ICG calls for action to uphold women’s rights

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a respected advocacy group based in the Belgian capital Brussels, has called for a coherent policy on gender issues in Afghanistan following the publication of an ICG report examining the role of women in reconstruction under the new government. “Over the past year, there is very little indication that a durable policy of gender mainstreaming is taking place,” Vikram Parekh, the senior analyst for the ICG told IRIN from the capital, Kabul. “We have seen an absence of policy, and rather a series of uncoordinated, high-visibility projects with little indication that they will be sustainable,” he said, describing the international community’s projects and efforts as at best symbolic. According to the report, issued last Friday, despite the creation of a women’s affairs ministry, significant donor commitment and the return of women to universities, schools and government offices, all heralding a new day for Afghan women, insufficient attention had been paid to mainstreaming gender issues in the development process as a whole. The report said the women’s affairs ministry was best suited for developing gender strategies, but lacked professional capacity and a hierarchical structure, thereby delaying collaboration within its own departments and with other ministries. “The women’s ministry needs re-staffing, creation of better internal and external links, and the establishment of health, education and gender advocacy and training departments,” Parekh said. “Technical and financial support from international donors would be vital to helping streamline the ministry’s functions,” he stressed. The analyst noted that there had been a tendency to adopt standardised models for the country as a whole. “There has been little substantive research into the communities that are going to be the intended beneficiaries of these projects,” he said. Inasmuch as Afghanistan had ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on 5 March, the report urged the government to incorporate the provisions of CEDAW into all its legislation, as well as into the upcoming constitution. In another key recommendation, the ICG called on the Afghan Judicial Reform Commission to identify appropriate progressive Islamic statutory systems, including those of Tunisia and Malaysia, that could be sources for the revision of the civil and penal codes to bring them into line with Afghan norms. Parekh said such a move was necessary to ensure that the need for women’s participation in development gained the support of the entire community. “The problem is that you don’t want the interpretation of Islam monopolised by parties - actors that wish to use Islam in a way that would exclude women from participation in development,” he said, observing that in neighbouring Iran, women had used the Islamic legal system and their knowledge of Shari’ah to their advantage. The ICG also recommended the establishment of family courts in each provincial centre, with jurisdiction over all matters related to divorce, compulsory marriage, child custody and inheritance. It urged in this respect that steps be taken to ensure that judges were fully conversant with the civil code and relevant international treaties to which Afghanistan was a signatory. The report also reiterated the call for the extension of the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)beyond the capital so as to enable Afghan women activists to operate effectively. Commenting on the situation, Afghan women rights activists concurred. Sahida Salem, the spokeswoman for the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, told IRIN in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, that her country needed to engage in practical actions as opposed to mere rhetoric. “Warlords who committed, and are continuing to commit, horrendous crimes against the people of Afghanistan should be brought to justice,” she said. Indeed, many Afghan women’s rights activists feel that despite the regime change in the country, little has changed, because hardline Islamist warlords dominate the new administration in Kabul, as well as the provinces around the country. Salem added that security was the prime issue in Afghanistan today, and until it was addressed there would be no guarantee for any women’s rights. “The international community, particularly the US, must ensure that it supports democratic forces, and not the fundamentalists who were its allies in the fight against the Taliban,” she stressed. For an executive summary of the report go to: www.intl-crisis-group.org/