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8 March 2002



National Workshop on Women’s Rights


Statement by

Mary Robinson,
United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights



Kabul, 8 March 2002, International Women’s Day




Minister, Sima Samar,
My Afghan sisters,
Kha haray Afghan azziz (Dari),
Mehraban khor may (Pashto),

Today, all over the world, women and men are marking International Women’s Day with a particular focus on the women of Afghanistan. What a joy and privilege it is to join so many Afghan women at this special seminar in Kabul.

During decades of civil conflict, the women of Afghanistan demonstrated impressive courage and endurance. You worked hard to look after families and neighbours. You found ways to farm the land and were inventive in the search for income. Many of you had to seek refuge from conflict or drought or from massacres, rapes, abductions, repression or the bans on education and employment. Yet you found ways to set up home schools and clinics, or worked with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations to bring relief to others. Some of you took additional risks by speaking up – and in some cases paid a heavy price for it. You have worked as teachers, doctors and nurses, law professors and elected representatives – and have proven that you can ensure the survival of entire families in the harshest of circumstances.

Now that peace and stability can be restored in Afghanistan, it is Afghan women at home and abroad, who must speak up about the rights and protection from abuse that they have been denied for too long. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has said that “true peace and recovery will not come to Afghanistan without a restoration of the rights of women”. Only you can decide how best to address, without renouncing your inalienable human rights, the traditional taboos that make it difficult to tackle violence against women in all its forms. One contribution my Office hopes to make is in developing with the Authorities and civil society here a programme of human rights education. Genuine human rights education must involve those who want to learn more about their human rights. Women must become involved in the planning of human rights education initiatives.

The Struggle for Women’s equality and human rights

“Women’s rights are human rights”. So natural, so obvious – yet it has taken decades of struggle by women and their advocates to have this principle accepted and increasingly respected around the world. The strides that women have made are impressive, but the challenges remain enormous. We need to commemorate their achievements today, on International Women’s Day, but we should also us this occasion to renew our commitment to the respect and promotion of the rights of all women everywhere. This year when the thoughts of the international community are particularly centered on Afghanistan, we must highlight our solidarity with the women and girls of Afghanistan and our commitment to the restoration of their rights.

Equality of rights for women is a founding principle of the United Nations, laid down over 50 years ago in the preamble of the United Nations Charter. The provisions of the Charter regarding equal rights of women have been further refined and developed in a great number of international human rights instruments. The first and most important of these is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States Parties should undertake to ensure equal access of men and women for the enjoyment of all rights set forth in each Covenant. The Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits sex-based discrimination and the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Convention Against Torture are also clearly relevant to the promotion and protection of women’s rights.

The international human rights instrument which specifically addresses women’s rights is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 and legally binding on the 168 States parties. Afghanistan has signed but not ratified it. The Convention identifies many specific areas where discrimination against women is widespread, such as political rights, marriage and family, and employment. The Convention also recognizes specifically the need for a change in attitudes, through education of both women and men, to accept equality of rights and to overcome prejudices and practices based on stereotyped roles.

The Convention requires States to embody the principle of gender equality in their laws and policies; to adopt legislative and other measures - including sanctions – prohibiting discrimination, and to establish legal protection for women through tribunals and other public institution. States Parties to the Convention are also required to undertake positive measures to ensure the full development and advancement of women so that they might enjoy and exercise their rights on the basis of equality with men.

Last year, the adoption of an optional protocol to the Women’s Convention marked the establishment of yet another protection mechanism for women’s human rights. Women from countries who accede to the Optional Protocol can submit allegations of violations of their rights to the United Nations, if they have not been able to find justice at national level.

The 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women adopted a Declaration and Platform of Action which provide a detailed articulation of steps needed for implementation of the human rights of women and of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Women in situations of armed conflict

War affects everyone - women and men, boys and girls. Yet everyone experiences conflict differently and conflict impacts on everyone, including women and men, differently. History has shown what today’s conflicts continue to demonstrate: women and girls are particularly affected by sexual and gender-based violence in wartime.

However, and as the situation of Afghan women and girls proves, women are not only victims in times of armed conflict. Women also play a crucial role in efforts to rebuild the economic, political and social fabric of societies torn apart by conflict. Women are particularly active in peace movements and are involved in many grassroots peace-building and reconciliation efforts. During conflict, women have often assumed societal roles and responsibilities which go far beyond their status before the war. Yet, time and again, women who were actively involved in rebuilding local economies or in civil society efforts have been ignored during formal peace negotiations.

In recognition of these challenges to women in wartime and in post-conflict peace-building, the Security Council, in October 2000, adopted resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. The Security Council emphasized the need to include gender issues in all United Nations efforts on conflict prevention and resolution, peace building, peacekeeping, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. It called for respect for human rights of women and girls, attention to violence against women and an end to impunity through the prosecution of those responsible for crimes related to sexual and other violence against women and girls. The Security Council also urged increased representation of women, in particular at decision-making levels.

Violence against women

Yet, the human rights of women and girls continue to be violated also in peacetime. Violence against women, whether in the family, in society or perpetrated and/or condoned by the State is pervasive in all societies. Causes of violence against women are linked to sexuality, cultural ideology, patterns of conflict resolution through violence, doctrines of privacy and government inaction.

The Challenges in Afghanistan

Before I turn to the challenges facing you in Afghanistan, I would like to refer to the Joint Declaration of the Special Rapporteurs on Women’s Rights, our sisters from Asia, the Americas and Africa, that was issued today to celebrate International Women’s Day. The Special Rapporteurs referred to the diversity among women and the right of people in community and with other members of their group to enjoy their own culture and the particularities in the different regions regarding the application of women’s rights. However, states must not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to the elimination of violence and discrimination against women. All women have the right to live in freedom, equality and dignity.

And, Minister Samar and other colleagues,

That is exactly what you are demanding. At two meetings held in Brussels in December, the “Afghan Women’s Summit for Democracy” and the “Roundtable on Building Women’s Leadership in Afghanistan”, Afghan women talked about their demands and priorities. You asked for participation in decision-making at all levels. You talked about access to education, to health services or to housing. You emphasised that it would be difficult for women to contribute effectively to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, if ways are not found to ensure access to employment, to land and water, or to credit for income-generating activities.

You have asked to be consulted at every stage in post-conflict reconstruction because without the full involvement of women, durable peace and stability is not possible. The women and men of Afghanistan will have to work together and bring every contribution to bear to build peace and development for the future. The young will also need to be brought into the process, which must engage the energies of the young men and women, boys and girls, who have often known nothing other than conflict and poverty. Afghanistan cannot afford the exclusion of any group or minority from the reconstruction effort.

When Afghan representatives met in Bonn and reached an agreement on how to proceed with peace-building, they promised that women would participate in the Interim Authority and in the Emergency Loya Jirga. Mr. Karzai signed the “Declaration on the Essential Rights of Afghan Women” that had been previously been adopted by Afghan groups. Afghanistan has already committed itself to respecting internationally agreed human rights for both women and men when it ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Bonn Agreement provides for an independent Human Rights Commission to be set up. Tomorrow my Office will organize a workshop, with participation of Afghan women and men, to assess how we may best support the establishment of a national human rights commission for Afghanistan. Experience of other national human rights commissions have found that effective promotion of respect for human rights requires that such a body should have a comprehensive mandate covering all rights not only the right to life and security, or to freedom of thought or from arbitrary detention. It is essential that women participate fully in the process to establish the commission. It is essential that women are fully represented in the composition of the commission. The mandate of a national human rights institution should also cover for example, the right to education, to food, health and housing. It should be involved also in promoting and protecting the rights of all ethnic groups, of women, of children, and of people with disabilities. In addition to a comprehensive mandate, a national human rights commission needs sufficient resources and the ability to be independent and to listen to all Afghans and their concerns. By helping the Interim Authority to set it up, the international community can ensure that the protection and promotion of the human rights of women will take place in Afghanistan through the efforts of Afghan women and men.

The international community must be ready also, to help Afghans ensure that justice is done, to ensure that impunity for past human rights violations will not set the stage for a repetition of the horrors of the past. Those who have suffered from gross human rights violations must have the right to tell their stories, so peace and reconciliation can be set upon strong foundations. The women and men of Afghanistan must decide how to move forward, but they must also be supported, enabled and encouraged to bring about change in every way they are ready to attempt.

We have realized – thanks to the efforts of the many women and men who have struggled for many years for the cause of women - that the concept of women’s rights as human rights does not call only for a focus on non-discrimination and equal rights of women with men. It is also essential to the achievement of sustainable development. Above all, respect for women’s rights as human rights requires the simple acknowledgement that women and girls are entitled to enjoy their human rights not only because they should be equal to men and boys but because they are human beings.

Minister Samar, my sisters,

I have understood well the concerns that you have elaborated here during these three days of discussion. I hear loudly your continuing calls for equal access and enjoyment of all your rights: your right to information, to education and training, to services that promote reproductive health. These are just a few of the messages that I will take back with me and share with my many networks and resources, with your many, many supporters. Your friends, men and women, in civil society from the subregion, region and world stand behind you, ready to assist you in any way we can.

Be bold; and aim high. There is now no stopping you.

Good luck.
Mafaq bashed (Dari).
Kamyaba ussay (Pashtu).