WUNRN
Afghanistan: Was the Women's Vote Counted?
Human Rights Watch
________________________________________________________________________
Photographer - Fardin Waezi
Campaign of 5
Million Afghan women
The Declaration of Commitment to Afghan Women
Five Million Afghan Women
Campaign-4th August 2009
Translated from
Dari
According to the
constitution of Afghanistan and national and international treaties, one of the
important social rights of human beings is to determine their political future
(the right to elect and to be elected), but unfortunately in Afghan society the
women are facing many problems in order to use their rights. Considering the time constraints in
presidential and provincial councils’ elections, among the society there are
growing concerns over participation of women in the election process.
Therefore, women rights activists and civil society representatives from all
over the country gathered on 25th June, 2009 and held comprehensive talks on
related issues. In this gathering decision has been taken to launch a campaign
of 5 million Afghan eligible women to support women’s political participation
in order to ensure the rule of law and gender equality.
Taking into account that the active
participation of women in elections is vital for resolving the current problems
of the country; therefore, we (women) need a comprehensive support of people as
well as national and international organizations. Hence, for increasing the
level of women participation and in order to attain their legal rights, this
campaign suggests the following:
· This
campaign asks the people and government of Afghanistan to support their
commitments regarding women’s political rights
and transparency of election process, especially:
· The
MOI, governors, district governors and all relevant national and international
organizations are asked to adopt measures to ensure the security of women
during polling day.
· The
Ministries of Culture & Information, Hajj and Religious Affairs and other
religious and cultural organizations are asked to encourage eligible women to
participate in elections by using religious courses through mass media, mosques
and Shia mosques.
· The
MOWA, and national and international organizations working for women rights,
are asked to support the campaign.
· The
IEC and national and international organizations working for election are asked
to pave the way for women to participate in election and to use all sources and
possibilities such as media, schools, mosques and free transportation, in order
to motivate and guarantee their presence in the election.
· The
campaign asks all presidential and provincial councils’ candidates to
acknowledge and include issues like women’s political, social, cultural, civil
and economical rights, ensure the opportunities of reaching justice for women,
amend the laws which affect women life “specifically the Family Law” and
implement the Law of elimination of violence against women in accordance with
the Constitution and national and international commitments.
·
According to the Afghanistan National Development Strategy
(ANDS), Operational Plan for Afghan Women and the third Millennium Development
Goal for increasing the number of leadership positions by 30% in different
political and government civil services levels; the Afghan women need support
to speed up the process of women participation and leadership in governmental
affairs related to the presidential candidates.
· The
Afghan Women Network as the implementer and supporter of this campaign believes
that promoting democracy without women’s independent and active participation
is unattainable. Therefore, all Afghan women are asked to realize the value of
their votes and by considering their social responsibility, they shall
participate in election.
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