Author: Sayed Hussain Hussainy

This author has written 1066 articles

Access to Information key to Accountability in Afghanistan

From the website of The Danish Institute for Human Rights DIHR's Afghan partner the Civil Society and Human Rights Network is pushing for new legislation to ensure access to information for the Afghan people. Malek Sitez, DIHR's Afghan expert, argues that such access is a precondition for creating an accountable state in Afghanistan. By Brendan Sweeney Senior Advisor and Programme Manager at DIHR, Malek Sitez, who is responsible for DIHR projects in Afghanistan, has been a vocal critic of developments in this divided country. In the following interview, he explains why the Institute's main partner in Afghanistan, the Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN), is pushing for the introduction of new legislation to regulate ordinary people's access to information. Q: Why is access to information essential for human rights? A: Access to information means that citizens have the right to get information concerning civil, political, economic, social and cultural matters from the public administration. It is a principle of good governance that government information - involving the education or health sector, state expenditure, election procedures, and anti-corruption measures - is made available to ordinary people. Some exceptions can be made to this principle such as issues regarding national security or confidential data about individuals, but these exemptions should be as few as possible. Access to information also enables people to directly confront and pressurize the state to make it more transparent and accountable, and to reduce corruption. The state will then be in a better position to fulfill its role and to respect the rights of all the people living under its jurisdiction. That is why access to information is so important for strengthening human rights culture, endorsing democracy and encouraging a culture which fosters the rule of law in society. Worldwide, there is increasing recognition of…

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International Humanitarian Law Promotion in the Framework of CSHRN’s activities

International Humanitarian Law includes states commitments for securing war victims, supporting prisoners of war, serving the war victims and states obligations in reducing civilian casualties. The international humanitarian law has been defined & interpreted in the four conventions of Geneva 1949. These conventions have been approved by the United Nations under universal general rights. Hence, all states parties of the United Nations are obliged to include the provisions of these conventions in their national laws and accordingly form some structures and mechanisms for applying the international humanitarian law in their political and social lives. These conventions are very crucial for states still in conflicts and war. Afghanistan is a country where the international military forces are widely operating. The military forces of nearly 40 countries are here to fight against the international terrorism. During the last 12 years, we were witnessed of huge civilian causalities in which women and children were the main victims. With regret that civilian causalities became one of the main challenges during military operations in Afghanistan . In order to promote the culture of responsibility among the national and international military forces, it's very crucial and important to generalize the international humanitarian law. Developing and promoting the international humanitarian law was one of the main programs of the Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN) in its 4 th phase and has therefore conducted some constructive dialogues among the civil society institutions. Based on these dialogues, civil society institutions requested CSHRN to initiate capacity building programs regarding the humanitarian law for its member organizations. According to this proposal, CSHRN's secretariat has conducted some joint meeting with its member organizations during which a working group of Afghan experts for preparing the first draft of the educational manual regarding the international humanitarian law was…

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CSHRN statement in connection with the Need of Improving Political and Economical Relations between Afghanistan and the International Community

In the name of Almighty Allah CSHRN statement in connection with the Need of Improving Political and Economical Relations between Afghanistan and the International Community July 18, 2013 Kabul-Afghanistan Our country is on the most critical evolution period of its political life. These tremendous evolutions have created an unbreakable link with the international incidents. International terrorists have changed our country into one of the most insecure regions in the world. Unfortunately, because of no required and active regional cooperation, this important political geography is still unable to reach stability and peace and bring stability to the country. The tensions resulted from such inconsistency induced conflicts and convulsions in Afghanistan and take the lives of our innocent countrymen more than ever. In such a critical situation, the relations of the Afghan government with the international community can be interpreted challenging and complex. Despite signing many strategic pacts with the world's states, a satisfactory result cannot be noticed that will pave the ground for peace and resolving the conflicts in the country. Delaying on signing the security agreement between the Afghan government and the United States of America has increased disbelieves about the consequences of the strategic pacts, while the time is passing rapidly, delaying such issues will cause disadvantages for both countries. Recently, the approach of European, American and other international media, political institutions and other friends of Afghanistan towards our country's future is changing. These new approaches can be followed by some unpleasant consequences towards the future of Afghanistan . The concept, that the Afghan leadership cannot understand the convergence and the international wills led by the United States of America in the region, has reached the public's mind of the involved countries in the destiny of Afghanistan . In such circumstance, First, Afghanistan will face political crises…

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Interview with the CSHRN regional coordinators

Written by Frozan Darwish On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10. December 2008, the officer of the CSRHN resource center, Mrs. Frozan Darwish, invited the regional coordinators of CSHRN to a roundtable discussion. The aim of this round table was to discuss together about the human rights situation in the different regions and the activities carried out by CSHRN. Interview with the regional coordinator of the east Following is the part of the interview with the coordinator of the eastern region. Doctor Niamatullah Hamdard, the CSRHN coordinator in the eastern region and a very active personality in the fields of human rights, was one of the participants. Doctor Hamdard has been working since seven years for civil society and since two years he is part of the staff of the network. He has a lot of experience in working with civil society and he enjoyed being involved in the setting up of CSHRN. He is married and lives with his family in the beautiful city of Nangarhar, where he also works. F. Darwish: Doctor Hamdard, you are a respected personality in Nangarhar province. In the recent interview with a local television, however, you criticized the role of the government and you also pointed out the weak position of civil society. Is this correct? Dr. Hamdard: Yes, I had an interview with lamar television in Kabul on the 14. October 2008 and I wanted to transmit the difficulties of the people living in the eastern region, so that it would be heard by the persons working with the government and that the government, who is responsible for the security of the population, would take the necessary measures. Before CSHRN started to work in the eastern region, the population as well…

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The Educational Spring School on International Human Rights Mechanisms

As a member of the international community, Afghanistan has some great responsibilities and commitments in respect with human rights. The UN charter requests its member states to apply human rights values through international human rights conventions. Based on this precious substance, the international law and relations of the governments have been developed. The modern governments have considered the human rights values as their working agenda and apart of their foreign policy. The Afghan government had joined seven international conventions. These conventions include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on economical, Social & Cultural Rights, the International Convention against Torture, the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, International Convention for the Protection of Children's Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the International Convention for the protection of the disabled and handicapped. Based on these conventions the Committees of overseeing the implementation of the international conventions had been established that ask the member states for a systematic report. Afghanistan has experienced various regimes, during the last four decades. During these regimes, as apolitical tool, human rights have been abused and their commitments on accountability and transparency against the international community have not been done. After the collapse of the Taliban regime, opportunities have been provided for more commitments of the Afghan government toward the international human rights mechanisms. Human Rights have been officially recognized as an important component on the national norms by the new constitution of Afghanistan. Human Right and its relevant international conventions changed into a legal resource and the Afghan government was obliged to provide human rights reports. Monitoring the human rights situation is one the crucial procedures for promoting human rights values. Monitoring paves the way for identifying human rights violations…

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CSHRN Statement Regarding the Presidential Election of 2014

In the name of Almighty Allah CSHRN Statement Regarding the Presidential Election of 2014 July 10th , 2013 Kabul-Afghanistan The Civil Society and Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN) is deeply concerned over the incomplete frameworks of the elections and lack of necessary preparations for holding democratic and legitimate elections, while considering the sensitive political situation of Afghanistan. Maintaining political stability, continuation of international community's support from Afghanistan, maintaining political stability and achievements of the last decades depends on the presidential elections of 2014. Holding the presidential election successfully will not only guaranty developments of Afghanistan, but it will also, indicates the capacity and will of our country in strengthening and ensuring democracy and civil life to the world. Therefore, a national, democratic and legitimate election is very vital and important. CSHRN emphasizes that the legitimacy of the upcoming elections can be ensured only if held in according with law. Legislative decree or any other measures regarding elections will undermine its legitimacy. Governments' negligence and carelessness toward this critical and vital occurrence and on the other hand, spreading disbeliefs regarding elections by some circles in debates on options such as non-elections for political transition increases our concerns in this regard. While The Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan which is consisted of 112 active civil institutions across the country concerned over non-existence of legal frameworks for the elections, considers the slow process of preparations and no reaction of the government particularly, the silence of the President, Hamid Karzai, regarding some substitute ideas and plans for the elections very concerning and worrying issue, therefore, would like the involved parties to pay their attentions to the following points: 1.   Understanding that based on the first paragraph of article 64 th of the Afghan constitution, the president of…

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“I learned in CSRHN not only human rights skills but I also learnt how to exercise them”

Translation of an interview per skype with Azaryuon Matin, the coordinator of the transitional justice program in Afghanistan. By Gul Bashra Ahmad.  Question: You worked for a long time for human rights in Afghanistan. It seems that human rights are a broad phenomena under the blue sky. Before, you used to work for CSHRN, at present you work for an international organization. How do you explain that human rights are a world wide phenomena? Azaryuon Matin: While writing the answers to your questions, I sit in New York in a hotel far from the city centre. Besides me, there are around one hundred colleagues from all around the world, who stay equally in this hotel. They are here for the purpose of education in human rights, but all have different colors, races, languages, religions, and places of origins. Nevertheless, one thing brings all of them together and these are human rights. They came here to learn, and then they go back and implement human rights. This shows the universality of human rights. Question: Please tell us about your lessons learnt and experiences gained from CSHRN and tell us why you decided to start to work for the International Centre on Transitional Justice? Azaryuon Matin: I have worked with CSHRN since its establishment, and even before that. In 2004, when CSRHN was founded, I was appointed as a coordinator and I worked in this function until 2008.The experiences and the lessons I learnt regarding formal as well as informal knowledge I will never forget in my life. I would like to be honest and straight forward and tell you that the network has been the main source for developing my technical knowledge as well as my knowledge regarding implementation. I learned in CSRHN not only human rights skills but…

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CSHRN Executive Director’s Report (2011-2012) to the 7th General Assembly of the network

First of all, I would like to welcome everyone to this significant session and I'm pleased of conducting the 7th general assembly of the Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan. CSHRN has organized its activities based on the legitimate and effective strategy adopted by the member organizations of the network, and initiated extensive programs across the country. CSHRN's programs have provided a very good image for the civil society and its role in promoting human rights values in the country. CSHRN has become one of the most important umbrella organizations in the field of advocacy and human rights values by planning and implementing transparent, effective and valuable programs. Constructive relations with the international community, national institutions and human rights activists demonstrate this principle. During the last two years, CSHRN has focused its activities on the following fields: 1-  Capacity building on human rights concepts and values CSHRN has changed into an important source of learning human rights concepts by supplying and publishing the educational manuals of human rights. These educational manuals clarify the guidelines and concepts of conducting educational programs for civil society and government institutions. Some groups of instructors are being formed based on these manuals that provide the way of educating the member organizations of the network in the capital Kabul and other provinces of Afghanistan . We have provided and published three important and significant educational manuals, during the last two years. The first educational manual had been prepared by the name of «Educational manual of transitional justice», that is the first educational manual regarding transitional justice and its related issues in Afghanistan , which was released in 5000 versions. The second handbook is «educational manual of international human rights mechanisms». This manual, evaluates the UN mechanisms on human rights and also observe…

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CSHRN Statement Regarding the Recent Plan of Ministry of Higher Education On Rationing the Entrance Exam (Concour)

In the name of Almighty Allah CSHRN Statement Regarding the Recent Plan of Ministry of Higher Education On Rationing the Entrance Exam (Concour) July 09, 2013 Kabul-Afghanistan The Afghan ministry of higher education has announced that after this, the entrance exam of universities will be taken based on the quotas on provinces and regions. And also, getting more than 65% average for school graduates during the last three years is considered as a requirement of attending the entrance exam (Concour). Ministry of higher education says that the purpose of this project is equal access of all provinces to higher and semi-higher education and ensuring transparency and justice in the process of Concour and a way of tackling the current problems in this field. There is no doubt that equal access to education is the right of every Afghan citizen and according to the first paragraph of article no 43 of the Afghan constitution «Education is the right of all citizens of Afghanistan, which shall be offered up to the B.A. level in the state educational institutes free of charge by the state». According to this paragraph of the constitution, the Afghan government is obliged to provide access to education in all levels, primary, secondary, higher and semi-higher education to all Afghan citizens without any dependency to region, location or specific province. Based on the provision of the constitution, the right to access education, is an equal citizenship right for all citizens of Afghanistan and cannot be divided or separated based on the relation or dependency of the people. Also, Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted by the UN general assembly in 1966), which Afghanistan signed and ratified, have considered the right…

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CSHRO develops the educational manual on the international mechanism of human rights

The Civil Society and Human Rights Organisation (CSHRO) organizes its educational manual on the international mechanism of human rights. Afghanistan State as member state of the United Nation has ratified several international human rights conventions. Its important that the state of Afghanistan deliver periodic reports of the human rights situation to the UN system based on the requirements of these conventions. The same time the civil society response to the international human rights convention is also dependence on the state report to the international human rights structures. The CSHRO works to provide an educational manual on the international mechanism of human rights for the civil society actors, Afghan state institutions and human rights activists. The manual will be produced during upcoming one year. Based on the strategy of CSHRO on May 24 th a consultative gathering of CSHRO member organizations will discus the structure and methodology of the manual. During the gathering a working group of Afghan civil society experts will be designed. The working group will work in collaboration of Danish Institute for Human Rights experts to develop the first draft of educational manual. The DIHR experts will provide international experiences to the working group. The CSHRO Executive Secretariat facilitates the activities of working group. The working group shares the first draft of the manual to member organistions and some national experts to enhance the quality of the manual. The final draft of the manual will be presented to member organizations during the second consultative gathering on January 2013. The second gathering of CSHRO will approve the manual. The manual will be printed by CSHRO. A team of trainers will be trained by CSHRO in order to train manual in Kabul and provinces of Afghanistan . The international mechanism of human rights manual will be disseminated to…

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