Ensure the Criminal Justice System in Afghanistan Protects Women's Rights

It has been two years since US forces initiated attacks in Afghanistan, to root out Al Qaeda, and to “liberate the women” of Afghanistan. The removal of the Taliban has eliminated many externally imposed restrictions that hampered the lives of women. However, the freedom and security of Afghan women are still severely compromised by their family members, by discriminatory laws, and by a criminal justice system that fails to protect them, such that they are far from having the ability to participate on an equal basis in family and public life.

According to a recent report issued by Amnesty International, “Afghanistan: ‘No-one listens to us and no-one treats us as human beings’: Justice denied to women”, violence against women in the home by husbands and male family members is commonplace, and occasionally, female members of the household perpetrate such violence. Domestic violence is not criminalized in Afghanistan, and few cases are reported to the authorities or to non-governmental agencies that operate in Afghanistan. Eventhough the hospital setting is most likely to witness cases of domestic violence, it is generally not recognized by medical workers as the cause of physical injury in female patients. Family violence often results in death of women and girls and is exacerbated by impunity. “Where a father kills his daughter, he will never go to court, no one will be aware because it is a big shame and no one can bear it.”
The report also noted that girls and women in many parts of Afghanistan are prosecuted for Zina crimes, such as adultery, “running away from home” and for engaging in consensual sex before marriage. Under Afghan law, adultery is a criminal offence carrying a maximum prison sentence of up to ten years. Girls found guilty of “running
away from home” do not necessarily have to be found to have engaged in sexual activity.

While AI found a small number of men being accused or convicted of Zina crimes, the criminal justice system places disproportionate emphasis on the prosecution and detention of girls and women for these crimes. To make matters worse, sometimes families press the courts to prosecute women for Zina crimes. In one case a 16-year-old
Afghan girl who had “run away” from her 85-year-old husband whom she had been forced to marry at the age of nine was sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment. The man who helped her escape from her husband was reportedly released after five months. 

Not only do the courts and judges fail to protect women, the police are often complicit in perpetrating violations of human rights. In Herat, western Afghanistan, investigations against girls and women are initiated by the police. The police, it is reported, “act like spies”, following women and, in some cases, randomly carrying out forcible virginity tests and prosecuting them. In other regions, however, there are no girls or women in detention for such crimes. The cases apparently go unreported to the police; instead, the family deals with the case by killing the girl or woman involved. Although forcible and under-age marriages are crimes under Afghan law, they are in fact widespread, and neither society at large nor the judicial system treat them as a criminal offence.

For example, the grandmother of an eight-year-old girl approached a court, seeking proceedings against a 48-year-old man to whom her granddaughter had been forcibly married. Under Afghan law, the legal age for marriage is 16. The court refused to act. This is justice turned upside down. Any criminal justice system must protect the rights of all. In Afghanistan, however, women seeking justice are victimized, and the protection of women is not being adequately addressed in plans for the reconstruction of the criminal justice system. While Amnesty International recognises the difficulties facing Afghanistan as it seeks to recover from over 23 years of conflict, it calls for the protection of the rights of women and for their individual dignity to be at the heart of the reconstruction of the criminal justice
system. To achieve this, the international community must make good on its verbal commitment to women’s rights, and support the administration in meeting this challenge, however sensitive and difficult. If individual women have the courage to come forward, as they do despite all the barriers, then the government and the international community must build a system that women can trust will protect them.  

Recources Afghanistan -

'No one listens to us and no one treats us as human beings': Justice denied to women. Two years after the ending of the Taleban regime, the international community and the Afghan Transitional Administration (ATA), led by President Hamid Karzai, have proved unable to protect women. Amnesty International is gravely concerned by the extent of violence faced by women and girls in Afghanistan.

Read the report Afghanistan: No justice and security for women
The international community has failed to fulfil its promises to bring freedom and equality to the women of Afghanistan, Amnesty International said in a report released today.

News release Afghanistan: Human Rights Concerns
There were significant improvements in the human rights situation following the establishment of a new government in late 2001.Reconstruction of institutions responsible for enforcing the rule of law was ongoing, but essential institutions, including the police, prisons and judiciary, were undermined by a lack of resources and a tenuous security situation.

Amnesty International's Work on Women's Human Rights Pervasive discrimination continues to deny women full political and economic equality, and is often at the root of violations of their basic human rights