On 19 September last year, the International Crisis Group ICG published a report on Central Asia and Afghanistan which emphasised that the region had been a continuing source of concern for some time before the 11 September attacks. The following overview of the humanitarian issues in Afghanistan today is prompted partly by my own membership of the ICG, but chiefly by my concerns for regional development and co-operation within the ‘arc of crisis’ and for the implementation of international humanitarian norms and codes of conduct.