The Afghan state’s war against the Hazara people in the 1890s wounded the country’s social fabric, a wound that still calls for healing. The official state policy of persecution of Hazaras significantly getting momentum in the 1880s sowed the seeds of lasting discrimination against them at the societal level, which is extended until today, the effects of which will be revisited throughout this paper.
There are widespread real and perceived discrimination against Hazaras in all spheres of their social and political life, from seeking employment to day-to-day interactions. The Afghan state’s persecution of Hazaras in the late 19th century, killing, enslaving and displacing thousands of them, and instituting the mentality of looking down on them at the societal level continues today to create an enabling environment for radical groups to perpetrate atrocities against the group. This paper explores whether targeted attacks against Hazaras of Afghanistan in recent years amount to genocide. Then, it discusses, regardless of a genocide determination, what a prospective transitional justice process can offer to address the problem. Chapter One provides a historical overview and discusses a selected number of deliberate attacks against the Hazaras that show a pattern from 2014 onwards. Chapter Two examines whether atrocities against Hazaras amount to genocide considering the facts against the applicable international law and provides a transitional justice perspective to address the problem.