Events

Once more 8 March has arrived, but we cannot celebrate equality yet. We celebrate 8 March every year to commemorate centuries-long struggles of women to achieve peace and equality and to remind all actors who mark the contemporary events: Inequality is still reigning in the most “equal” lands on the earth; women are still regarded as second-class citizens in the 21st century. At the heart of Asia, we have our eyes on the women of our region, whose freedoms and rights are still stoned every day and burned in flames of war, under pressures from political and ideological extremism, violence of politicians and discriminatory laws. Nevertheless, they do not step back from their struggle.

At the concluding ceremony of the Human Rights Week, following the awarding of Simorgh prize statutes to the awardees, Master Waheed Kaacemy, the celebrated singer, composer and music researcher of Afghanistan, gave a concert to mark the 19th anniversary of Armanshahr Foundation/OPEN ASIA’s establishment.

Armanshahr Foundation/OPEN ASIA organised educational workshops during the Human Rights Week (7-10 December 2015) on CEDAW, and UN Resolutions 1325 and 1820 concerning women, conflict and war.

Armanshahr – “Human Rights Week” in pictures

The second day of Human Rights Week started on 8 December 2015 at the EU Delegation premises. The topic of discussion was “What does transitional justice mean to people of Afghanistan? From good will to will power and action to build peace on national level.

The 152nd Goftegu – Dialogue – meeting of Armanshahr Foundation/OPEN ASIA was held at the European Union Delegation premises in Kabul on 7 December 2015, in collaboration with and with the support of the EU, the French Embassy, the French Institute Afghanistan, UN Women in Afghanistan, and the Swiss Cooperation Office Afghanistan.

After the fall of the Taliban and the establishment of the current government, it was expected that there would be no more war crimes and, with the start of the transitional justice process, the culture of impunity for atrocities would also end. This expectation was strengthened particularly after Afghanistan became a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2003. However, since then, war crimes continued to be committed and transitional justice was neglected under the pretense of maintaining peace.

Lauryn Oates, for The Huffington Post November 16, 2015 Paris is bleeding. In this latest wave of violence, some news reports described the targeted locations of the attacks as “random.” The targets were anything but […]

SURVEY Invitation to participation in survey by UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders This is an opportunity to ensure that the experiences and perspectives of women human rights defenders are included. For that purpose, […]

There is widespread political activism, including an extensive presence of radical activists among high school students in Afghanistan, a new AREU study says. This is despite a government ban on political activism in high schools, which in itself can be argued that is a relic of an authoritarian era.