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Read more about the article International Coordinating Committee Sub-Committee on Accreditation (ICC-SCA) – Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Stakeholders’ Submission

International Coordinating Committee Sub-Committee on Accreditation (ICC-SCA) – Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Stakeholders’ Submission

The International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions (ICC-NHRI) through its accreditation review process evaluates the compliance of its members with the Paris Principles. The Paris Principles layout standards for NHRIs to assess their independence and effectiveness to protect and promote human rights at national level. There are three levels of accreditation: "A", "B" and "C" NHRIs holding "A" status are in full compliance with the Paris Principles. They are re-accredited every five years. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) as a National Human Rights Institution secured "A" status accreditation from the peer review process of the ICC-NHRI in November 2008. The AIHRC will be re-accredited in October (27-31Oct). The ICC Subcommittee on Accreditation requires the AIHRC to submit its State of Compliance. Parallel to the AIHRC report, the civil society also submits its shadow report. The civil society shadow report gives the perspective of civil society on the compliance of the AIHRC with the Paris Principles. This year, the Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) of Afghanistan along with the Asian NGO Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) based in Bangkok have made a joint submission. ....................................................................................... Read The PDF

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Conference on celebrating the International Human Rights Day and Appreciating the Human Rights works of Journalists

Dec 10th is the International Human Rights Day, celebrating this day is very important and meaningful especially to human rights defenders and activists. Dec 10th, is the day of commemorating the difficult experiences of global campaign for human rights ideals. Commemorating the importance of human rights, appreciating the human rights activities of civil players, praising and commending the position of human rights victims and reminding the government its human rights responsibilities will certainly pave the way for realization and expansion of human rights values and principles in the country. Hence, CSHRN celebrated this day by conducting a conference with the presence of civil society representatives and journalistsin the capital Kabul. The program was commenced with reciting some verses of the Holly Quran by Mr. Mohammad Sadiq Ahmadi;afterwards, Mr. Naim Nazari CSHRN’s executive director has opened the first part of the program with his valuable speech. After that, the panel members of the program, Ms. Farkhunda Zahra Naderi, member of the house of representatives, Doctor Malek Sitez, researcher in international affairs, and Sediqullah Tawhidi, Head of Nai supporting open media in Afghanistan, have respectively addressed their speech on the «role of media in promoting Human Rights», «Civil Rights, the cornerstone of Human Rights» and «Human Rights Situation of Journalists in Afghanistan». The second part of the program was dedicated for presenting the appreciation letters of some correspondents who were very active in reporting human rights issues. The correspondents who were presented appreciation letters by CSHRN were: Ms. Shakila Ibrahimkhail, Ms. Saliha Sadat and Sayed Azim Arash, from Tolo TV network, Mr. Sajad Mohammadi and Nazruddin Moslih, from 1TV, Ms. Farahnaz Frotan from Aryana News, Mr. Ayoub Arween from BBC radio, Mr. Akbar Rustemi from Hashte Subh Daily, Ms. Pashtana Arabzay from Shamshad TV and Mr. Amirshah Joya from Arezo…

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The 7th general assembly of CSHRN was conducted on 18th of March 2013

General Assembly is the highest authority of the Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN); the General Assembly is comprised of all member organizations from Kabul and provinces. The General Assembly is the policy making structure of the network. The General Assembly is being organized once every two years. The General Assembly evaluates the report that is presented by the network's Executive Secretariat. The General Assembly democratically elects the structures (the Board members, the Statement Committee and the Evaluation Committee) of the CSHRN. At the beginning, the Chairwoman of CSHRN's Board, Ms. Selay Ghafar welcomed all the participants of the General Assembly. Ms. Ghafar reported the General Assembly on the role and activities of the Board during the past two years. Ms. Ghafar appreciated the collaborative relations of the member organizations in promotion of human rights and strengthening of civil society in Afghanistan. According to her, CSHNR is the main human rights network that actively promotes human rights values in Afghanistan. According to Ms. Ghafar during the past two years the Board productively communicated with the member organizations and CSHRN executive structures. It was a good experience for joint and team-working manners. On behalf of CSHRN member organizations, Ms. Ghafar has appreciated the professional and constructive partnership of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) with CSHRN programs in Afghanistan. She also appreciated the productive and supportive role of Danish and Swiss government's representatives in Afghanistan. During the recent General Assembly, CSHRN's report was presented by Mr. Naim Nazari, the Executive Coordinator of CSHRN. The report covered the two years activities of CSHRN 2011 -2012. The report elaborated the CSHRN activities in the field of strategic development of CSHRN during the past two years. The report mainly focused on main key result areas as capacity building,…

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Human Rights Winter School on Promoting International Humanitarian Law

More than 40 countries are carrying their military operations and investigation in Afghanistan. International reports indicate that a large number of civilian including women, children and elders are the victims of such missions in Afghanistan. On the other hand, the opposite insurgents groups use the civilians as their protective shields and unfortunately violating the international humanitarian law extensively. In addition, lack of sufficient information regarding the International Humanitarian Law in the political system induced the advocating role of the civil institutions in relation to the International Humanitarian Law to be marginalized. For promoting and generalizing the international humanitarian law, The Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN) will conduct a sequence of awareness and capacity-building programs. For the present time, CSHRN has organized teacher-training programs in the capital Kabul, North, and Northeast, West, Southeast, central and East regions of the country and prepared the Educational Manual of the international humanitarian law that currently available with the civil society institutions. The educational winter school on international humanitarian law that was held at Central Hotel, Shah-e, Kabul, attended by 65 key trainers of CSHRN from Kabul and other provinces who carried out extensive discussion on challenges against the values of the international humanitarian law. According to the participants and based on the international humanitarian law, the Afghan government, the international community and the other involved parties should clearly express their commitments and responsibilities toward the values of the international humanitarian law. The second part of the program was a live music by a talented and young singer, Abdullah Milad Kabiri with high humanitarian messages through music. CSHRN is to conduct widespread educational programs in the field of international humanitarian law in the capital and other provinces soon.

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Active presence of the civil society & human rights network of Afghanistan «In Afghanistan International Conference in Bonn»

Bonn conference which gained great importance in current situation, defines the role of international community in betterment of security and support of Afghanistan after 2014. This conference which was held in Bonn city of Germany with the huge participation of international community, acquired international coverage, the conference also acquired a lot of significance for the people of Afghanistan . The most important message of this conference is the commitment of the international community for the future of Afghanistan . In this conference, the government of the United States of America , European Union member countries, India Japan, Canada , Australia and all of the engaged countries in reconstruction and security of Afghanistan sent their authorized representatives, expressed their continued commitment of supporting the new system, keeping the values of the democracy, respecting the human rights and the rule of law. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, minister of foreign affairs of the United States of America, expressed her government's support from Afghanistan and insisted on strengthening the civil society, respect for the values of human rights & democracy in her five minutes speeches in this conference. Mrs. Merkel, prime minister of Germany, on behalf of her government as well as on behalf of the European Union called the respect of the human rights, one of the significant preconditions of the states of this Union for supporting Afghanistan . Other participant countries focused on a legal system, based on Afghanistan constitution that reveals the importance of the conference for the people of Afghanistan. Civil society congregation was held one day before this conference in Bonn, 34 representatives of civil society who were democratically elected by the civil society organizations of the country has participated in this conference. In civil society congregation in Bonn , 10 members of Civil Society & Human Rights…

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CSHRN was adopted as the main partner by Tawanmandi ORG

Since 2010, the human rights organizations decided to create a supportive box (fund) for supporting the civil society institutions in Afghanistan in order to coordinate some practical and constructive programs for strengthening the civil society institutions in the country. The Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Swiss are the states that work to bringing together the international help and supports in strengthening the civil society institutions; therefore they have managed many consultative meetings with civil institutions since 2010. The outcome of these meetings is establishing Civil Society Understanding and Supportive center by the name of «Tawanmandi». Tawanmandi has commenced its operations since 2012, and coordinated its activities in three stages. The first stage was forming organizational capacities. During this period, managerial and administrative guidelines and standards were created. The second stage was the early phase of supporting, during this stage a number of civil society institutions were technically and economically supported by Tawanmandi. The third stage of Tawanmandi's activities was concerning with selecting the main partners in different fields. Human Rights is one of the key issues in the programs of Tawanmandi in Afghanistan. In order to better recognize its main partners, Tawanmandi has assessed monitoring, managerial and administrative programs of many organizations. Monitoring groups of Tawanmandi have evaluated and observed the organizational, managerial, administrative and executive structures of the organizations that provided their proposals for strategic partnership with Tawanmandi ORG. In the meantime, Tawanmandi has evaluated their strategic programs and policies, and as a result, CSHRN has successfully passed the evaluation process and was formally recognized as the main partner of Tawanmandi in the field of strengthening human rights in the country. CSHRN's executive programs in cooperation and coordination with Tawanmandi will be started from 2014. These programs will be concerning with human rights advocacy, capacity building…

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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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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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10 Women’s Rights Defender Organizations have strengthened and updated their Strategies

Based on the capacity development programs, the Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan has initiated reinforcement educational programs of the 10 women's rights organizations in connection with the strategic programs of the member organizations of the network. Based on this program, the 10 active member organizations of the Network which have a valuable and important role in the society have been recognized and their strategic programs have been improved and strengthened. The program was organized in three phases: the first phase was conducting the educational program. During this phase, the officials of the mentioned institutions were trained and capacitated by the secretariat of CSHRN with the support of the strategic experts of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). During the strategic educational program, strategic background, strategic management, and strategic activities have been focused. The role of the civil society in the structure of the political system and its importance in the political strategic system has been widely discussed in the program. In this program, the international experts made efforts in presenting some good instances of other countries as great lessons and experiences to be acquired by the 10 mentioned organizations. Beside, the program has provided the opportunity for these organizations to learn the way of using the strategies and arranging and implementing their programs accordingly. The second part of the program was engaged in updating and renewing the strategic programs of the mentioned organizations. By using the find outs of the first stage the 10 women's rights defenders organizations have coordinated their strategic programs in a joint program and presented them to the secretariat of CSHRN. The find outs and the information of the first phase helped them define their strategic goal and as active civil organizations specify their mission. The third phase of the…

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