The 42nd round of Goftegu Public Debates held in Kabul on 5th November 2009, marked the release of a new Armanshahr publication, “A Guideline for Victims to the International Criminal Court”.
Ms. Shourangiz Dadashi, Ajmal Baluchzada and Sayed Jawad Darwazyan introduced the book to the audience.
“Justice is essential to consolidate peace,” that is how Hamid Razzagh, one of the participants, started his talk and pointed to the following issues in regard to realisation of Transitional Justice (TJ) in Afghanistan: the government uses TJ as a political ploy not as a legal one; the major activity of the government in regard to TJ is the Action Plan, which is outdated; the government will not pay attention much to the issue in the next five years; justice-seeking teams must be formed to advance the process of TJ; women can form spontaneous groups similar to Mayo Mothers to take part in the process of TJ.
Mr Nazari, representing the Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN), stated that it will not be possible to achieve a political transition without adapting the Government Action plan for TJ. He suggested that to achieve TJ: a strong human rights movement should be established (mission of CSHRN); the capacity of institutions and individuals should be developed; a strong team to seek justice has to be established; TJ should be adjusted to local needs; TJ must be made into a national demand; the public must be informed and reforms should be followed from above together with pressure from below to fulfil them.
Staff member of Armanshahr Foundation, Jawad Darwazian, emphasised two points in his talk: how to define the presence of American and other foreign military forces and the human rights violations that occur and that we should not restrict ourselves to the past three decades in dealing with TJ but rather address the roots of the crisis too. He also voiced concern about achieving proper definitions for human rights and offenders.
Shiwa Shargh offered a question: Who can legitimise forgiveness? He then argued that there was a need to define holy and unholy wars in order to discuss the issue of war in Afghanistan. He was of the opinion that the International Criminal Court and similar courts do not point to the roots of war. In his opinion, the following are reasons why these mechanisms do not function in Afghanistan: authority of the criminals; lack of awareness of the citizens; abuse of power in all its dimensions and absence of proper foundations to discuss such issues.
Abdul Latif Pedram, leader of the Afghanistan National Congress took a different approach to these issues. He started by asking: “Is it necessary to fight for Transitional justice?” He then went on: “The answer is obvious, however we face the following problems: legitimacy of the State, rights of women and provision of democracy.” He added: “Despite these problems, the process must not stop. He then responded to his own question: “What are our responsibilities? We should distinguish between enforcement of Transitional justice and the move toward that process, we need to build capacity and raise awareness and enlightenment.
A number of other participants joined the debate and raised such concerns as the fact that enforcement of justice of any kind necessitates the existence of a government and legitimate power structure; that civil society should keep aloof from the politics of the international community; that all opportunities must be made use of; the fact that these problems and issues are raised only among the elite; victims must be given incentive to pursue their demands (the government cannot resist demands of thousands of people); the theoretical issues should be clarified first in order to pursue the mechanisms subsequently and finally that we hear much criticism of the civil society, but what is our own responsibility as individuals?
For more details on the publication, click HERE
For the video of the presentation, clicke HERE (Youtube)
Invitation
