Why Avesta exists

Since August 2021 the conditions for observing Afghanistan have changed fundamentally. Iran and Pakistan present their own restrictions. For German and European institutions, the consequence is the same: the questions have not become less urgent, but the established ways of answering them have become unsafe, unlawful, or both.

The response of many organisations has been to reduce their ambition — to accept thinner evidence, or to withdraw from the subject. Avesta was founded on the position that this is not necessary. Rigorous analysis remains possible without a physical presence, provided the method is designed for that condition from the outset rather than adapted to it afterwards.

Accountability without access is our core proposition and the standard against which our work is measured. It states that the absence of physical access does not release an analysis from the obligation to be verifiable, traceable and defensible.

In practice this means every finding carries its evidentiary basis, every assessment states its confidence level, and every limitation is declared rather than absorbed into a confident summary.