Families affected by Australia's alleged war crimes in Afghanistan have been left destitute and a panel of UN experts says the government must compensate them immediately.
A report led by judge Paul Brereton found evidence Australian soldiers had unlawfully killed 39 Afghans, with some tortured before their murders.
Four years have passed since the findings were published and for some victims' families it has been more than a decade since their loved ones were killed.
Despite accepting the report's recommendations on compensation, the federal government has not paid a cent to any victim and has not explained if it will.
A group of independent experts at the United Nations says this is "unacceptable".
"Australia has a duty to compensate victims of summary executions and torture under international human rights law and international humanitarian law," they said in a joint statement.
"It is unconscionable that families of deceased victims ... have been left destitute in the harsh living conditions of rural Afghanistan for over a decade."
Nazar Gul, one of the men allegedly shot dead by Australia's special forces in 2012, had three wives and 17 children.
His family does not have money to buy clothes and sometimes resorts to begging for food.
Australian soldiers allegedly handcuffed Afghan national Ali Jan before kicking him off a small cliff, shooting him and claiming he was a spotter for Taliban insurgents.
The man had been working to provide for his wife Bibi Dhorko and three children.
"His children go barefoot and most of the time the family does not have food to eat," the experts' report said.
"(Bibi Dhorko) does not sleep well at night and is always thinking about why Ali Jan was killed.
"She is seeking justice."
Australian authorities have not contacted or directly apologised to either family.
The government adopted regulations in July that would allow it to pay victims compensation, but these payments would be made as a form of charity provided at the discretion of the military, not a legal right under international law.
This means there are no clear or consistent criteria about the amount of compensation victims must receive, due process and judicial safeguards are inadequate and there is no requirement to consult with those affected.
Afghanistan's political and security environment, alongside a lack of diplomatic relations with the Taliban authorities, has made it difficult to pay victims, the UN experts acknowledged.
But there are feasible solutions and the experts have offered their assistance.
The experts include Ben Saul, the UN's special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, Richard Bennett, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and Bernard Duhaime, special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.
International law requires Australia to provide medical, psychological, legal and other assistance to victims' families.
A spokesperson from the Department of Defence said Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in June 2023 had agreed to set up a compensation scheme and pointed to the July developments.
"It is this scheme that was established under regulation, as agreed by the governor-general, last month," the department said in a statement to AAP.
Mr Marles will soon appoint an Afghanistan Inquiry Compensation Advocate who - independently of Defence - will review compensation claims and recommend payments.
But the chief of the defence force will have the final say on whether payments are made.
The Australian Defence Force was deployed in Afghanistan between October 2001 and June 2021.
