Commemoration of 21 March 1982 as Afghanistan Day
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- See Doc. 4864, report of the Political Affairs Committee. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 12 March 1982.
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Recalling that Afghanistan was invaded by Soviet forces on 27 December 1979, and that this invasion was condemned by the Assembly in its
Recommendation 889 (31 January 1980) ;
2. Noting that, on 18 November 1981, the United Nations General Assembly condemned by a very large majority the continuing Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan ;
3. Shocked by the sufferings of the Afghan people inside their country, the bombings carried out against the civilian population, the destruction of their crops and livestock, the disease and the famine ;
4. Deeply concerned at the plight of the Afghan refugees (a situation with which the Assembly dealt in its
Recommendation 922, of 30 September 1981) whose current total stands at 4 million (or one-fifth of the total population), 2.5 million of whom are in Pakistan and 1.5 million in Iran ;
5. Remembering that every year 21 March is celebrated by Afghans as their National Day, representing the beginning of a new year and symbolising the nation's rebirth ;
6. Recalling that, by its Order No. 399 (1981), the Assembly instructed the Political Affairs Committee and the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography to appoint sub-committees “to study jointly the possibility of the Council of Europe providing a framework for the organisation of a widely representative international conference for the search for an equitable solution of the Afghan crisis” ;
7. Welcoming the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 17 November 1981, in which it declared its intention to commemorate 21 March 1982 as Afghanistan Day,
8. Calls on the parliaments and governments of all member states to join in celebrating 21 March 1982 as Europe's own Afghanistan Day, by which our peoples express their warm sympathy and support for the people of Afghanistan and their desire to see the establishment of a free and independent Afghanistan.
