Afghanistan
Independent Human Rights Commission
Evaluation
report on General Situation of Women in Afghanistan
Introduction:
This report has
been prepared on the basis of a study on general status of
Afghan women made by the Afghanistan Independent Human
Rights Commission. Women rights are
enshrined in most international human rights treaties to
which Afghanistan has joined, such as International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Convention on the
elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and
Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Thus Afghan
government has an obligation, also mentioned in the
constitution, to observe and respect women rights.
Article 7 of the
Constitution reads, The State must abide by the UN Charter,
international treaties and international convention that
Afghanistan has signed, and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
Article 22
of the Constitution says, Any kind of discrimination and
privilege between the citizens of Afghanistan are
prohibited. The citizens of Afghanistan whether man or woman
has equal rights and duties before the law.
However, despite
all these treaties and laws and relative development of
women in recent years, a myriad of problems for women in
political, social, cultural, etc spheres still persist.
Method of
compiling Information:
Information
gathering has been conducted through questionnaires, results
of surveys and studies that the commission has conducted on
women, annual reports and various other researches made by
the commission, interviews with officials from prosecution
office and prisons, and with ordinary people covering many
grounds including education, health, violence against women
and judiciary protection all in all have contributed in
preparing this report.
Restrictions:
This report had
also some restriction ahead of it such as lack of access to
accurate information on the areas like domestic violence,
rape etc since most women or families dont tend to talk
about it.
Access to many
places like Oruzgan has been impossible due to security
reasons; thus no data has been collected in these places or
data collected are not accurate. Figures in this report
dont represent all regions of the country, but efforts have
been made to present a general picture of women situation in
Afghanistan.
1. Education:
Its known that
education especially for girls is among basic requirements
for an improved life standard in any society, but despite
85% of women and girls being illiterate in Afghanistan, the
state allocated budget fund in this regard constitute the
lowest level in the region, and girls are facing many
problems in this area.
In Afghanistan,
the number of girls going to school is less than half the
number of school boys, and even in some regions like Zabul,
this ratio is 3% / 97%; though the number of male and female
populations aging between 6-18 year old dont have a
considerable difference.
Another problem
in terms of education in Afghanistan is the number of female
schools including elementary and high schools that has
decreased considerably. In Kandahar, for example, there are
255 elementary schools, whilst 20 high schools exist in the
city. In central region of the country there are 256
elementary schools and only 27 high schools, which shows
inability or unwillingness of girls to study.
One other
considerable challenge in education area is the
inappropriate distribution of schools across the country and
thus violation of children access to education, especially
female children right. Fariab province, for example, has 4
female high schools whilst there is no such high school in
Ghor province, or there are 61 high schools in the south
region of the country but entral region has 27 high schools.
Results of our
study show that the reasons for lack of education of girls
in Afghanistan should mostly be the following:
1. Widespread
gender discrimination in societys customary practices
2. Family
poverty
3. Security
challenges
4. Lack or
shortages of female schools
Relevance of
these factors differs in every region. For instance, more
than 90% of girls in Zabul province dont go to school due
to existing insecurity.
According to
press releases of United Nation in current year, 300 schools
particularly in southern region were set in fire and a
number of teachers were killed. This clearly indicates
insecurity level in the country which has had intense impact
on children admission to school, especially girls.
But in some
provinces like Jowzjan, inability of girls to educate is due
to lack of female schools. There is no school, excepting a
private school covering subjects of 1st and 2nd
grades, in Gharghin district of Jowzjan province.
Family poverty
is the formidable factor for inability of children to go to
schools in north-eastern region, though poverty exists in
all regions of Afghanistan. As the Millennium Development
Goals for Afghanistan report in 2005 has estimated, average
income per capita is less than $US 200 in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile only 13.5% of families have access to sustainable
income source,
and economic vulnerability of families has direct impact on
lack of female education.
Many girls fail
to go to schools because of household work, while most of
these girls are not regarded as working children. As such,
the number of girl workers who dont go to school is more
than boy workers.
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26 (Everyone has the
right to education and education, at least elementary
education should be provided free..), however provides for
free education for all.
In addition,
Article 28 of Convention on Child Rights reads, states
signatory to this convention recognize child right to
education and make efforts to realize this right through
piecemeal and equitable attempts to encourage persistent
school going and decrease failure rate in schools.
Also Article 10
of Convention on Elimination of all form of Discrimination
against Women says that government has an obligation to make
efforts in providing for equal rights of men and women in
terms of education.
Article 43 and
44 of the Constitution considers the government as tasked
with taking necessary measures to eliminate illiteracy,
develop women education and improve level of education among
nomads.
Therefore, now
the state should work more seriously in the area of
education than in the past, explore root causes of the
problems, try to raise public awareness regarding
significance of girls education and assistance to poor
families in order to send their children to schools, deal
with security challenges and remove obstacles of girls
education, whether in terms of their enrolment to school of
their ability to go to schools and to continue their
education in higher levels.
2. Health:
Access to health
and health services is fundamental human rights, but
unfortunately most of the people, especially women are
deprived of this right.
Availability of
only one doctor and five nurses for every 100,000 persons,
and one bed for 300 persons is a critical issue.
As a result of this limitation, poverty, and low income of
the families, we see that child and mother mortality is on
the highest level. It is reported that in every 30 minutes a
women dies during pregnancy or child birth and this figure
indicates 60 deaths in each 1000 women which is 60 % higher
in comparison to the industrial world, while 80 % of these
deaths are preventable.
According to the report on Millennium Development Plan for
Afghanistan, this figure should decrease to 50% by the year
2015, but the research and evaluation by the commission
indicates non-achievability of this goal. In addition to
other disease, 70 % of tuberculoses victims are women.
The recent
studies by the AIHRC on non accessibility of women to health
services show the following factors:
improper
tradition, non-existence or lack of health centers, poor
economy, lack of self-sufficiency, lack of women
participation in their own affairs, lack of attention to
their health issues by the families, domestic violation
against women which emanates from culture of patriarchy as
well as illiteracy among women.
According to the
studies conducted by the Commission, 24.6 % of people have
no access to acceptable health service and the majority of
them are women. In addition 54.8 % of people can not use the
so called health centers due to long distances.
The level of
accessibility to health services is different in various
provinces. Women access to health service is only 5 to 7 %
in the south west ( Zabul, Helmand), in some districts of
central Afghanistan, there isnt any female doctor or health
worker. Difficult roads are another obstacle for women to
have access to health services.
This situation
exists, though the national and international laws emphasize
on women access to health services.
Article 12 of
the convention on elimination of all forms violation against
women obliges the state parties to take necessary measures
for elimination of all discriminations against women and
prepare the ground for women access to health services and
suitable food during pregnancy and period of lactation.
Likewise,
article 52 of the constitution defines that the state
provides free health care and medical assistance to all
citizens.
The state has to
abide by its commitments against the national and
international laws to increase allocation of the budget for
heath services quantitatively and qualitatively and take
positive steps for correction of wrong beliefs in the
society, otherwise its bad consequences will affect not only
the women, but the society at large.
3- Violence
against women:
In addition to
womens problems in various spheres of health and education,
other serious and complex problems such as forced marriages,
family violence, sexual harassments and prevention of women
from social and political activities affect their life.
The majority of
women both in rural and urban areas are faced with family
violence. A research contacted by the Afghan Independent
Human Rights Commission on domestic violations against women
shows that more than
50 % of women,
in addition to suffering from other types of violence have
been beaten and only 10% of the women expressed that they
had no economic problem.
Domestic
violation against women not only has serious physical and
mental effects on women but it also causes other grave
problems such as self emulation, sue aside , escape from the
family, forced prostitution and addiction to narcotic.
Statistic by the
Commission indicates that from 9th Jadi 1384 to 1st
of Sonbulla 1384, due to violence 462 women resorted to
narcotic.
According to
evaluations by the AIHRC, self emulation and killing of
women in the western zone and in southeast of Afghanistan
shows the highest figure as 150 cases of self emulation have
been identified in the western zone and 34 such cases have
been identified in south east zone. Therefore, the root
causes of self emulation should be investigated deeply.
Escape from home
is another issue emanated from domestic violence and family
restrictions against women that mostly witnessed in south
and south east areas. During the current year, 200 cases
from Kandahar, 17 cases from south east zone, 12 cases from
the east of the country have been reported.
During 1384, the
commission has identified 197 cases of sue aside attempts in
Herrat out of which 69 cases ended up with deaths.
Similarly, 35 of such cases were reported from Kandahar
province. The evaluations by the Commission show that most
of these cases are caused by domestic violations against
women. In most of the provinces domestic violence forces the
women to prostitution.
The Commissions
office in the eastern zone has identified 6 cases of women
trafficking and 20 cases of women traded against narcotic
were reported from Helmand during the current year. It is
worth mentioning that such cases happen in most parts of
Afghanistan.
In most parts of
Afghanistan, lack of understanding and non awareness of the
law has paved the ground for polygamy which is another cause
of domestic violence against women.
In spite of
seriousness of this issue in the Afghan society, no serious
action has been taken in this regard. Furthermore,
unclearness of this issue in the law, unawareness about the
law, and incompatibility of the civil code with the
constitution as will as instability in Afghanistan have
increased and complicated misusing of this matter.
Therefore, it is necessary that the civil code in
consideration of the constitution and international
commitments of Afghanistan should be amended.
Forced
marriages:
Forced marriages
constitute the other serious problems of women in
Afghanistan which is exercised on different ways and forms
as to settle feuds (badal), Bad, threatening to
payment of huge dowry, underage marriage, engaging in the
very early days when a child is born. Widows are still
considered as a heritage and are not allowed to marry other
man willingly.
A Commission
research shows that more than 38 % of women have been wedded
off against their will
and
consent, and more than 50% of women have mentioned that they
are not happy with their family life.()
Forced marriage
is considered to be one of the main cases of women rights
violation in all over the county. For instance only in
Helmand Province 144 cases of forced marriage is registered
by the Commission during this year mostly exercised as
badal and huge payment of dowry. In many parts of
Afghanistan marriages have taken place with intimidation by
the powerful people, gunmen or in repayment for depts.
The studies made
about forced marriage shows that the most important reason
can be the society improper tradition and beliefs and lack
of awareness in the families, poverty, and illiteracy.
Impunity is the other reason of forced marriages
contributing to the problems.
Article 16 of
CEDAW reads; states parties shall take all appropriate
measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all
matters relating to marriage and family relations and in
particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and
women:
(b) The same
right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage
only with their free and full consent. Article 23 (3) of
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: no
marriage shall be entered into without the free and full
consent of the intending spouses. Universal declaration of
Human Rights also emphasize on marriage with the consent of
parties involved (article 16, 2).
In
spite of so many stresses made in the international laws,
domestic laws there is still many cases that can increase
exercise of forced marriage and underage marriages. For
example, in civil law the legal marriage age for girls is
not clearly difined and from the other side based on article
71 of civil law (1) if a girl has not completed the legal
age for marriage (16 years), article 70, her marriage shall
be conducted by her father or by an authorized court it
means that father can take decision about his daughters
marriage even before she reaches 16. However the second
paragraph of this article states that marriage and
concluding of marriage contract
is not allowed before 15. But unfortunately,
practically we see that under the influence of improper
traditions and customs and lack of punishment of violators,
child marriage percentage is remarkably high. UNICEF
announced
57 percent of
girls are married before the age of sixteen.
Therefore, the concept of child should be made clear in the
law, and about registering of marriages and child births
serious measures should be taken and about dealing with
violators suitable practices should be organized.
Furthermore, attempts should be made for uplifting of public
awareness and struggle against bad traditions in the
community.
Rape:
Rape is
another issue that has been studied in this research. As
other problems of Afghan women this problem also exists in
most parts of Afghanistan. This kind of assaults mostly has
taken place in the country during the last years by armed
men.
Enjoyment of just and fair protection of judiciary:
The
other noticeable issue that should be emphasized on in our
country is just and fair protection of women in judiciary
courts. Because the women rights in the country is by many
way through social, cultural and educational reasons are
violated and women can not do any thing in this regard, but
referring to judicial courts and this process is one of the
rights that considered for women in constitution as well as
international conventions such as International Convention
on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women
as article 14 of this convention reads:
All are
equal before the courts and tribunals. Everyone has the
right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and
impartial tribunal in accordance with the law.
Like
this all women rights are recognized in the international
and domestic instruments. Now we should see to what extent
this rights are observed and practiced in our country. No
doubt, there are great obstacles in Afghanistan preventing
exercising of women rights. In an overview the judgment have
been in a way that shows that women cases have been
addressed discriminatory and unfairly and this vision comes
from a census made by the AIHRC regional offices in the
country zones which can be mentioned in some parts with its
due reasons as follows:
In many
provinces the women cases have been addressed with
discrimination. Because of weak investigation, lack of
ordinance, and rule of law, improper traditions and
intimidation, women could rarely refer to justice for
solving their disputes. Women prison doesnt exist in most
of provinces, if any there are no prison standards for women
and children to be applied.
For
lack of family courts and women protecting laws women cases
are addressed unfairly due to existence of a patriarchic
system and improper traditions.
In some
provinces even the womens files are not taken to courts.
The courts dont pay attention to women complaints and
decision is taken in absence of women the decisions are only
announced and no right for women to file any defense as they
are deprived of this right which is fundamental for thme. In
many cases it is witnessed that the courts are ignoring
womens demands.
Women
and their activities in the social and civil institutions:
Like
men women also have the right to take part in social and
civil activities and establish institutions for their
promotion and development. These are the rights that are
emphasized upon in the international instruments
particularly in International Convention of civil and
political rights as well as in the International Covenant on
economic, social and cultural rights also in the Convention
on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
Fortunately the Islamic republic of Afghanistan has approved
the mentioned instruments and has made attempts toward
realization and full enjoyment of these rights. Therefore it
is necessary to know about the present status of women in
this regard. For this purpose the Commission has launched a
public consultation the result of which is as follows:
There
are not any such civil or political institutions established
and run independently by women to manage their social
activities, if any that are not so visible. From the other
hand their activities in civil institutions are also in a
very low profile.
This
figure is different in provinces. In some provinces like
Herat, Mazar, Kabul, Gardez, Nangarhar, Takhar their
activities are noticeable but not in the other provinces.
Recommendations:
-modification and amendment of laws according to the CEDAW,
and its implementation,
-the
government should try to include the mater of gender as a
main issue in the implementation of National Strategic Plan
and focus on it in all its actions.
-The
Afghanistan Government should build necessary capacity for
preparing of reports to CEDAW Committee, and international
society should support the related government organs and
organizations in skill building, particularly the Ministry
of Women Affairs.
-expanding of cultural activities and awareness
-Addressing the cases relating to violence against women
through administrative, judicial and legal measures,
-All
round attempts for uplifting of public awareness in
different fields as education of girls, health and
prevention from violence against women,
-The
government should take necessary measures for the
qualitative and quantitative development of girls education,
paying attention to compulsory primary education based on
Article 43 of the Constitution.
-Struggle against improper tradition aiming at improvement
and ensuring of women rights and ensuring of family
well-being through legislation, provincial councils and
religious scholars.
-The
Ministry of public health should adopt expansionary plans,
establish health centers, and enhance womens access based
on international standards with a due regard to women.
-
Appropriate facilities and additional measures for women
health staff to travel to distant areas of the country, and
psychotherapy centers should be established.
-
Establishing of official offices to register marriages,
Divorces and manage official marriage contracts under all
legal conditions
-
Establishment of family courts with international standards
in all over the country,
-Strengthening of rule of law through creating of strong law
implementation structures and mechanisms.
