ICG urges increased assistance to judiciary

A new report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), has called for increased international support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan's judicial system, which it says is being hampered by domestic political infighting as well as lack of donor interest. "Judicial reforms underlie everything, in terms of promoting a system of accountability and good governance within the country," ICG's Senior Analyst Vikram Parekh told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul on Wednesday. He added that the basic building blocks of the rule of law, including a professionally trained judiciary, clearly defined sources of law and a coherent set of judicial institutions were necessary to put the country back on track to achieve sustainable security. Afghanistan's judiciary, like every other institution in the country, has been devastated by 23 years of war. While successive regimes imprisoned or executed scholars of Islamic law and Western jurisprudence and drove others into exile or banned them from practising their profession, years of fighting left the country without proper laws and codes. The ICG has called for improved training and resources for Afghans so they can make informed decisions about mechanisms that can address past abuses and end impunity. "While the international community has dithered over judicial reform, there are fears that the Afghan justice system has been taken over by hard-liners before the Afghan people have had a chance to express their will in a democratic process," ICG Asia Programme Director, Robert Templer said in a statement on Tuesday. The ICG report has called on President Hamid Karzai to retire Supreme Court Chief Justice, Fazl Hadi Shinwari. It added that he was much older than the maximum age of 60 allowed by the constitution, and does not have formal training in secular sources of law - an implicit requirement in the constitution. As a cleric with strong links to a fundamentalist political party, Shinwari has expanded the number of Supreme Court judges from nine to 137, many of whom are also unqualified in secular law, the ICG report added. Commenting on the issue, Afghan legal expert and a former official of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, Gulalai Karimi told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad that the reconstruction of the national judicial system was taking place at a slow pace. "Over the past one-year 15 women have been trained in law and this is the sign of reconstruction of the judicial system in Afghanistan," she said, adding that the Afghan Judicial Commission formed late last year was doing its best to put in place a functioning system in their country. However, Parekh maintained that keeping accountability and transitional justice on the agenda was important. "Without that, a lot of individuals that are now in power would feel that they can act with impunity," he said. Many officials of the Afghan government have been accused of committing human rights abuses over the past two decades. Meanwhile, last weekend the UN Development Programme signed an agreement with the Afghan Judicial Reform Commission on a $30 million project to reform the country's judicial system over the next two years. The initiative aims to rebuild the legal system and re-establish the rule of law.