Afghan Religious Minorities Refugees from Waziristan In 2014, thousands of civilians fled North Waziristan District of northwest Pakistan to Afghanistan to escape Pakistani military operations in the area. While many of these have since returned to Pakistan, around 72,000 refugees are estimated to be living in Afghanistan, with the majority in Gulan Refugee Camp. These refugees are in a limbo as humanitarian international organisations, including UNHCR and WFP, have begun to withdraw or scale down their interventions. The refugees are in no position to return, due to rumours that many families have been detained upon return, and their settlements, too, have been destroyed. They also face difficulties to remain as they have no identification documents and while UNHCR provided the group with prima facie refugee status in 2014, it was never formalised. This situation is further exacerbated by the fact that due to the border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Afghan government prefers to treat the Waziris as internally displaced people although refusing them any identification. Because of this, these refugees find themselves unable to be part of any government programmes or even enrol their children into schools. Source: ‘Left Behind: Waziristan Refugees in Afghanistan risk being forgotten as humanitarian assistance decreases’ (Norway: NRC, 2019), accessed February 13, 2020, https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/briefing-notes/left-behind-waziristanrefugees-in-afghanistan/left-behind---situation-for-waziristan-refugees.pdf. ICERD for the past 36 years. As a result, this important document on minority rights remains unimplemented, which is all the more glaring since the Constitution does not even recognise any ethnic, religious and linguistic group as a minority. Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Afghanistan In Afghanistan, the Sunni dominant rulers have historically discriminated against minority Shias. Even among the Shia, the Hazaras have been the most persecuted minority group in the country.12 From 1890 to 1893, it is estimated that around 60 per cent of the entire Hazara population was massacred by King Abdul Rahman, a Pashtun, in an act of ethnic cleansing.13 The persecution 12 ‘Hazaras, the single most persecuted ethnic minority in Islamic Pakistan’, New Delhi Times, July 15, 2019, accessed February 22, 2020, https://www. newdelhitimes.com/hazaras-the-single-most-persecuted-ethnic-minority-inislamic-pakistan. 13 Melissa Kerr Chiovenda, ‘Afghanistan: Still Searching for Inter-Ethnic 5