compensation, and prosecution by the state.

The purpose of this report is to provide relevant and updated information for the assessment of international protection status determination, including refugee status and subsidiary protection, and in particular for use in EASO’s country guidance development on Afghanistan.

This report is meant to be read in conjunction with other 2020 EASO COI reports on Afghanistan, which provide relevant information regarding topics such as state structure and security forces, the main insurgent groups, targeted violence, security situation and armed conflict developments, key-socioeconomic indicators.

This report was drafted by the European Asylum Support Office Country of Origin Information (COI) Sector.

The following national asylum and migration department contributed by reviewing this report: The Netherlands, Office for Country Information and Language Analysis, Ministry of Justice

The drafting of this report was finalised on 30 June 2020. Any event taking place after this date is not included in this report.

This report was written according to the EASO COI Report Methodology (2019).

Policy

The general security situation in Afghanistan is largely determined by a long-term, ongoing, internal armed conflict which has resulted in many Afghans being uprooted or seeking refuge in another country. In order to assess the need for international protection, the Commissioner General takes into account the fact that there are fundamental differences between the regions of Afghanistan when it comes to the security situation, the nature and intensity of the violence.

Land: 
Afghanistan

Information about the asylum procedure, tailored to the asylum seeker, can be found at : asyluminbelgium.be.