Letter to Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Bonn Delegates on the recommendations and concerns based on the Afghan Women Leaders Summit in Brussels on 4-5 December 2001 

Mr. Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Bonn Delegates:

We congratulate you on your efforts and achievements in the peace negotiations to date and applaud the inclusion of two women ministers in the newly constituted Interim Transitional Authority for Afghanistan.  We are encouraged that a provision has been made to appoint a Senior Gender Advisor for the proposed UN mission in Afghanistan.   
 
We are writing to you now with the priorities and recommendations, resulting from the Afghan Women's Summit held in Brussels on the 4th and 5th of December 2001. We  would urge that these be incorporated into the peace process.  The summit was held in response to a request from Afghan women. It was organised by the European Women's Lobby, Equality Now, V-day, the Centre for Strategic Initiatives of Women, and The Feminist Majority and was supported by the Gender Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, The Global Fund for Women, International Alert, Refugees International, UNIFEM and the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. 
 
Fifty Afghan women leaders, from broadly representative backgrounds, took part in the summit. Participants included Sima Wali, primary Afghan organiser of the Summit, Seddighe Balkhi and Amena Afzali, who came directly from the negotiations in Bonn and a broad representation of Afghan women leaders from Afghanistan and the wider Afghan diaspora in Iran, Pakistan, the United States and Canada. Judge Navanethem Pillay, the South African President of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, chaired the summit.
 
Five key priorities that must be considered for sustainable peace in Afghanistan, were identified at the summit:
 
· Education and Culture
· Human Rights and Violence Against Women
· Health
· Displaced Persons and Refugees
· A Regional Approach to Conflict Prevention
 
A summary of the discussion and the main recommendations for each of these priorities is outlined below.  They are by no means exhausted.  The attached declaration from the summit provides greater detail.
 
Education & Culture
 
Afghan women identified equal access to education for women as a top priority for sustainable peace and development in Afghanistan. They emphasised  the urgency to address women's and girls needs in the transition period. The new government of Afghanistan must integrate the expertise and representation of women in the Ministry of Education.
 
Recommendations:
 
· Develop an emergency plan for re-opening schools for both girls and boys, including special provision for orphans.
 
· Appoint a woman as Minister of Education in the establishment of the broad-based, multi-ethnic and fully representative government.
 
· Include the pedagogic expertise of the numerous Afghan women who have teaching and curriculum development skills.
 
· Reintegrate of home-based schools for girls into the mainstream schools.
 
· Set up mechanisms which encourage and ensure access to education for girls.
 
· Appoint a representative gender-balanced team of  scholars to revise the current according to international standards.
 
· Provide training and support for teachers and the rebuilding of schools.
 
· Re-open institutes of higher education.
 
· Re-generate a representative media and culture in Afghanistan as a healing process for the country. 
 
Violence Against Women, Human Rights and the Legal System
 
In Afghanistan women have suffered unprecedented forms of psychological, physical and sexual violence and oppression prior to and during the Taliban regime.  Afghan women leaders at the Brussels summit, expressed that a prerequisite to any peace process being able to move forward, is that there be an end to the violence currently being inflicted on women.  Current gender-based violence includes forced and under-age marriage, rape, torture of women on the grounds of composure and trafficking in women and girls. Demobilisation and address of the proliferation of small arms and land mines is key to addressing gender-based violence, human rights abuse and general security.
 
Recommendations:
 
· A stabilization force should be established in Afghanistan.  This international Peace Keeping force must be specifically trained in human rights and issues relating to violence against women and their specific needs.  It should maintain the highest degree of gender balance possible amongst both civilian and military peacekeepers.
 
· Demobilisation should involve a major operation directed at small arms and light weapons both in rural and urban areas; this should be coupled with a wide-reaching, accessible mine awareness campaign.
 
· Women should participate in the emergency and any subsequent Loya Jirga (as they have in the past) to shape the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
 
· Mechanisms to eradicated violence against women  need to be fully incorporated into the rebuilding of the domestic justice system ensuring that in matters regarding women and family law, international legal norms and standards are used as the basis for new legislation.
 
· An effort should be made to ensure that qualified women judges are recruited regarding arrangements for civil, criminal and personal law.
 
· Afghan and other women lawyers from the region should be included in the drafting of the new constitution based on the 1963 constitution and any subsequent legal framework. (A list of such legal resource women is available).
 
· In all matters regarding human rights and mechanisms set up to address human rights abuses, violence against women and abuses to women's human rights must be effectively addressed to ensure an end to impunity.
 
· Violence against women should be included in the proposed UN monitoring of human rights abuses. Reports should be produced regularly and feed into the relevant bodies within Afghanistan and the UN early warning system for the Security Council.
 
· Impunity should be addressed through the establishment of a gender-sensitive tribunal, which should include women lawyers and judges.
 
Displaced Persons and Refugees
 
The estimated three million Afghan refugees and additional one million displaced persons are recognised as a central concern in the future development of Afghanistan.
 
Recommendations:
 
· Returnees to Afghanistan must be guaranteed citizenship status.
 
· Refugees and displaced persons should not be forced to return to Afghanistan.
 
· Time should be given for peace and security to be established and for infrastructure to be developed before any voluntary repatriation initiative commences.
 
· The special protection needs of women and girls should be ensured in camps, during repatriation, resettlement and reintegration.
 
· In preparation for return, income-generating capacity building and education should be priorities in refugee and displaced camps. Emphasis should be given to the special needs of women and girls.
 
Health
 
The virtual non-existent provision of health facilities, particularly for women and girls, needs to be addressed with critical urgency.
 
Recommendations:
 
· Re-establish health centres and ensure adequate medical staff in urban and rural areas.
 
· Establish feeding schemes in rural and urban areas to address the high-levels of malnutrition.
 
· Provide accessible reproductive health and family planning services.
 
· Rebuild water and sanitation systems.
 
· Establish programmes to address the spread of HIV/AIDS; drug use; malaria; and leshmania.
 
· Provide gender-sensitive trauma counselling.
 
Regional Approach to Conflict Prevention
 
The need to take a regional approach to conflict prevention was flagged as crucial to the establishment of peace in Afghanistan.  Economic and political interests of regional actors in Afghanistan need to be highlighted and recognised in any intervention.
 
Recommendations:
 
· The maintenance of impartiality of humanitarian and military support should be a key consideration for any sustainable peace or development intervention for Afghanistan.
 
· Transnational fundamentalism needs to be addressed in all negotiations and interventions as a core influencing factor.
 
·The dynamics of the oil and drug industries and their influence on conflict within Afghanistan need to be thoroughly examined.
 
 We are encouraged by the Secretary General's message of support to the Afghan Women Leader's: "to reassert the rights of Afghan women - the right to participate actively in all sectors and levels of society and in all stages of the work to bring peace and development to your country" and his acknowledgment that: "there cannot be true peace and recovery in Afghanistan without a restoration of the rights of women".
 
However, we are concerned that women are only mentioned twice in the first draft of the UN-sponsored Afghan agreement.  This does not represent a gender integrated approach and the move towards gender mainstreaming agreed upon in Resolution 1325. The participation of women in all aspects of decision-making in the peace negotiation, peacebuilding, reconstruction and development of Afghanistan is crucial for success.  In particular, the participation of women in the emergency and any subsequent Loya Jirga, will be key for setting the agenda for sustainable peace.
 
We request your urgent attention to the concerns and recommendations in this letter and trust that you will be able to integrate them into the peacebuilding and reconstruction process in Afghanistan.
 
Yours sincerely,

NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security

Members: Hague Appeal for Peace, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-UN Office, International Women's Tribune Centre, Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, International Alert