The 92nd Goftegu public debate (6th year), a bridge between the elite and the citizens, of Armanshahr Foundation, entitled “Justice & rights in Balkh” was organised in Mazar-i-Sharif, on 6 September 2012. The discussions centred on the performance of human rights activists in the past 10 years to achieve justice in the country and ‘what should be done’ in the future. Human rights and civil society activists, women’s rights activists, journalists, and university professors attended the meeting.
The speakers were: Mr Nassim Bahman (professor of Balkh University), Mr Hayatollah Javad (director of the Afghan Human Rights Research and Support Institute), Mr Nasser Amini (professor of Balkh University), Ms Zahra Ahmadi (director of Child foundation) and Ms Malali Ossmani (director of Women’s Rights Assistance Institute). Moderator of the meeting, Ms Farkhondeh Rajabi, a student of Mazar-i-Sharif University, opened the meeting by saying: “The discussions in this meeting shall centre on the working of the civil society to achieve human rights, national and international opportunities to achieve human rights and justice, achievements of women for women during the last 10 years and an image of children in Balkh. We shall seek to know what to do in the future.”
Discussing civil, justice and human rights institutions, Mr Hayatollah Javad said: “After 12 years of generous support of other countries and international organisations to prop up the civil society in Afghanistan, there are still many unanswered questions about the procedures of establishment, goals and operating method of these institutions. It is quite likely that after the withdrawal of international support, the civil society in Afghanistan will plunge in a dark situation.”
Discussing the role of civil institutions in realising the transitional justice programme and human rights of the citizens of Afghanistan, he went on: “There were legal protections in Afghanistan law and international law and unique financial resources for the civil society that could organise a great civil movement by relying on those laws. However the Peace, Reconciliation and Justice Plan provided a ground for civil movements based on justice. Unfortunately, the absence of civil institutions from this process offered a good opportunity to violators of human rights within the government structure to get the General Amnesty Law passed by the Parliament that was contrary to said plan. Hence, the people of Afghanistan were deprived of justice.
“There are major problems ahead of civil society institutions in regard to their share in the process of quest for justice and human rights. The absence of adequate capacity to use the opportunities, absence of strategy on the part of the international community to organise support for the civil institutions in Afghanistan, and the presence of warlords within the government structures are among the major problems facing the civil institutions. Furthermore, as a result of lack of understanding of civil values, they have been unable to give shape to popular structures through reliance on the people of Afghanistan; they have relied on the financial protection of the international community to perform their activities. The extensive support of the international community has prepared the ground for extensive corruption. Thousands of civil institutions have been formed to obtain funds. Millions of dollars have been spent, but proportionately tangible achievements have not been obtained. Those institutions have become executive arms of the international institutions and their activities have been confined to the wishes of those institutions rather than the social and civil needs of the people of Afghanistan. The people deem the majority of these institutions to be representatives of foreign institutions and regard their presence to be in contrast to their traditional values. Those mistakes have prepared the ground for the re-emergence of warlords.”
In the opinion of MrJavad, the civil institutions lack a popular base; as a result, their activities wasted the opportunities that existed for achieving human rights and justice. Hence, Afghanistan is suffering from serious social, cultural, civil and political abnormalities for which the civil institutions are mainly to blame. “These organisations must first endeavour to reform themselves. Reviewing their past activities, capabilities, shortcomings and failures as well as transfer of civil knowledge to their members are important steps to be taken in the future.”
Mr Nassim Bahman said: “One of the serious problems in the past 10 years was the lack of structural diversity and lack of relative independence of subsystems. The second problem was the absence of the rule of law. The civil society is an independent sphere of institutions that take shape with the protection of the law. If there rule of law does not exist, civil activities will not grow as expected. The third problem was the unsuccessful and incomplete state-nation-building process. As long as a transition to the modern national state has not taken place, the subsystems and substructures of democratic systems, civil society, political parties and social organisations shall not be created. We have not prepared the ground for a modern state yet. The other problem is the politicisation of bureaucracy.
“Political leaders do not trust channels other than secure bureaucratic channels. Furthermore, party, ethnic and religious considerations in reports given to higher officials have occasionally led to instability of the administrative system and helped bureaucratic policy-making. One more problem is related to the nature and functioning of the civil society. At the same time, an encounter between cultural and civil features on the one hand and the tribal culture and features on the other is also a problem. One more problem concerns the perception and expectation of the people; they do not have a proper understanding of the functioning of the civil society. Therefore, they occasionally have undue expectations from the civil society.
“In the past 10 years, the ground for participation has been prepared as a result of civil discussions and activities. The discourse of support for human rights and citizen rights has become a significant part of the activities of civil institutions.
“The civil institutions should focus on intellectual growth and political knowledge, in which case realism and optimism shall replace pessimism. Attention to political culture and development, extensive support for human rights and citizen rights, in particular for freedoms of citizens and protection of the people’s private spheres, coexistence of social relations, respect for the bilateral trust between the government and the nation must form a bridge between the two.”
Mr Nasser Amini discussed the national and international guarantees for human rights and the background of human rights in the Oriental and Western thoughts. He said: “Human rights have a long-standing historical background, but we witnessed gross atrocities against humanity in the 20th century. Indeed, millions of people were cruelly killed in World War II. This seriously moved humans and brought up the question as to how guarantees for human rights should be found to prevent governments or systems or groups from violating human rights and to punish them in case of violation.”
He further examined the development of human rights from first-generation to third generation and pointed out how citizens were able to gain a status before international authorities as independent legal entities. In his words, the international courts were established and the international conventions were approved and recognised the rights and freedoms of citizens to lodge complaints against the systems and governments with international courts. Furthermore, organisations such as Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Jurists Association were international non-governmental human rights that always defended human rights.
Ms Zahra Ahmadi, a child rights activist, argued that the conditions of children have improved in the past 10 years. As she put it, 10 years ago less than one-tenth of children had access to education; the access of female children to education was almost zero. At present, two thirds of male children and half of female children have access to education. On the other hand, health services that help keep children alive at birth and up to 6 years have increased considerably. Nevertheless, some spheres have not experienced any change. Children are still used in forced labour and prevented from education; the latest UNICEF report has identified Afghanistan as the worst place for children. The increase in casualty of children is also another concern; every day 5-6 children reportedly die in the war.
She also said: “in the past few years, the government and human rights institutions have not had any plans to respect the rights of children and improve their conditions. Insecurity, absence of the rule of law and economic poverty are other major problems children are facing.”
The last speaker, Ms Malali Ossmani, emphasised the achievements of the past 10 years: 10 years ago, women were not allowed to leave the house, but fortunately they have an active role in all governmental and non-governmental institutions today. Presence of women in the parliament, cabinet, decision-making bodies on the one hand and the existence of such laws as the Law for Prohibition of Violence against Women, Family Law and Marriage Law, on the other, are our most important achievements in the field of legislation. The most important problems of women are political, economic and social problems and it is not clear what will become of them after the withdrawal of international organisations.
In the question and answer section, the speakers were asked why the civil institutions in Balkh have done very little in the past few years in comparison with other provinces such as Bamian, Herat and Kabul and sufficed to a few programs, educational seminars and debates.
Mr Javad replied: “The civil society institutions in Afghanistan have not developed systematically. Their programmes in remote areas were not welcomed and failed to bring positive results. Thus, the people were disappointed with these institutions and their activities. They confined themselves to the cities and, within the cities, to a particular group. We did not realise we should take those ideas to all parts of Afghanistan.”
Mr Amini said: “There is an artificial atmosphere in Balkh, where the ordinary citizens feel content and believe that their conditions are ideal. The civil society institutions are seeking profits rather than enlightenment. They think that they will lose their financial resources if they criticise the incumbent government and will fail to implement their programmes. Therefore, they do not touch the popular issues. The civil institutions in Herat and Bamian are by far more active.”
Mr Javad was asked: The transitional justice process has been marginalised; how can it be brought back on to the agenda again? He replied: “The quest for justice always existed. However, there are times when we can take action more easily, but sometimes the situation is complicated. These topics could be discussed more easily in 2005 and 2006, but those organisations failed to do anything. The conditions have now changed. The civil institutions can operate more than ever now, but they seriously need to take stock of their 10-year performance. Otherwise, there will be no chance for going forward.”
To view the publications related to this Goftegu Public Debate, please refer to the following links:
