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Afghan Witness: The map is designed to provide real-time updates and track violations of basic human rights in the country

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Saboor Bayat
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A research project called "Afghan Witness" has published an online map to assess the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

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The map which is available online includes and documents open-source information on human rights violations, attacks and demonstrations under Taliban rule, the body said in a statement released on Thursday, May 18.
"Afghan Witness" added that after the fall of Kabul and the Taliban's restrictions on the media, the ability of journalists to report independently, especially the process of preparing investigative reports regarding human rights violations, has been increasingly limited.
However, the Afghan Witness Project has said it has made public a map documenting verified evidence of human rights abuses in Afghanistan. This project is related to a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom, called "Information Resilience Center".
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This map was prepared in collaboration with the US-based non-profit organization C4ADS. According to "Afghan Witness", journalists, researchers, policy makers and people can use this map to find information about human rights violations in Afghanistan in the form of video and images.
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David Osborne, head of the research team of "Afghan Witness" said in this context: "Individuals and armed groups are committing human rights violations in Afghanistan today. "Afghan Witness researches, consolidates and archives information as much as possible, hoping to one day bring the accountability mechanisms of human rights violators to the table of justice."
According to him since the beginning of this project in October 2021, the "Afghan Witness" team has been continuously monitoring social media and digital information networks with the aim of collecting the content produced by the users of these networks.
"Afghan Witness" added that the team of this institution monitors and reviews the information obtained from Afghanistan on a daily basis, but only verifiable information is included in this map.
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Osborne says that "Afghan Witness" has witnessed a "catastrophic deterioration of the quality of factual information in Afghanistan". According to him, rumors, false and erroneous claims and deliberate campaigns aimed at deceiving minds have become common.
"Afghan Witness" has added that its assessment of social and information networks shows that the information environment in Afghanistan is deteriorating.
The Taliban have imposed serious restrictions on the media. Meanwhile, widespread cases of human rights violations are reported, including killings and arbitrary detention; But journalists are facing a serious challenge in verifying and investigating these cases.
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