Annual Report

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…

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…

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…

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…

The Civil Society and Human Rights Organisation (until 2011 the Civil Society and Human Rights Network) was founded in 2004 by 25 civil society and human rights organisations. Today CSHRO is organised as a nationwide network consisting of 92 member organisations, a Secretariat in Kabul and four regional centres. CSHRO has since its inception in 2004 had a close and fruitful partnership with the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). Throughout DIHR and the Afghan civil society collaboration in the last 8 years the network has received the technical and organizational competence to organize constructive dialogue with the Afghan state on political, economic, social and cultural issues. During this period the network developed itself to a dynamic collaborator with the international partners in the fields of human rights. The network representatives actively participate to different national and international events in and out of the country to convey the message of civil society and human rights activist to the rest of the world. Vision and Mission CSHRO firmly believe that Afghanistan can become a society based on democracy and the rule of law in accor ­ dance with human rights. This belief has become the networks vision so accordingly, CSHRO expect the Afghan society to become a nation, based on democracy and the rule of law in accordance with human rights, and a society, where the state regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion and social and political orientation provide equal opportunities for all, and where people are aware of their rights and claim them in safety and dignity In order to work towards the realization of this ambitious task, the mission of CSHRO is to establish a capable human rights movement through strengthening of rights based civil society and by promoting human rights values, monitoring the human rights situation and…

By Naim Nazari Dear colleagues, participants of the sixth General Assembly of CSHRN! First of all I would like to welcome you to this important gathering. A year and four months ago the fifth General Assembly of CSHRN was conducted. During this period, CSHRN organized some useful and comprehensive programs in Kabul and provinces of Afghanistan. These programs brought us to some important achievements as well as some challenges. The secretariat of CSHRN, as executive machine of CSHRN would like to present some important activities to the respectful members of the current General Assembly. In the field of coordination: During the last year CSHRN expended its cooperation and collaboration with some national and international organization. I would like to mention some important issues as flowing; •  During the last year the office of CSHRN was opened officially in Bamyan province in the central region of Afghanistan . The office of Bamyan raptly recognized as an important address for human rights activist and civil society partners. •  During the last year all structures of CSHRN were democracy elected in Kabul as well as in the regions. •  During this period the secretariat of CSHRN organized meetings with 284 national and international organizations. During these meetings the executive secretariat explained the strategy, goals and programs of CSHRN to the international and national partners. •  In between fifth and sixth General Assembly representatives of CSHRN conducted 11 international missions. CSHRN missions celebrated with the civil society organizations of Nepal, India, the Netherlands, the Great Brighten, Italy and Tajikistan. •  CSHRN prepared and signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and Afghanistan Civil Society Forum. These MoU support CSHRN to understand its own and its partners mandate and filed of activities. In the field of Capacity Building:…

Civil Society and Human Rights Organization in Bamyan Report of CSHRO in Bamyan province to the 6th General Assembly of CSHRO January 2011 By Ismail Zaki CSHRO Central high land coordinator Dear colleagues, CSHRO office in Bamyan was officially opened on 15 th September 2009. Since 2009 CSHRO organized its programs according to strategy of CSHRO. I would like to inform you a summary of our activities in Bamyan. In the field of coordination: CSHRO office in Bamyan has created constructive and working communication with 27 civil society organizations in Bamyan and Daikondi provinces. Fives human rights civil society organizations became member of CSHRO. There are 17 other NGOs who applied for the membership of CSHRO. We have organized quarterly meeting with our national and international partners. We have organized two times our general assembly where the member organizations discussed the activities of CSHRO in Bamyan. In the field of capacity building: •  During the last year CSHRO office in Bamyan organized 12 workshops according to CSHRO educational manuals. We have trained 292 men and women of Bamyan citizens. •  We have organized 7 round tables and debates on human rights values. We discussed human rights values with 149 citizens. •  We organized 11 debates on cultural rights with young students in Bamyan University. The participants of these programs were 125 students. •  We have organized 5 workshops according to manual on conflict transformation and resolution. •  During the last year 213 persons mainly students used our library and resource center. •  We have organized workshops with close communication of UNAMA office in Daikondi province of Afghanistan. In the filed of advocacy: •  CSHRO office in Bamyan mediate the requirements of demonstrators about lack of electricity in Bamyan province •  We stopped two forced marriages cases in Painjob…

January 2011 By Ms Aziza Khairandash CSHRO Coordinator in the West region of Afghanistan Dear colleagues participants of the 6 th General Assembly of CSHRO I would like to inform you about the main activities of CSHRO in the Western region of Afghanistan. My report is mainly focused on CSHRO strategic values. In the field of coordination: We have close coordination with the national and international human rights actors in the western region of Afghanistan. We had quarterly meeting with our partners, who work in the field of human rights in Herat city. We organized joint meeting with human rights section of UNAMA office in Herat. We had constant communication with the Afghan independent human rights commission in Herat city. We organized meeting with the Ministry of Women Affaires representation in the West region. We had close collaboration with police and invited them in our coordination meetings. We had close collaboration with the Ministry of Justice in Herat province. During our meetings with our partner organizations and state institutions in Herat we shared information and distributed human rights educational manuals and CSHRO other publications. As a civil society umbrella organization we have membership of following institution in Herat. •  We are member of the consultative committee of the provincial council •  We are member of advocacy group for women rights in Herat. •  We are member of the commission to support families. In the field of capacity building: Our office in Herat is the only civil society organization that organizes constantly human rights educational programs for civil society and some state institutions in Herat. •  Our office organized some important education programs about Islam, modernism, secularism, globalization, intellectuals and their role in promotion of human rights in Afghanistan, regions intellectual and their role in promotion of civil society…