UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report:
Para 37) … MoJ has conducted 95 trainings for 2,164 individuals (1,612 men and 552 women) since 2013. It has also conducted training through its Legal Aid Department in different provinces on women and children rights. … The MoHRA organized workshops for religious scholars on the social status of women, their right to education, right to choose their husband, violence against women and children rights. Furthermore, MoHRA printed 2,214 books in 2017–2018 about women rights in Islam and 2,000 books about “bad customary practices”. They are also publishing monthly brochure on human rights topics.
Para 38) The national radio and television as long reach medium of communication promote human rights for all citizens, particularly in rural areas. Programs and short awareness videos are being broadcasted in the field of human rights, reduction of violence against women, elections, and women rights in Islam.

National Report:
Para 112) The MoWA continues its efforts to place gender equality and women’s empowerment in all national documents to reflect women’s requirements. Therefore, in addition to the National Action Plan for Women, it has drafted for the first time a five-year strategic plan for the period 2018–2022. It highlights the priorities of the Ministry and predicts the required resources and facilities. 2,228 Women received assistance from the MoWA for small businesses.
Para 113) The creation of the Women Chamber of Commerce improves women’s access to markets.
Para 114) MoIC established a department for women’s entrepreneurship and drafted a 5-year Plan from 2018–2022 for the empowerment of women entrepreneurs in the private sector. To improve women’s empowerment, MoIC supports special exhibitions for women inside and outside Afghanistan, where women can exhibit their products. Furthermore, MoIC supports conferences In Kabul and several provinces on development and improvement of women’s private entrepreneurship, where women can address and discuss problems and challenges they face to find a solution. MoIC designed a 5-year project, dealing with import and export of women products, enhancing the quality and design of Afghan products, and branding (made by Afghan Women). It is planned that 5,600 women shall receive support during this 5-years period. To support women in trade, small grant are being given to women to start their businesses or they are being given land in industrial parks. Furthermore, they are being provided support in access to raw material and benefit from a tax reduction.
Para 115) MRRD shall ensure social, economic, and political welfare of rural society, especially poor and vulnerable people, through the provision of basic services, strengthening local governance, and promoting sustainable livelihoods. It created the Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Program for economic empowerment of women.
Para 116) More than 760 private companies are being led by women, 400 women merchants are working on an international level.
Para 120). The Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission (IARCSC) has implemented a policy aiming to increase the number of women by 2%. They furthermore have conducted awareness raising activities for female college students. It has furthermore created a CV pool of women eligible to apply for civil service positions to ensure equity in the Government. The gender representatives of Ministries and Independent Institutions are present during recruitment processes and in order to increase the ratio of women’s recruitment, a 5% extra mark is considered for female applicants in accordance with the recruitment manual.
Para 121) Women’s representation in different areas:
• National Assembly 27%.
• Provincial Councils 20,9%.
• Cabinet 15%.
• Decision Making levels of the Government 10%.
• Health Sector 33%.
• Private Sector 21,7%.
• Government Agencies 26%.
• Judiciary 12%.
• Security Sector 1%.
• Decision Making levels of private sector 9,8%.
• Private Sector 21,7%.
• Economic Sector 6 %.
• The percentage of women at the AGO increased from 15 % 2017 to 23 % in 2018. It has 10 women directors. The AGO offered an internship for 241 women. 153 of them got a job at the AGO.
• The women percentage at the Supreme Court is 23 %.
• The 2016 Elections Law has taken into consideration the 25% women’s quota in the district councils and stipulates that “At least 25% of the seats should be dedicated to women candidates in each district council”.

UN Compilation:
Para 31) OHCHR/UNAMA noted that the Government had been making efforts to build a representative political system and national institutions by increasing the representation of ethnic communities and women, particularly through the parliamentary elections. Despite those efforts, women remained underrepresented in the political sphere at the national, provincial and district levels, and their representation in the institutions of governance remained low. Moreover, women’s meaningful participation in decision-making processes required serious attention.

National Report:
Para 26) The GoIRA protects and promotes human rights by strengthening and establishing human rights units within the power structures as following:
…
• Judiciary Power: Division of Violence Against Women and Children in the Supreme Court review all cases of women and children rights violations;
Para 105) The Criminal Procedure Code 2014 and Penal Code 2018 have been ratified. Discriminatory human rights violating elements have been taken out and new provisions regarding protection of women’s rights were included. The criminal procedures law enriches specific provisions on the victim’s rights and protection of evidence. Beside the new penal code, the EVAW Law still remains enforced and the cases related to violence against women will be reviewed in accordance with this specific law.
Para 106) Different measures for better implementation of the EVAW Law have been taken in to account. These measures include the establishment of institutions, policies, regulations, training of judges, prosecutors, police, and other relevant employees as well as legal awareness campaigns for citizens. The AGO plans to draft a National Action Plan for the Implementation of EVAW Law in near future.
Para 107) Following mechanisms are in place:
• Monthly meetings of the EVAW high commission and provincial commissions of all 34 provinces to monitor critical areas. Findings are being submitted to the relevant government departments and the President’s office. Establishment of 28 women’s shelters centers in Kabul and 20 in different provinces.
• Establishment of special units at all 34 Provincial Office of Attorney’s for EVAW cases. In 31 provinces, units are just being led by women.
• Establishment of special EVAW units at the Supreme Court in Kabul and 15 provinces.
• Legal assistance centers and family dispute resolution units were established in 34 provinces under the police headquarters framework.
• A mediation department has been established at the AGO to mediate in family matters.
• The Supreme Court established special courts for EVAW cases in 22 provinces. Till 2020 all provinces will be having a special court for EVAW cases.
• A telephone hotline has been established for women and children in case of violence.
• On 11th of July 2016, the MoI established a complaint mechanism to prevent and respond to sexual harassment against women police officers.
Para 108) The AGO established a Deputy AGO for Elimination of Violence against Women & Children, which is led by a woman. This office has two sub-departments responsible for reducing violence against women and for its social consultants. Another department deals with women rights, victims and witnesses with help of IDLO.
Para 109) The Afghanistan AGO established a monitoring mechanism on the implementation of EVAW law within its offices.
Para 110) With support of IDLO the AGO established a database within the Deputy AGO for EVAW. This database includes all activities of prosecutors, the case itself and the work which has been done so far. Through this database, the Deputy GA can monitor his employees and held them accountable if needed.
Para 111) Between 2014 and 2018, 5921 cases have been investigated. 4840 cases of violence against women have been addressed in the three-layer courts of the country based on the provisions of EVAW.

UN Compilation:
Para 25) OHCHR/UNAMA noted that the ongoing armed conflict affected women’s access to justice. The Mission noted that the failure of law enforcement authorities to take action undermined efforts to promote the rights of women, eroded the rule of law and contributed to an expectation of impunity. It observed that the gap in relation to the available range of punishments for criminal offences of violence against women contributed to the wide use of mediation. The Mission highlighted that the wide use of mediation in criminal offences of violence against women also promoted impunity, enabled its reoccurrence, eroded trust in the legal system and constituted a human rights violation on the part of Afghanistan.
Para 42) The Committee against Torture remained deeply concerned by the high prevalence of violence against women, in particular domestic violence, rape, battery, laceration, crimes committed in the name of “honour” and cases of stoning.
Para 44) The Secretary-General of the United Nations noted the decree amending the Penal Code with regard to crimes of violence against women ...
Para 45) OHCHR/UNAMA noted that harmful acts of violence against women, including murder, beating, mutilation, child marriage and ba’ad, remained widespread, despite the Government’s concrete efforts to criminalize those practices and establish measures for accountability. Harmful practices that had been criminalized under the Elimination of Violence against Women Law, such as forced and child marriage, honour killings, ba’ad, badal (the exchange of women for marriage purposes to settle disputes) and forced self-immolation, were often confused as being aspects of Islamic law or teachings and therefore ingrained in the local traditions. The Mission documented 280 cases of murder and “honour killings” of women from January 2016 to December 2017. It found that the police had often failed to forward those cases to prosecutors. The majority of Afghan women continued to be denied fair treatment before the law, as discriminatory provisions in laws and policies were still prevalent. As such, law enforcement and other judicial practitioners, including prosecutors and courts, had often failed to enforce the Elimination of Violence against Women Law, resulting in widespread impunity for the criminal acts of violence against women. OHCHR/UNAMA consistently found that implementation of the Elimination of Violence against Women Law had been slow and non-uniform.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 10) AIHRC noted that violence against women is one of the most serious violations of human rights. During 2014-2017, AIHRC registered, investigated and followed around 19,920 cases of violence against women and referred them to the relevant legal entities. Out of these cases, 845 cases were cases of women who were murdered. The real statistics of women's violence and murders are much higher. The prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of violence against women by government agencies, as well as the implementation of the EVAW Law and the Law for the Prevention of the Sexual Harassment against Women and Children have been ineffectively done and challenges remained unchanged. Statistics showed that the government and the law enforcement agencies have failed to properly and timely investigate cases of violence against women and cases of murder. AIHRC attributed that insecurity, corruption, the increased culture of impunity, lack of rule of law, the spread of harmful custom and tradition in society, lack of awareness of people of the law and human rights, poverty and economic problems are among the factors of violence against women which have not been adequately and practically addressed by the government. AIHRC reported that Taliban also continued to commit killings and extra judicial and arbitrary punishment of women in the area of under their control. AIHRC recalled that under Resolution 1325 and the SDGs, the government has to accelerate the process of gender mainstreaming in the departments.
Para 34) HRW noted that violence against women, including rape, murder, mutilation and assault is widespread, and the perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. In the 2014 UPR, the Afghanistan delegation accepted numerous recommendations on improving implementation of the 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW law), including the measures recommended to Afghanistan by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in July 2013. During the review, the Afghan delegation committed to implement the EVAW law, and that perpetrators of violence against women would be prosecuted and punished. However, HRW found that Afghan women seeking justice after facing violence continue to face formidable obstacles. Afghan authorities routinely turn victims away or pressure them to accept mediation. Mediation does not provide justice to female victims of serious crimes, offering victims only a promise from her abuser not to repeat the crime. In some case, mediators themselves inflict abuse, for example by ordering girls or women to be given as compensation for murder, forcing women and girls to marry men who raped them, or excusing murder in the name of “honor.” Afghan police and prosecutors continue to jail women and girls for on charges of “moral crimes” that include “running away” from home, and committing or attempting to commit sexual intercourse outside marriage “zina”, or having sex outside of marriage. Rape victims can be charged with “zina” and imprisoned. These girls and women are subjected to invasive vaginal and anal examinations performed by Afghan government doctors, sometimes repeatedly on the same girl or woman including young girls. Afghan officials claimed that the government had since banned the examinations, but officials have told HRW that the practice remained widespread, and many judges, prosecutors, and police officials told them that they routinely order “virginity tests.”
Para 35) ODVV also noted that one of the most serious human rights violations in Afghanistan is violence against women, particularly girls. In 2017 there were 4340 cases of violence against 2286 women. This is while in the previous year there were approximately 2046 reported cases of violence against women. These figures indicate that not only violence against women in Afghanistan has not dropped, but the abuses have increased. There have also been report of 277 women being murdered, while only 40 of them have been prosecuted. This shows a weakness in enforcing the law, additionally, victims’ families’ were reluctant to file a complaint against perpetrators of crimes.

UN Compilation:
Para 26) The Committee against Torture was seriously concerned by the sentences still imposed by jirga courts and other parallel judicial mechanisms on the Afghan population, in particular on women, notably for “moral crimes”, including the death sentence and corporal punishment.