Reports

The three days “advocacy workshop for transitional justice in Afghanistan” was organized and conducted by the Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) in close cooperation with the UNAMA Transitional Justice Section, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), the Foundation Open Society Institute Afghanistan (FOSIA) and the United State Institute of Peace (USPI) in the Capital INN Hotel in Kabul from 25th to 27th October 2009. 18 representatives of civil society organizations from Kabul and 13 representatives of civil society organizations from different provinces such as Herat, Kandahar, Balkh, Kondoz, Takhar, Faryab, Ningarhar and Bamyan were invited to participate in this workshop. The workshop was opened by a recitation of some verses of Holy Quran by Mr. Ismail Zaki, thereafter Mr. Mohammad Naim Nazari, the executive coordinator of CSHRN, welcomed the participants and introduced the strategy and the structure of CSHRN to the participants. Subsequently, Mrs. Morena Mori, the person in charge of the Transitional Justice Section of UNAMA in Afghanistan , Mrs. Karen Williams, the Senior Program's Fellow in Afghanistan of ICTJ, Mrs. Nilofar Sakhi, the Director of the Foundation Open Society Institute in Afghanistan FOSIA and Mr. John Dempsey, member of the United State Institute for Peace in Afghanistan introduced their organizations. Ms. Morena Mori explained the concept and need for transitional justice in Afghanistan according to the instructions and the agenda of the workshop. Following, Ms. Morena asked the participants to watch a documentary film about transitional justice and the role of truth finding commissions in different countries such as Peru, South Africa , Almaghreb (Maroco) and Chile . The producer of this documentary film emphasized the effective role of truth finding commissions and a correct realization of the transitional justice concept. During the discussions after the movie, the participants concluded that transitional justice…

April 2009 This report has been written by Naim Nazari, the executive coordinator of the Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) (Translation of the Dari text) Afghan civil society organizations such as ASCF, OSI, CSHRN, AHIRC, AWN, and FCCS conducted many meetings with the coordination of ACBAR. As a result of these meetings, a delegation of representatives of civil society was elected to participate in the conference about Afghanistan in The Hague. This delegation had the responsibility to convey the view and the message of the Afghan civil society to the participants of the conference. It had also the task to raise the interest of the international community for supporting the Afghan civil society. The Afghan civil society delegation consisted of the following members: Mr. Ingenieur Javez, Mr. Nahim Salimi, Ms. Palvasha, Mr. Pascale from ACBAR, Mr. Orzala Asharaf from the Afghan Women Network, and Mr. Malek Sitez from CSHRN collaborating with ACSF and AIHRC. On Monday 30. of March 2009, the delegation of the Afghan civil society participated in a program in The Hague , organized by the Center for Strategic Studies of Netherlands. In this program, the Afghan delegation discussed the situation in Afghanistan with representatives of civil society of the Netherlands, the parliament, and the government. In this meeting, the Afghan civil society delegation played a very active role besides the international experts. This became evident by the broadcastings of national and international media. Mr. Nahim Salimi focused on the role of civil society and social services, Mrs. Orzala Asharaf on the role of women and Mr. Malek Sitez on human rights and humanitarian law. The presentation of Afghan civil society was warmly accepted. The message of the Afghan delegation was discussed by international experts, among them Alexander Their from the Peace Institute of…

By Sourosh Kazimi, CSHRN Coordinator in the northern and northeastern region Translation of an article by Ms. Nasima Askia On the occasion of the second anniversary of CSHRN's activities in the northern and north eastern parts of Afghanistan, a dialogue was organized by the CSHRN office in Mazar-e-Sharif city. Representatives of the Independent Human Rights Commission, local NGOs, intellectuals, media, and students from Balkh University participated in this dialogue. The goal of the dialogue was to discuss the role of CSHRN in the promotion of human rights and in strengthening human rights organizations in the northern provinces of Afghanistan with a special focus on the province of Mazar-e-Sharif. At the beginning of the meeting, Soruosh Kazemi, the coordinator of CSHRN in the north, welcomed the participants and appreciated their cooperation with CSHRN in the northern part of Afghanistan. During his speech, he emphasized the role of CSHRN in the field of capacity building, dialogue and coordination as well as collaboration amongst human rights activists in the region. He told the participants that during these two years CSHRN had worked with nine provinces in the northern and northeastern parts of Afghanistan. He also expressed his gratitude to the Afghan Human Rights Commission, the human and women rights NGOs, teachers and professors of Balkh University, and the local state authorities for their cooperation during the past two years. Mr. Sohrab Zamanian, the chief editor of PADIDAR magazine, spoke about the role of CSHRN in Mazar city. Appreciatively, he supported the role of CSHRN in providing opportunities for human rights activists especially in the field of freedom of speech in Mazar-e-Sharif. He mentioned that since the establishments of CSHRN in Mazar, a series of useful dialogues were organized in the CSHRN conference hall, what represented a magnificent achievement for all human…