KABUL - An influential international watchdog has asked all presidential runners to highlight their views on human rights issues of key concern in Afghanistan, including women's protection, torture and accountability of security forces.
In a questionnaire sent to all candidates, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the answers would be published to let the Afghans know their leaders' positions on questions of grave concern.
Security Force Accountability, transitional justice, rights of women, children, refugees, torture and degrading treatment are some of the important questions posed to the presidential hopefuls.
A. Security Force Accountability
1. The Afghan Local Police (ALP) have been implicated in numerous abuses against civilians that have been traced to poor vetting, limited governmental oversight, and the lack of a functioning disciplinary mechanism.. As president, what changes, if any, would you make to reform the ALP program?
2. Afghanistan has no functioning system to provide prompt, fair and consistent compensation to civilians harmed by Afghan security forces. As president, would you create such a system?
3. As president, what steps would you take to end abuses by illegal militias (arbakis), some of which are aligned with and supported by the government
B. Women’s Rights
4. As president, would you support and work to provide the necessary resources for the establishment of shelters for women fleeing domestic violence and specialized violence against women prosecution units within the Attorney General’s Office in each of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces?
5. There are very small numbers of women in the Afghan National Police (ANP). Could you please describe what specific steps you, as president, would take to increase the number of women who join the ANP and the ANP’s success at retaining these women in the police force?
6. As president, what steps would you take to improve enforcement of the provisions of the Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which makes forced marriage and child marriage a crime?
7. Following Afghanistan’s first review by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in mid-2013, the committee expressed serious concerns about discriminatory treatment of women in regard to personal status and family law matters. The committee called on Afghanistan to:
a) Repeal all discriminatory provisions of the Shia Personal Status Law and Civil Code;
b) Raise the age of marriage for girls to 18;
c) Adopt a Family Law providing equal rights for women and men in all matters related to marriage and family, including property, inheritance, divorce and child custody;
(d) Abolish polygamy.
As president, would you support and work for these changes?
8. In recent years, there have been many murders of high-profile women, including women who work for the government, such as Lieutenant Islam Bibi and Lieutenant Nigar in Helmand this year. As president, what would you do to protect female government employees from attacks?
C. Transitional Justice and Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
9. Many serious human rights abuses have been committed in Afghanistan over the past 35 years, yet no major perpetrators have been prosecuted or convicted for any of these abuses. As president, would you take steps to prosecute those people who credible evidence indicates were involved in serious human rights abuses?
10. In 2012, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) completed an 800-page report mapping serious human rights abuses that were committed in Afghanistan between 1978 and 2001, but the report has not yet been released by the Afghan government. As president, would you release this report?
11. As president, what would you do to revive and implement the 2005 Action Plan for Peace, Reconciliation and Justice?
D. Torture and Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment
12. After a government committee found widespread torture in Afghan detention centers, President Karzai in February 2013 ordered that any government officials who engage in torture would be prosecuted, yet there have been virtually no prosecutions. As president, what steps would you take to ensure that members of the police, military and other government officials who commit torture are brought to justice?
13. As president, would you ensure access to all Afghan detention facilities by the AIHRC, the United Nations, and humanitarian and human rights organizations to monitor conditions within these facilities?
14. As president, what would you do to end compelled “virginity examinations,” a form of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that is carried out on all women and girls accused of “moral crimes” for use in legal proceedings, despite being medically invalid?
E. Children’s Rights
15. Only about half of Afghan girls currently go to school, and many boys are also deprived of education. As president, what steps would you take to increase access to and quality of education for Afghan children, especially girls?
16. Child labor, including in mining and in the carpet industry, remains a very serious problem in Afghanistan. As president, what steps would you take to reduce child labor?
F. Afghan Refugee Children
17. Several European countries have requested that the Afghan government agree to the return of unaccompanied Afghan children from Europe, even if the children’s families cannot be located. As president, what would your response be to this proposal? (Pajhwok)