Reports

CSHRN launches domestic violence campaign in Herat

The Civil Society and Human Right Network (CSHRN) launched a campaign on December 14, 2009, in Herat, to reduce family violence. Along with the start of the campaign, CSHRN also launched a handbook “Perspectives on Domestic Violence” by Heart intellectuals on family violence shared with several civil society actors, police, and regional office of AIHRC in Herat and written by four authors from Herat intellectuals (Mr. Daud Moneer, Professor at the Literature Faculty of Herat University; Miss Wasima Badghisi, Professor of the Law Faculty of Herat University; Mr Abdul Kabir Salehi, scholar in the fields of religion; and Mr. Ali Ahmad Kawa, researcher and professor of Sociology of Herat University)and published by CSHRN. It was reckoned as a good tool to be used for the campaign against family violence. The strategy of campaign was designed during a gathering of civil society, AIHRC and some state institutions in CSHRN office in Heart. Strategy to decrease violence in families in Herat Background Violence in families is a widespread problem in Afghanistan , which is however still not widely recognized as a violation of human rights. CSHRN has started a campaign to decrease the violence in families in Herat , a province strongly affected by these human rights violations. Herat has been chosen to carry out a pilot project on tackling this problem because CSHRN has a very good network in Herat with civil society organizations, state institutions as well as Islamic scholars and because the state institutions function rather well and a general interest in improving the situation exists. The aim of the project is to develop and implement a joint strategy with all relevant stakeholders to fight violence in families as a pilot project. If the pilot project is successful, similar projects will be carried out in other regions.…

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A brief report about an advocacy workshop on transitional justice in Afghanistan

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…

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The active participation of the Afghan civil society at the conference in the Netherlands shows the coordination among Afghan civil society in addressing the current situation in Afghanistan

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…

Continue ReadingThe active participation of the Afghan civil society at the conference in the Netherlands shows the coordination among Afghan civil society in addressing the current situation in Afghanistan

Dialogue on the occasion of the second anniversary of the work of CSHRN in the northern part of Afghanistan

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…

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The city of Herat as the host of a dialogue concerning woman rights

By Ms. Khaleda Khorsand CSHRN adviser in Herat city Translation of an article by Ramin Ahmadi In the past few years, there has some work been done regarding the role of civil society in supporting human rights in Afghanistan. Many journalists and experts inside and outside of Afghanistan wrote articles and organized interviews and debates in an attempt to raise the awareness of Afghan people concerning human rights values. Equally, some activities were organized by social organizations to disseminate information concerning human rights values. But in the shattered, poor and very traditional Afghanistan, a lot of explanations and arguments are needed so that the modern concepts of human rights are understood. The recent history of Afghanistan has witnessed a lot of controversy between the western and the Afghan culture and civilization. Some times these controversies resulted in a fighting against the western values and sometimes in both of these civilizations some kind of extremism rose which changed an initially constructive dialogue into a violent encounter. Having said this, there exist many challenges in the Afghan behavior concerning the role of women in the society. CSHRN has constantly organized dialogues amongst civil society organizations and other active organizations interested in the issues That is why a dialogue about the role of women in the society was organized by the CSHRN coordination centre in the western zone of Afghanistan, in Herat city. During this dialogue, the manual on the activation of the role of women in Afghanistan , which was developed by CSHRN, was used as an informative source for this debate. The debate manual was discussed amongst the participants of the debate. Some of the important issues that came out during this debate were the following ones: • Why are women in Afghanistan considered second class citizens who badly…

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One day gathering in Kabul on the Paris Principles and the Role of Civil Society

Translation of an article by Razia Sayad On 17 July 2008 CSHRN organized a gathering concerning the Paris Conference and the role of civil society in this conference. Representatives of civil society who had participated in the Paris conference, some representatives of NGOs and representatives of the French and the Italian embassy were present. The gathering started at 9 o'clock after the reading of some verses of Holy Qhuraan by a participant. Mr. Naim Nazari, the coordinator of CSHRN, opened the discussion. The goal of this gathering was to discuss the role civil society played during decisions in the Paris Conference. Until 2008, Afghanistan and the international community organized a number of international conferences such as the Bonn, the Tokyo and the London conferences for the rehabilitation of Afghanistan. The Paris Conference took place within this series of conferences. The Paris Conference was an important gathering for reconsidering the reconstruction of Afghanistan by the international community. It was a positive point that before the Paris conference, a civil society gathering in Paris was organized, where representatives of national and international NGOs were present. CSHRN was represented by two participants at this conference. Topics discussed during the civil society conference in Paris were the role of civil society in the rehabilitation of Afghanistan, the human rights situation, how to support national and international actors in the rehabilitation of Afghanistan, how to involve the private sector in the reconstruction process and the effectiveness of the international aid were discussed. These topics were discussed in working groups and then the conclusions of the working groups were presented to everybody. The final conclusions were that a message would be conveyed to the state conference with the demands of civil society in view of the current situation in Afghanistan. Before this conference in…

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