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Abstract

Environmental rights in fragile states are often secured, or denied, through everyday practice rather than formal law. This thesis examines Afghanistan to show how rights to land, water, and ecological health are enacted through community-led commons governance in the absence of effective state institutions. Using a qualitative, interpretive design, it synthesizes peer-reviewed research, UN and NGO reports, and multimedia sources (Afghanaid; UNESCO), complemented by brief field observations in Herat and Karukh (July 2025). The analysis draws on four lenses: environmental human rights beyond legal formalism, slow violence, commons governance (Ostrom), and postdevelopment/pluriverse theory (Escobar), while incorporating Islamic environmental ethics. Findings demonstrate that locally legitimized rules-in-use sustain commons under drought, conflict, and institutional collapse. NGO partnerships amplify these institutions by employing and training residents through Eco-DRR projects, seedling nurseries, gabion construction, and off-grid solar initiatives. Yet these systems remain constrained by unstable funding, political capture, restrictions on women’s roles, exclusion from climate finance, regional water disputes, and the unresolved waste of new technologies. The thesis advances the model of “hybridity with guardrails,” in which central bodies oversee safety codes, basin planning, circular-economy standards, and data management, while communities retain authority over allocation, monitoring, and sanctions, and NGOs translate technical standards into socially legitimate, gender-inclusive practice backed by long-term finance. Policy pathways include escrowed adaptation funds directed to accredited Afghan-led organizations, basin-level data sharing with neighbours, and circular-economy measures such as battery and plastic take-back schemes linked to micro-credit. Conceptually, the Afghan case reframes global environmental politics by treating rights as practice rather than promise.