Author: Sayed Hussain Hussainy

This author has written 1070 articles

“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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CSHRN statement on the occasion of appointment of new commissioners of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)

In the name of Almighty Allah CSHRN statement on the occasion of appointment of new commissioners of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) June, 18, 2013 Kabul-Afghanistan His Excellency, Hamid Karzai, the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has recently introduced and appointed five new commissioners of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). The representatives of the Afghan civil society held meetings with his Excellencyand submitted a list of potential and capable candidates. Howeverthe list of well experienced persons in the field of human rights, civil society values and democracy was submitted to the president as result of meetings butthe new five commissioners of the Independent Human Rights Commission have been appointed without considering the consultation processwith the civil society, and none of these five commissioners were mentioned in the list, provided by the civil society. This issue induced the civil society to ask about the logic andrational beyond discourse of the civil society with the president in this connection. According to the information gained by civil society actors, some of the new commissioners are linked to political-ideological groups. Affiliation of commissioners brings the professionalism and independency of AIHRC as a national organization of Human Rights under the question. The national institution, calledin Afghanistan the Independent Human Rights Commission, is constituted under Paris Principles. Based on these principles, states are liable to establish and support national institution of human rights based on their commitments to human rights. Accordingtothese principles, national institutions of Human Rights are free of all kind of political-ideological interference. High commissioner and other commissioners of national Human Rights Iinstitutions should be free of any political-ideological affiliation and dependency to any political party. The commissioners must be committed to human rights values and work accountably and in close coordination with human rights organizations. The principle,…

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Awareness rising is one of the main components of CSHRO forth phase

During the last thirty years Afghanistan has experienced wide-base human rights violation. The different political regimes misused the human rights values for their political agenda. In the same time the warlords and military and political groups have violated fundamental human rights principles in Afghanistan. During the last thirty years the military and political parties straggled against each other to capture the political power in Afghanistan . During this period of time around two million Afghans have been killed and around two million Afghans have become disabled. According to CSHRO studies lack of information in the political structure and lack of awareness of human rights values among the Afghan population is one of the main reasons of human rights violation in the country. According to CSHRO analyses the main aspect of human rights violations have been recorded in the field of civil rights. Torture, political prosecution, limitation of freedom of speech, restriction of freedom of association and lack of freedom of media have been considered as the main area of violations of human rights during this period of time. After the Taliban regime the new Afghan constitution grantees the human rights values equally to all citizens of Afghanistan . Based on the new Afghan constitutional support the civil society institutions were established in post Taliban period in Afghanistan . CSHRO organized itself in 2004. During this period CSHRN has been mainly engaged in the fields of coordination amongst civil society, capacity building of its member organizations, advocacy and promotion of human rights. According to CSHRN, awareness rising about human rights values is one of the most important elements for promotion and protection of human rights. Therefore CSHRN General Assembly has decided to encourage all member organizations to become more active in the field of public awareness about human rights…

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Respect your mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, they are also human!

In the name of Almighty Allah Respect your mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, they are also human! With great regret, that the Afghan parliament didn't approve the law on Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) on its general session on Saturday, May 18, 2013. The opposition of a number of MPs caused the law not to be approved by the house of people; they were claiming that some of its articles are in conflict with the Islamic principles. At the meantime, women suffers many types of violence in Afghanistan, which are also contrary with the Islamic values, and yet violence against women is one the most common problems in Afghanistan. In order to fulfill their civic duty and understanding the negative deep impacts of violence against women in our society, the civil society institutions have taken their continues measures and effortsto find a fundamental solution for reducing and eliminating the culture of violence against women and misogyny in the country. One of the fundamental and civil solution that the civil institutions are agree on, is the existence of a law and an appropriate judicial structure, to fight this inhuman phenomena of violence against women. The draft of the law on Elimination of Violence Against Women, which has also been signed as a legislative decree by his Excellency president Hamid Karzai, is the outcome of the non-tiring efforts of the Civil Institutions & groups, civil activists, Human Rights Activists and conscious women of Afghanistan. The conscious womenand the Civil Society of Afghanistan consider the approval of this law as a sign of national attempt for eradicating the culture of misogyny in Afghanistan and executing itsinternational commitments and it was called a strong pillar for a human society without gender discrimination. The Civil Society & Human Rights Network, which is…

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The fourth phase of the network, a substantial step toward establishment of a human rights movement in Afghanistan through well-functioning civil society

The third phase of Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) is completed successfully in January 2011 and the network kept on its endeavors by bridging the lessons learned of third phase to the objectives of fourth phase of the network. Precisely eight years ago, the CSHRN established itself as a coordination entity for local human rights based organizations. CSHRN establishment was the result of 2002 up to 2004 constructive and substantial dialogues of human rights defenders and activists in Afghanistan. The CSHRN started its activities in August 2004 by the support of Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). DIHR as a well-known international human rights institution has supported the CSHRN in the field of institutional and thematic capacity building. This support has enabled the CSHRN to establish democratic structures and increase its human rights knowledge and play its role for strengthening human rights values. The CSHRN convened its first general assembly in Kabul city in presence of representatives of 25 local civil society organizations. In the first two years all the activities of the CSHRN were being limited merely to the Kabul city. But these activities have facilitated cooperation and collaboration among different civil society and human rights organizations. It is worth mentioning that in these years the only supporter of the CSHRN was the Royal State of Denmark international support mechanism (DANIDA). In 2005 the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) Joined DANIDA and thereafter SDC has a great contribution in attaining the aim of the CSHRN. SDC has supported CSHRN in the field of developing pool of training materials. The network by receiving the support of Swiss State has developed the human rights educational manual. Through this program CSHRN conducted systematic human rights trainings in Afghanistan. In the run of recent eight years, CSHRN…

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Statement of Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN)

In the name of Almighty Allah Statement of Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN) March 11, 2013 Kabul-Afghanistan Afghanistan is experiencing a critical situation. The periodic withdrawals of the international forces from 2014, the conducting of the presidential election, capacity building of political & economic self-sufficiency are the most significant components of the current situation. The role of the international community, particularly the close partners of Afghanistan , is very important in this regard. The international community has uniquely supported the people and the government of Afghanistan during the past twelve years. The civil society of Afghanistan appreciates the international community's role for supporting the Afghan people and State. The civil society of Afghanistan were very much aware of the importance of supporting the Afghan people in such a significant stage in relation to the economic crises, which sweeps the world. Recently, it is very noticeable that the constructive convergence between the Afghan government and the international community has been faced with difficulties. Political leaders provide their speeches in a non-friendly manner to the address of the international community led by the United States of America , which led to the same reaction by the international community toward Afghanistan . The sequential wars have made this country a dependent state to the international community. To get free of such dependencies, the people & the Afghan government need the support of the international community and for getting their support, the Afghan government should initiates its programs in convergence and coordination of the international community. The civil society of Afghanistan urges the government to keep and maintain its convergence & coordinate through planning some constructive programs and strategies along with keeping its national interest, national sovereignty and territorial integrity. On the behalf of the Afghan people, the…

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The civil society representatives have met with the President of Federal Republic of Germany

On October -16th -2011 his Excellency Christian Wulff the President of Federal Republic of Germany met with representatives of Afghan civil society umbrella organizations in the Chair of the AIHRC in German Embassy in Kabul city. During the meeting Mr. Michael Steiner the Especial Representatives of Afghanistan and Pakistan affaires, Mr. Rudiger Konig the Ambassador of German Federal Republic and Mr. Shoayab Azam the Councilor of the Political Affaires of Germen embassy were part of German delegation. Dr. Sima Samar Chairwomen of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Mr. Mohammad Naim Nazari the Executive Coordinator of Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN), Mis Samira Hamidi Chair women of Afghan Women Network (AWN), Mr. Azizi Rafee Director of Afghanistan Civil Society Forum (ACSF) and Said Rahim Satar the Deputy of Afghanistan NGOs Coordination Bureau ANCB represented Afghan civil society in the meeting. During the meeting the representative of civil society of Afghanistan informed the German delegation about challenges, strength and threats of the civil society institutions. The Afghan civil society also explained the role of civil society in strengthening of legitimate and democratic state in Afghanistan. During the meeting, representatives of civil society appreciated the role of German Federal Government in reconstruction of Afghanistan and its support to civil society in promotion of human rights and democratic values in Afghanistan. President Wulff on behalf of German people and state expressed his support to the Afghan people and the Afghan civil society. He said that the people of Germany will continue to support Afghan people after 2014 when the international military forces leave Afghanistan. President Christian Wulff pays an official visit to Afghanistan to meet with President Hamid Karzai and the German military forces in Afghanistan.

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