The Civil Society and Human Right Network (CSHRN) launched a campaign on December 14, 2009, in Herat, to reduce family violence.
Along with the start of the campaign, CSHRN also launched a handbook “Perspectives on Domestic Violence” by Heart intellectuals on family violence shared with several civil society actors, police, and regional office of AIHRC in Herat and written by four authors from Herat intellectuals (Mr. Daud Moneer, Professor at the Literature Faculty of Herat University; Miss Wasima Badghisi, Professor of the Law Faculty of Herat University; Mr Abdul Kabir Salehi, scholar in the fields of religion; and Mr. Ali Ahmad Kawa, researcher and professor of Sociology of Herat University)and published by CSHRN. It was reckoned as a good tool to be used for the campaign against family violence.
The strategy of campaign was designed during a gathering of civil society, AIHRC and some state institutions in CSHRN office in Heart.
Strategy to decrease violence in families in Herat
Background
Violence in families is a widespread problem in Afghanistan , which is however still not widely recognized as a violation of human rights. CSHRN has started a campaign to decrease the violence in families in Herat , a province strongly affected by these human rights violations. Herat has been chosen to carry out a pilot project on tackling this problem because CSHRN has a very good network in Herat with civil society organizations, state institutions as well as Islamic scholars and because the state institutions function rather well and a general interest in improving the situation exists.
The aim of the project is to develop and implement a joint strategy with all relevant stakeholders to fight violence in families as a pilot project. If the pilot project is successful, similar projects will be carried out in other regions.
CSHRN has launched the campaign in May 2009 in Herat with an analytical symposium on family violence with discussions on causes and measures to tackle it. Following the symposium, a working group of four intellectuals (Mr. Daud Moneer, Professor at the Literature Faculty of Herat University; Miss Wasima Badghisi, Professor of the Law Faculty of Herat University; Mr Abdul Kabir Salehi, scholar in the fields of religion; and Mr. Ali Ahmad Kawa, researcher and professor of Sociology of Herat University) was formed which elaborated a manual on how to address family violence. This manual has been published in Dari in December 2009.
During a mission of representatives of CSHRN, DIHR, and SDC to Herat in December 2009, the strategy was officially launched through meetings with a variety of stakeholders and the elaboration of the strategy and timeline for tackling the issue.
This strategy foresees the following main actions:
1) Establishment of a baseline of the current situation regarding family violence
2) Capacity building of civil society and state institutions on causes of family violence and measures to address it
3) Awareness raising of influential persons on family violence through dialogues and awareness raising of the broad public through a media campaign
4) Advocacy in the legal field with relevant state institutions by a variety of stakeholders in order to adapt the legal framework
5) Evaluation of the results of the pilot project through comparison of the actual state with the baseline on family violence and the development of lessons learnt
6) Development of the follow up strategy for Herat and possibly the development of similar projects in other regions
Detailed strategy and timeframe
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Main activities |
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Stage 1:
Establishment of a baseline regarding family violence in Herat
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• Workshop on methodologies to establish baseline on family violence for staff of CSHRN office in Herat for representatives of CSHRN member organizations, the police and the ministry for women affairs
• Development of a structure for the baseline data (e.g.: General information on the human rights situation; figures about domestic violence; actors involved in dealing with domestic violence; summarized analysis of domestic violence in Heart)
• Establishing of the baseline by the participants with the support of the respective ministries
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Stage 2: Capacity building on causes of family violence and means to tackle it with a variety of stakeholders
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• Three workshops given by the authors of the manual on family violence to 100 persons (CSHRN member organizations, representatives of the police, Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Media)
• Trained persons will spread the knowledge gained through the training with their respective institutions and members
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Stage 3:
Two kind of campaigns to raise the awareness about causes of family violence and means to tackle it with influential persons and through media
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• Persons trained during the capacity facilitate the organization of dialogues, exchange of experiences and ideas on decreasing violence in families among influential persons (teachers, mullahs, women organizations, CSHRN member organizations, etc). The participants will convey the issues discussed to the schools, mosques, organizations etc.
• Media campaign to sensitize the public on violence in families. Cooperation with the Killid group and Radio Mozhda . The persons involved in the earlier states will be involved in the media campaign
• Evaluating and analyze the results of the two campaigns in order to decide about further activities in the field of advocacy
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July to the end of the program
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Stage 4:
Advocacy towards state institutions to adapt the legal framework to needs identified
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• Representatives of civil society, religious leaders, teachers, intellectuals, police, etc. will present the results, analysis and recommendation for legal amendments of the campaign to the state institutions responsible for policy making (commission on decreasing family violence, governor, provincial council, …)
• Support given to the provincial commission for their work
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Stage 5: Evaluation of first results of the campaign
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• Surveys are carried out in order regarding all the parameters taken note of in the baseline in order to establish changes thanks to the campaign
• Lessons learnt are developed
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Stage 6:
Develop follow up strategy
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• Strategy developed on how to continue the campaign in Herat
• Strategy developed on how to transfer the model to other regions
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