Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, the Hazaras are facing the highest level of risk, but they are also the group that has the least representation among the number of people who were evacuated and given safe asylum from Afghanistan over the past two years. One thing is the recognition of those threats in the refugee application processing and the location of those numbers among different groups from Afghanistan.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think I can quickly comment on this. With regard to opposition groups, as we know, they have ben facing significant challenges in terms of reorganizing over the past two years. However, I think recently there have been some important statements coming from members of the opposition groups to the Taliban, including Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front in Afghanistan.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Was that question for me?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. I think that was the point I was trying to make. While I think there were multiple challenges resulting from Afghanistan being under Taliban rule, the urgency and the significant nature of the genocide currently confronting the Hazaras in Afghanistan is deserving of particular attention.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Chair. I would like to make a quick point on the question of whether or not the Taliban are listening. I think the Taliban have not been listening for the past two years, partly because of the mixed messaging they have been receiving from the international community.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for that question. I think we have determined that in the testimony we have sent already, I think in May of this year. We have applied article 2 and article 3 of the convention to the situation of the Hazaras, which claims that genocide is any of the “acts committed” towards “a specific ethnic, racial or religious group” and “committed with the intent to destroy” the group “in whole or in part”.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for that question, which I think really goes into the heart of what is happening at the moment under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. As we know, historically the Taliban are a group that embraces two different types of tendencies in Afghanistan. One is an extremist interpretation of Islam in which Shia Islam is not regarded as a legitimate sect within the broader Islamic community.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. All of this, I think, brings us to the fact that the Hazaras are not only the victims of a genocide that was quite well documented in Afghanistan historically; there is also at present the danger of a genocide and atrocities targeting the Hazaras under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Hello. Good morning. Thank you, Chair and members of the committee, all participants and my co-witnesses in this particular session of the Canadian House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights. In my five minutes, I will make three main remarks based primarily on the written testimony I submitted to this committee, together with Dr.