WUNRN
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights
Commission
Afghanistan -
Violence Against Women - First 6 Months of Year 1392-2013
Direct Link to Full 31-Page Report:
Part III - Conclusion and Recommendations
1.Conclusions:
As shown in this report the recorded
statistics on violence against women during the first six months of the current
year has reached a shocking number of 4154 cases.
This figure indicates an increase of nearly
25 percent compared to the number of violence against women recorded in the
first six months of the previous year. However, this increase could be due to
increased public confidence in the AIHRC’s offices, but can be caused by other
factors such as increased violence against women and the public's distrust of
judicial authorities as well.
In any way, this high figure of violence
against women in the first half of this year is very shocking and a matter to
be pondered upon. Especially when we see that over 30% of the figures are
physical violence, especially beating, slapping, kicking and throwing stones,
the issue becomes more and more worrying because physical violence against
women is the naked (harsh) form of violence against women.
Also, 6.3 percent of all cases of violence
against women have been sexual violence, and 81 cases out of 262 cases have
been recorded as rape cases. These figures show that violence against women in
the country is at its shocking state.
The even more shocking issue in this report
is that the highest rate of violence, 94.3% of all cases of violence against
women, has taken place by the family members of the woman. The results of this
report show that the husbands of the women are the most violent person against
the women. This means that women in the family lose their safety against
violence.
The result of this report implies that the
responsible organs must pay serious attention to the issue and fighting against
it requires precise plans and programs of fighting violence against women.
Therefore, the government of Afghanistan should take practical and effective measures to improve the situation of women’s rights in the country based on its 29
legal obligations stipulated in international
human rights documents as well as in the domestic laws. The AIHRC given the
existing problems in the area of women's rights, presents the following
recommendations for the improvement of the living situation of women in
Afghanistan.
2. Recommendations
Raising public awareness of the rights and
social privileges of citizens. In particular, the legal status of women in the
family and society by developing and implementing programs and extensive
continuous education by the Ministry of Education, Higher Education, Hajj and
Religious Affairs, Justice, Women's Affairs and other sectoral ministries;
Creation of job opportunities and income
generation works for women to ensure financial independence and eliminate
severe financial dependency of women to men.
Creation of administrative opportunities for
women in the high levels of public and private agencies and institutions. And
involving them in decision making, macroeconomic national policy in order to
ensure the permanent guarantees for the protection of women's role in public
life;
Creation of effective strategies to combat
superstitious traditions harming women’s human rights, contributing
continuation of patriarchal culture;
Assuring appropriate, committed and expert
capacities in the judicial system to eliminate the culture of impunity, and
serious fight against those who continue to support impunity;
Expansion of special attorney offices to
fight violence against women, and increasing of the staff of these offices in
all provinces, and making registration of marriage and the use of marriage
contracts compulsory in the country,
Ratification of the Law on Elimination of
Violence Against Women and the practical implementation of this Law;
Modifying and revising of some of the
provisions of the laws that are in conflict with the values of human rights
especially women's rights;
Criminalization of some examples of violence
such as rape and honor killings in the laws specifically in the Law on
Elimination of Violence against Women and criminal law;
Raising Police’s and security forces’
awareness and knowledge of human rights standards to promote a spirit of
responsibility and respect for human rights;
Ratification and signing of the Palermo
Protocol on human trafficking, to fight human trafficking especially
trafficking of women and sexual exploitation of women;
Providing facilities for women's access to
justice and judicial authorities at central and provincial levels to enhance
the enjoyment of legal protection of women victims of violence.
__________________________________________
Statement on
Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan
Dr. Massouda Jalal
Founding President of Jalal Foundation &
Former Minister of Women of Afghanistan
Jalal Foundation with its member’s
of the civil society organizations, scholars, intellectuals, influential and
elite people strongly condemn all forms of violence against women and ask for
justice to be done against horrific crimes against women. We ask for justice
for Sitara whose arms and hands were broken, knocked semi-unconscious and
stabbed in the head with a knife by her husband. Still not satisfied, he cut
off her nose and upper lip and threw them to the floor, leaving a
triangle-shaped hole in her face. This act is against human dignity; the
perpetrator must be arrested and charged. It can’t be an excuse that the
perpetrator has run away, police must take this seriously, investigate the case
and capture the culprit. It is a disgrace to the country if the police force
does not have the ability to capture criminals.
We
women rights movements are extremely disappointed with the increased number of
cases of violence against women in 2013 which has risen by 24.7% compared with
last year; a staggering increase of incidents of violence against women. The
judgment against Chaman Gul’s case, where she was raped by a group of local police
two years back is extremely shocking. The following are a few cases reported
which have failed to obtain justice:
Ø Two women were found hanged in Logar
province,
Ø Two women were killed over a family
dispute in Faryab province by their sons,
Ø A father-in-law killed his
daughter-in-law and two grandsons (aged 8 and 10) in Ghazni,
Ø 17 years old Shakila was shot in the
face by her husband in Kabul
Ø Shooting of a boy and a girl in
Baghlan,
Ø Through informal justice, a mother
attacked and killed by her son with a knife in Herat.
In
spite of all the gains and efforts made towards promoting women’s rights in
Afghanistan, social and legal protection of women is deteriorating, which
raises concerns over the roles, responsibilities and commitments of the Afghan
government.
It
is a pity that severe violence against women occurs in provinces which are
under government control. These violent cases are not investigated seriously in
a transparent process by the law enforcement agencies at both a national and
local level.
The
dreadful incidents of violence against women remain only in news headlines.
We
call on the Afghan Civil Society and Communities to closely monitor the cases
of violence against women from investigation to judgment at a national and
local level. We ask the Afghan Civil Society and Communities to play an active
role in coordinating and sharing timely and accurate information regarding
violence against women with relevant stakeholders.
We
call on the International Community to consider the urgency of their support in
terms of ending violence against women in Afghanistan. We ask on practical
measures to implement commitments made under Tokyo Mutual Accountability
Framework towards ending violence against women. We ask the international
community for provision of special funding to support the severe case of
violence against women.
We
call on Afghan government to prove their commitments towards law enforcement
agencies to investigate and follow up on the recent cases of violence against
women immediately and conduct public trials in order to prosecute the
perpetrators and their supporters. The government has to increase the
accountability of its law enforcement and judiciary. We
also urge the Afghan government to provide immediate life-saving support to
victims of violence against women across the country.
We
criticize the government’s failure to prosecute the perpetrators as well as
religious clerks for their total silence in the face of increasing violence
towards women. These clerks waste no time when it comes to proposing
restrictions on women’s rights and freedom to work and travel and rarely use
their perch to promote human rights for women. In a country where the religious
Ulema Council considers women second class citizens, it’s not surprising that
men feel they can commit these crimes without any fear of prosecution. The
Afghan government should pay serious attention to these cases and not observe
silence. It is the job of the government to act upon the nations concerns; man
or woman. We want to avoid a repeat of
the case of Sahar Gul a child bride whose brutal torture shocked Afghanistan.
Just months later, her tormentors were set free by the very lawmakers who had
promised her justice.
Parliament has failed to use
legislation in eliminating violence against women (which was enforced by a
Presidential Decree). There is also a lack of access to education in
Afghanistan for women, it is known that 90% of women are illiterate and there
is also a lack of healthcare. In order to tackle the problems the government
needs to look at the following:
Ø Annul all discriminatory laws
against women, in particular the Marriage Law, the discriminatory provisions of
the Penal Law and the Property Law, the discriminatory traditional laws and the
Law of Personal Status of the Shiite;
Ø Take measures to put an end resort
to mobile informal courts and guarantee women’s full and effective access to
the formal justice system;
Ø Enhance the implementation of the
Law for Elimination of Violence against Women, in coordination with the
Prosecutor-General’s Office throughout the country;
Ø Continue to improve women’s access
to social rights, e.g. health and education, and combat illiteracy among women
nationwide;
Ø Always extensively consult the civil
society organizations to draft government reports to the UN committees, in
particular the Committee for Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW), to implement their concluding observations and the recommendations of
the Special Rapporteur on violence against women.
Ø Afghan government should eliminate
all sorts of violence, force, pressure and discrimination against women and we
urge the International community to provide full cooperation and support to end
Violence against Women in Afghanistan.