Author: Sayed Hussain Hussainy

This author has written 1071 articles

Access to information creates conviction

An interview with Mr. Sarwar Jawadi, member of the National Assembly of Afghanistan about access to information importance in the current situation. By Ismail Zaki Mr. Jawadi, thanks you very much for this interview. In your opinion what is the importance of access to information for the Afghan citizens? Answer: Thank you very much for the interviewing me. To my understanding access to information is a recognized human rights issue. The Afghan constitution confirms access to information as a fundamental right to each citizen. If the Afghan people don't have access to information about main programs, policies and plans of the government, then the confidence between citizens and the state breaks down. The luck of confidence between citizens and state badly damages the legitimacy of the Afghan state and creates instability and disorder in the society. Such a bad mechanism may have negative consequences in the filed of political, economic, social and cultural affaires of each citizen in Afghanistan. Question: In your opinion how does access to information affect the policy making procedures of the Afghan government? Answer: Look, when the information is provided to citizens it creates transparent communication of population with the government, so the civil society, media, lawyers and researchers can play an important role to convey the message of people to the government. I believe in such a situation the government can make proper and realistic policies. Question: As you said access to information is one of the fundamental rights of citizens recognized by the Afghan constitution. What did the Afghan National Assembly do concerning access to information promotion? Answer: According to the law the Afghan parliament can do two things; the first one is to advocate for access to information. In this regard we could approve the media law as a positive tool…

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(Angaara 7)

The Angaara Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine for persons dealing professionally with human rights. The magazine offers in depth articles and interviews on current human rights issues in Afghanistan. It is at present published in 5000 copies and is distributed directly through CSHRN. Thanks to the distribution via the regional offices of CSRHN in Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad, it reaches also rather remote areas. The Angaara Magazine is used by universities as part of their teaching and studying material, by groups of intellectuals as base for discussions and by the parliament and the Afghan administration as a base of knowledge.   ……………………………………………… Read The PDF

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Human rights monitoring, as a new working area for CSHRO

Why CSHRO has decided to work in the field of monitoring of human rights in Afghanistan? According to CSHRO researches the civil society and human rights movement has three main responsibilities: The first one is to promote human rights and democratic values in the society. The second responsibility of civil society and human rights organization is to influence to the policies of legislations in order to bring the message of human rights to the political structures of Afghanistan . The third responsibility of human rights organization is to monitor the implementation of human rights values. According to the international practices without monitoring and evaluation of human rights situation it is almost impossible to know about the reality of human rights situation in the country. Such experiences are mainly having been seen in the post war situation. The civil society and human rights member organization during the latest General Assembly has jointly decided to work actively in the fields of monitoring during the phase four of CSHRO. For this purpose CSHRO has designed a working plan for monitoring the human rights situation in Afghanistan . The working plan consists of three main elements, firstly to build the capacity of CSHRO on monitoring of human rights situation. During this period CSHRO Executive Secretariat will organize capacity building programs for the member organization and local offices of CSHRO in the deferent part of the country. The second period is to organize guidelines and formats for collecting the information, cases and local studies. The third part of the program is the implementation of the format which consists of interviews, visits to human rights violation areas and articulation of the analyses. For monitoring of human rights situation CSHRO Executive Secretariat has trained and appointed its Focal Points “representative of CSHRO in the provinces…

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Training of trainers educational program & Human Rights Educational School on UN Security Council Resolution 1325

The program that was attended by 95 trainers of CSHRN from 20 provinces was conducted in Safi Landmark Hotel, Kabul. The goal of the program was to train expert and experienced teachers in the field of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and exchanging and sharing of experiences among CSHRN's trainers and other national structures working on the field of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325). This program was organized based on the educational manual on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 prepared by the Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN). During this educational program, despite discussing regarding the role of women in peace-building, security, increasing capacity-building and familiarity with the activities of various structures in this regard, the trainers have also initiated significant debates about the opportunities and challenges facing women in the process of state-building, institution-building and strengthening peace. In order to converge in the process of implementing this program, more and more coordination amongst the civil, governmental, media and academic institutions was emphasized during this educational school. During the program, the Afghan Women Network (AWN), War Child Canada, the High Peace Council (HPC), and Humanitarian Assessment for Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA) have shared their programs, experiences and find outs with the participants of the program. The Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN) is to organize some widespread programs regarding the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 by its experienced and expert trainers across the country.

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(Angaara 6)

The Angaara Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine for persons dealing professionally with human rights. The magazine offers in depth articles and interviews on current human rights issues in Afghanistan. It is at present published in 5000 copies and is distributed directly through CSHRN. Thanks to the distribution via the regional offices of CSRHN in Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad, it reaches also rather remote areas. The Angaara Magazine is used by universities as part of their teaching and studying material, by groups of intellectuals as base for discussions and by the parliament and the Afghan administration as a base of knowledge. ……………………………………………… Read The PDF

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Without freedom of expression and freedom of media, democracy does not have any meaning!

A discussion about access to information with Mr. Fayaz Mehrayeen the political and social analyst. Mr. Mehrayeen is the senior advisor of Governor of Balkh province. He is the author of many articles in the fields of political and social issues. Mr. Mehrayeen delivers constantly lectures and presentations to the academic and civil society groups. By: Farkhonda Arezo Aabi, Journalist and human rights activist in Mazar e Sharif Question: Mr. Mehrayeen! In your point of view what is access to information and what kind of situation does it need? Answer: In my point of view access to information creates transparent, free and fluent relationship between state and citizens. Access to information means access of citizens to state resources, documents and information that foster the culture of transparency and accountability in the government structure. Question: What are the proper policies for institutionalizing of access to information? Answer: The public could have access to the accurate information while the reporters and journalists of Medias and other relevant organizations enjoy from the rights of access to information because they are delivering the information to public. To institutionalize this right firstly there is a need for a law in the country level, a law which contain and code this right and consequently all citizens and people particularly who are in the key positions of the government must be aware from this law. and they must understand clearly their obligations that the law binds them to not conceal information from media and public, this is the first step toward institutionalization of this right. Secondly depends to joint work of media and civil society efficient and sufficient public awareness programs to consolidate and aware the public to defend from their right which is having access to transparent information firstly and consequently do not allow…

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CSHRN in dialogue with South Asian civil society

By Wazir Ahamd Khorami The Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) participated in a consultation gathering on designing of ICCO regional plan for Sough Asia on 23rd to 25 th of February 2010 in Katmandu of Nepal. As a partner organization of ICCO, CSHRN formulized and presented the massages of CSHRN members to the consultative gathering. CSHRN was represented by Mr. Wazir Ahmad Khorami, Liaison officer of CSHRN. The consultative gathering brought together all South Asian partners of ICCO (Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan). The Afghan civil society delegation consisted of six organizations raised the issue of challenges concerning human rights, rule of law, democratization, peace-building process and justice issues in Afghanistan. The Afghan delegation emphasized on the role of civil society in promotion of human rights and respect for rule of law in Afghanistan. CSHRN representative presented the lessons learned from Afghan civil society to the regional gathering. According to the lessons learned the Afghan civil society of Afghanistan has three main roles: First, the messenger role of civil society, the Afghan civil society would like to play a collaborative mediator role between the Afghan state and the Afghan citizens. For this propose the CSHRN organizes constant dialogues with the Afghan citizens and Afghan state institutions. Second, monitoring role of civil society, the monitoring role of civil society in Afghanistan is a challenging role. The problem is that civil society in Afghanistan doesn't have the capacity to monitor the human rights situation and the process of democratization in the country. Along with that, CSHRN is doing some monitoring programs by organizing surveys with the Afghan citizen in some provinces of Afghanistan. The Afghan delegation expressed their concern for the luck of capacity of civil society in monitoring role of civil society in Afghanistan. Third, advocacy…

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CSHRN’s statement over General Dostum’s apology from the victims of wars and the people of Afghanistan

In the name of Almighty Allah CSHRN's statement over General Dostum's apology from the victims of wars and the people of Afghanistan Thursday, October 10, 2013 Kabul-Afghanistan Afghans have suffered lots of painful and bitter days especially during the last 30 years and yet suffering the huge impact of human rights violation in the country. However, not only the Afghan government did not fulfilled its commitments over implementation of «the state's action plan for peace, reconciliation and justice» besides, during the last 12 years, efforts have been made to impose the «Oblivion policy» under the name of Pardon and impunity on war victims in Afghanistan, the instance for this can be ratifying «the National Reconciliation Charter». But, acknowledging the suffering and pains of Afghan people, promotion and provision of justice for war victims have been remained unfinished in the agenda of civil society institutions and defenders of war victims. Acknowledging the pain and sufferings of the victims is respecting their human values and dignity, therefore apology of the engaged parties in the war is the first step in forming a national discourse regarding the painful past and in the bright of these facts and passion there will be an opportunity for accountability of the past incidents. The Civil Society and Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN) which is consisted of 124 civil institutions, appreciates this action of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, the leader and founder of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, over apologizing from the victims of wars and recalling on the other involved figures and considers this as part of the fundamental principles of transitional justice and an effective step for initiating a national discourse on the painful past and violation of human rights in Afghanistan; and would like to express the following points regarding this…

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The Civil Society and Human Rights organizations (CSHRO) main activities in the field of promotion and implementation of UNSCR 1325

Civil Society and Human Rights Organization CSHRO initiated the working program on the United Nation's Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 so called “Strengthening Gender Equality” in Afghanistan . The goal of the program is to encourage the role of women in Afghan society in peace, security and stability in Afghanistan . Meanwhile CSHRO advocates for the promotion and implementation of UNSCR 1325. The program is supported by Ambassador's Small Grand Projects of US (ASGP). The programme has 7 month duration March-September 2011. According to the program CSHRO designed a working program to disseminate broad information about UNSCR 1325. The program covers three provinces of Afghanistan Kabul, Parwan and Bamyan. In each province 100 women are identified according to their educational level. Amongst 100 of women 25 of them are educated and employed in the state and non state institutions and 75 of them are educated but unemployed women. The first group which consists of 25 women is called “Advisory Group”. The group which consists of 75 women is called “Advocator Group”. Additionally CSHRO involved other stakeholders and established another group by the name of “Support Group” which consists of directors and key persons of state and non state organizations. CSHRO has fife strategic key result areas – 1: coordination -2: capacity building -3: public awareness -4: Monitoring -5: Advocacy. This project was designed based on fife strategic key result areas of CSHRO. 1- In the field of key result area Capacity building: At the beginning of project CSHRO organized training workshops on UN resolutions particularly on UNSCR 1325. The purpose of the training workshops was to increase the knowledge of participants about UN resolutions, content of UNSCR 1325 and obligations of state in regard with UN resolutions. Consequently for the “Advocator Group” CSHRO educational section organized a series…

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Submission by Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) For Eighteenth Session of the UPR Working Group

(January - February 2014) Of the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review Afghanistan The Eighteenth session of the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) working group will be held from 27 January 2014 to 07 February 2014 examining the human rights records of 14 States including Afghanistan. Afghanistan will send a delegation composed of different governmental officials from different ministries and state institutions to engage in a dialogue with other States on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. During the interactive dialogue between recommending States and Afghanistan, the States will be asking questions and making recommendations, and the Afghan delegation will be regularly taking the floor to answer the questions and comment the recommendations. Probably, most of the recommendations and questions will be inspired by stakeholders submissions to the UPR Working Group. The Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) for the first time submits an assessment of human rights situation under UPR reporting mechanism. The CSHRN has already submitted its report to UPR Working Group and made certain recommendations for action by Afghanistan as State under Review (SuR). The report gives an overview of the achievements and challenges since its first UPR review in 2009. And, it also assesses the scope and level of implementation of the recommendations made during its previous review. Here is the copy of CSHRN's UPR shadow report. Click the PDF Icon to Download.

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