Asia

After strong criticism voiced by Afghan human rights and civil society organizations, the Ministry of Justice has modified the draft law on how to celebrate weddings in Afghanistan. The result is disappointing: The changes are merely technical and do not address the common concern of too much interference in people’s private affairs.

In view of the upcoming December 2011 Bonn/Petersberg Conference on Afghanistan, leaders from Afghan civil society have appealed to members of the German Bundestag in an open letter. In the letter, they demand, among other things, more transparency in the Afghan government’s negotiations with the Taliban, as well as increased access by the Afghan civil society to the national decision-making process.

In December 2011, ten years after the Petersberg Conference, the future of Afghanistan will be discussed anew. How can Afghanistan increasingly become militarily, politically and economically more independent? And where does the Afghan parliament and civil society stand in this year’s Bonn Conference? Will they be included? Or will they – as is so often the case in international conferences – be excluded?

The number of attacks by the Afghan army and police on their own citizens could increase strongly when the international forces withdraw. This fears e.g. the NGO Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC), a longtime partner of the HBS.

The violence against women and girls in Afghanistan continues to rise. For this reason, the Afghan Women's Network turns in an open letter to political leaders and urges them to act.

Even though the working conditions for Afghan journalists are slowly improving, a free reporting is still not possible and many of them have to take high risks for reporting. Furthermore, the Afghan officials prefer talking to Western correspondents rather than with representatives of local media outlets.

Over the past three years, Rights & Democracy has been directly involved in the reform of family law in Afghanistan. In this publikation four authors reflect the central themes: the evolution of reforms in 20th century Afghanistan; the participation of civil society in the legislative process in the post-Taliban era; the marriage contract and registration of marriages; and the gap between the theoretical discourse and practice with regards to protecting the rights of women.

Again and again the government of Hamid Karzai has shown that she has no interest to fight corruption seriously. Now the Afghan youth wishes to speak. They have seen the progress made by the peoples movements in the Arab World. They oppose the ideology of the Taliban, demanding an end to corruption and Karzai's withdrawal.

Maria Bashir, an Afghan female prosecutor, fights corruption and domestic violence and promotes the right of Afghan women to work.

Abasin Azarm was born in Kandahar Afghanistan in 1983. He has managed and run several radio projects in Afghanistan and worked there as a journalist for over 9 years. Now he talks about the changes in his country and the freedom of speech.