Latest move is part of pressure being brought by some Afghan parliamentarians to weaken a 2009 law that criminalises rape, forced marriage and other forms of violence against women
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Afghanistan's lower house of parliament seems intent on further weakening inadequate legal protections for women’s rights, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday, urging lawmakers to reject a proposed criminal law revision that would make prosecutions of domestic violence impossible.
A new draft of the criminal procedure code, seen by the New York-based rights group, is currently being considered by Afghanistan’s parliament. It contains language that would prevent relatives of a criminal defendant being questioned as a witness against the accused. If the provision becomes law, victims and other family members who have witnessed abuse will be silenced in domestic violence cases, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
“Afghanistan’s lower house is proposing to protect the batterers of women and girls from criminal punishment,” Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said in a statement. “Legislative approval of this criminal law revision would effectively stop prosecutions of people who beat, forcibly marry, and even sell their female relatives.”
If the code is approved, it would water down Afghanistan's 2009 Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women (the EVAW Law), which provides criminal penalties for abuses including rape, child marriage, forced marriage, domestic violence and the practice of giving away girls to resolve disputes between families.
Members of parliament opposed to women’s rights have increasingly sought to repeal or weaken the EVAW Law, which has been a crucial tool for fighting violence against women, HRW said. For example, a debate on the law in May was halted after 15 minutes when parliamentarians called for revisions that would have eliminated the minimum marriage age for girls, abolished shelters, and ended criminal penalties for rape and domestic violence.
The lower house (Wolesi Jirga) has also tried to revise the Electoral Law to get rid of a quota reserving at least a quarter of seats in the country's 34 provincial councils for female candidates. This move was rejected by the upper house.
HRW's Adams called on international donors that provide aid to the Afghan government to "serve notice that they will not underwrite legislative initiatives to victimise women”.
'LIP SERVICE'
The rights group noted other recent developments which it said indicate "a broad-based attack on women’s rights". They include the president's appointment to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission of a former Taliban government official, Abdul Rahman Hotak, who has publicly denounced the EVAW Law.
In early July, an appeals court ordered the early release of three family members convicted for the torture and starvation of a teenage in-law, and on July 3, unidentified assailants shot and killed the most senior female police officer in insecure Helmand province on her way to work, HRW noted.
Meanwhile, a delegation in Geneva for the first review of Afghanistan’s compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) last week assured the United Nations that the Afghan government was committed to implementing CEDAW and promoting women’s rights.
“While Afghan officials give lip service to women’s rights at the U.N., the president, parliament and courts are actively undermining those rights,” Adams said. “Afghanistan’s foreign donors should be loud and clear that they won’t stand by while Afghan women’s hard-won rights are swept away.”
In a more positive development, Reuters reported on Tuesday that a group of female Afghan lawmakers and activists were eyeing an alliance with religious leaders, hoping to promote and enhance women's rights through Islam in a joint campaign.
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