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Afghan Women's Network Informative Paper- National Consultative Peace Jirga 28 May 2010 A much-anticipated meeting scheduled for this month, May 2010, the Peace Jirga will bring together tribal, local and national leaders to discuss peace. The role of AWN so far has been lobbying and advocacy for women's active, quantitative, and qualitative participation in the Peace Jirga. By establishing a steering committee, AWN has managed to facilitate several meetings with national and international stakeholders who are directly or indirectly involved with the national consultative Peace Jirga. Also in preparation, AWN held an Afghan Women Information Forum where they brought 270 women from all over Afghanistan to discuss the Peace Jirga and the Kabul Conference. The purpose of this gathering was to make sure that women from different parts of the country are aware of the important events affecting their lives and subsequently for them to put forward and listen to ideas, comments, and suggestions regarding women's political participation in these processes. As a result of this meeting as well as continuous advocacy and lobbying the number eventually increased from 175 (ten percent of the Jirga) to 336 (twenty one percent of the jirga) women are committed to participate. Afghan Women's Network is organizing a large event called women convention just two days prior to the exact date of national peace consultative jirga on May 30, 2010. The purpose of this gathering is to bring 336 women from different part of the world to network them with each other as well as share all the activities carried out so far to update them so that every women is carrying same message and ideology. During this event, three women ministers in the cabinet of Afghanistan will come to welcome and announcement their support to the women ideas and presence as strong voices for the 50% of Afghanistan's population who are women. Certain developed documents such as Afghan women's network position paper and guideline will be shared with the women. Afghan Women's Network has also focused on media advocacy for the national peace consultative jirga. Certain radio spots are developed and are broadcasting now in huge number of radio stations in Kabul and all 33 provinces since yesterdays. The aim of these radio spots are raising awareness of the local citizens in the country as well as talk about women's equal participation in peace negotiations and decision making events in the country. Following radio spots, certain number of publications such as posters and leaflets are also published. The posters will be posted throughout Kabul city for local public awareness. Leaflets carry important statements and documents such as Afghan women reaction to the London conference communiqué, Afghan Women's Network Position Paper for National Consultative Peace Jirga and Guideline for Afghan Women participants to the peace jirga. These leaflets beside distribution to the women participants will be circulated widely among the men jirga participants. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Afghan Women Reflection on Peace, Reconciliation and Reintegration Process Reaction from Afghan women civil society leaders to the Communiqué of the London Conference on Afghanistan January 29, 2010 As the Reconciliation and Reintegration Process takes priority in the negotiations within the Government of Afghanistan, the international donor community and other stakeholders, Afghan women stress "that no Peace is complete Peace without Women". Afghan Women's Network (AWN), an advocacy platform of Afghan women and the largest umbrella organization of Afghan women NGOs in the country, organized several meetings with different representatives of women's groups before and after the London Conference to make sure women voices are reflected in London communiqué and follow up activities. The Reaction from Afghan women civil society leaders to the Communiqué of the London Conference on Afghanistan recommends monitoring of any process leading to 'Peace and Reconciliation and Reintegration' to ensure that women are not victims to a process that does not account for their perspectives and experiences of conflict in Afghanistan. The process shall a) include women as participants and organizers of the process, and b) ensure women's rights and achievement of the last nine years are not violated or compromised and are fully addressed as a national security concern in any Reconciliation and Reintegration Process. On Security • The Government of Afghanistan's commitment to continue development of a National Security Strategy must be consistent with UN Security Council resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889. A National Action Plan on Women peace and security should be integrated as a core element of the national security policy, and a quota of women's representation in all peace and security deliberations be established. • Women should be consulted by and represented by the authorities developing the national Peace and Reintegration Programme. The proposed Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund to finance the Afghan-led Peace and Reintegration Programme should ensure that a proportion of the financial incentives to communities to support reintegration are used to support women's empowerment and development and the protection of their human rights through rigorous monitoring and redress. More specifically this paper summarizes Afghan women's concerns and strategic requirements emphasizing the need for information sharing with and inclusion of women representatives in all phases and aspects of the National Peace and Reintegration Programme. The active participation of women will provide meaningful contributions to the process by sharing their unique experience of war, conflict and peace building and sharing their thoughts on constructive process of reintegration. Only in this way will the process result in a strategy where women's perspectives are reflected and women rights are protected leading to the creation of the shared goal of enduring and sustainable peace in the country. A. Reintegration: • Lesson Learned from past processes : The lesson learned from the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR, 2005) and Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG, 2003) can inform and shape the success of reintegration process. There is need for a consultative evaluation of these efforts with Afghan communities and experts to determine relevant lessons that can inform the new process of reintegration - *particularly from a gender perspective.* • Reintegration as community support package: Reintegration should be in the form of family support packages that can be used as incentives benefiting the entire community, including women and children, .i.e. the creation of employment schemes, schooling for girl and boy children, vocational education. Reintegration incentive packages should include a clear set of objectives with specific indicators that can be used to evaluate if objectives are being met.. • Creating greater respect for women' rights and civil liberties : The reintegration process should include orientation/training on civil liberties and women's rights improvement in Afghanistan over the last nine years as part of a training and rehabilitation process to armed groups to equip them with the knowledge of rights and responsibilities of new citizenship under the current constitution. Special focus must be placed on the equal rights of men and women under Article 22 of the Constitution, the incentive to women to hold public positions of decision making in Article 83 of the Constitution, and the protection of women and girls from sexual and physical violence in the Elimination of Violence against Women Law. • Family repatriation and settlement as part of reintegration The reintegration process should comprehensively involve repatriation and resettlement of entire families--and not simply focus on single insurgents--to safe neighborhood communities. Family centrality to Afghan culture and women's centrality to family honor can help ensure the success of reintegration as well as safeguard the security protection of communities reintegrating the new groups. Above all, women and children affected by the conflict should directly benefit from peace settlement processes, and efforts should be made to monitor the process to ensure quality of life for women and children does not suffer by the reintegration of new elements. - Reintegration and Nationality Registration : The reintegration process should be in coordination with other national development schemes, such as national statistical efforts, the election commission, and national identity registration to both integrate new elements of the population with larger development project as well as to clearly distinguish Afghan nationals from international terrorist groups. Peace and Reconciliation: - Justice : A comprehensive peace process needs to address the past crimes and healing of wounds created as result of violations of human rights during years of conflict. In order to make sure the reintegration process is based on justice and protection of vulnerable communities it is important that there is a national consensus of dealing with past crimes from three decades of war and ongoing impunity. The Tribune of the Kabul Peace Jirga (2-4May 2010) shall be a used as an effective platform to stimulate a comprehensive national debate on addressing past crimes (genocides, mass killings, widespread rape, etc.)) which should lead the Afghan government to a transitional justice process with clear directives, framework and strategic plan as part of the reintegration and peace development process. - Consultative Peace Jirga (CPJ) : According to Afghan constitution, ANDS and reaffirmation of commitment in the London Communiqué women should not only be participants but also be organizers and decision makers of the CPJ. - Representation : a. The female representation to CPJ should go beyond state institutions (11 out of 13 categories of representatives currently are from state institutions, where women continue to be underrepresented). Women leaders, nominated by Afghan women's groups, who can speak comprehensively of women's priorities should be included for representation. b. The proposed number of women to be invited to the peace jirga is inadequate. Women should have 25% representation on all relevant bodies, including decision making bodies, in line with the constitutional right quota of reserved seats for elected office. - Peace Agreement: Any peace agreement should include an explicit re-commitment to the full implementation of NAPWA to ensure the protection of women's rights and progress made in last nine years. In addition to The Afghan Constitution (2004) as an overall framework, there should be an elaboration of all basic rights and privileges afforded to women and girls over the last nine years-- education, work, travel and political representation should be clearly part of the agreement to avoid future ambiguity and misinterpretation of women's rights and duties as citizens of the country before the law. -Laws and policies regarding women's rights: The Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) Law, National Action Plan for Women for the Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA) and other achievements regarding women's rights should be used as a guarantee of protection of women's rights in the legal framework in peace agreement. Concrete benchmarks and indicators must be developed to monitor implementation progress and to ensure - Oversight by a Third Party: International parties and stakeholders supporting the peace process in Afghanistan shall provide oversight of and ensure the inclusion and integration of women's rights within any peace accords based on international standards, such as CEDAW and UN SCRs 1325 and 1820. The women of Afghanistan have suffered much over the last three decades of violence, and they have a vested interest in bringing peace and stability to the country. Yet, sustainable peace is only possible with women's full contributions and participation, and their rights must be leveraged at every possible opportunity to ensure that security in Afghanistan is based on peace with justice for women, men, and children. The representatives who sign below represent the women leaders of the country who, in consultation with their constituencies and under the leadership of AWN, endorse above all women's full, meaningful and effective participation of women in any and all peace processes for the future stability of Afghanistan.

Afghan Women's Network

Informative Paper- National Consultative Peace Jirga

28 May 2010

A much-anticipated meeting scheduled for this month, May 2010, the Peace Jirga will bring together tribal, local and national leaders to discuss peace. The role of AWN so far has been lobbying and advocacy for women's active, quantitative, and qualitative participation in the Peace Jirga. By establishing a steering committee, AWN has managed to facilitate several meetings with national and international stakeholders who are directly or indirectly involved with the national consultative Peace Jirga. Also in preparation, AWN held an Afghan Women Information Forum where they brought 270 women from all over Afghanistan to discuss the Peace Jirga and the Kabul Conference. The purpose of this gathering was to make sure that women from different parts of the country are aware of the important events affecting their lives and subsequently for them to put forward and listen to ideas, comments, and suggestions regarding women's political participation in these processes. As a result of this meeting as well as continuous advocacy and lobbying the number eventually increased from 175 (ten percent of the Jirga) to 336 (twenty one percent of the jirga) women are committed to participate.

Afghan Women's Network is organizing a large event called women convention just two days prior to the exact date of national peace consultative jirga on May 30, 2010. The purpose of this gathering is to bring 336 women from different part of the world to network them with each other as well as share all the activities carried out so far to update them so that every women is carrying same message and ideology. During this event, three women ministers in the cabinet of Afghanistan will come to welcome and announcement their support to the women ideas and presence as strong voices for the 50% of Afghanistan's population who are women. Certain developed documents such as Afghan women's network position paper and guideline will be shared with the women.

Afghan Women's Network has also focused on media advocacy for the national peace consultative jirga. Certain radio spots are developed and are broadcasting now in huge number of radio stations in Kabul and all 33 provinces since yesterdays. The aim of these radio spots are raising awareness of the local citizens in the country as well as talk about women's equal participation in peace negotiations and decision making events in the country. Following radio spots, certain number of publications such as posters and leaflets are also published. The posters will be posted throughout Kabul city for local public awareness. Leaflets carry important statements and documents such as Afghan women reaction to the London conference communiqué, Afghan Women's Network Position Paper for National Consultative Peace Jirga and Guideline for Afghan Women participants to the peace jirga. These leaflets beside distribution to the women participants will be circulated widely among the men jirga participants.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Afghan Women Reflection on Peace, Reconciliation and Reintegration Process

Reaction from Afghan women civil society leaders to the Communiqué of the London Conference on Afghanistan

January 29, 2010

As the Reconciliation and Reintegration Process takes priority in the negotiations within the Government of Afghanistan, the international donor community and other stakeholders, Afghan women stress "that no Peace is complete Peace without Women".

Afghan Women's Network (AWN), an advocacy platform of Afghan women and the largest umbrella organization of Afghan women NGOs in the country, organized several meetings with different representatives of women's groups before and after the London Conference to make sure women voices are reflected in London communiqué and follow up activities. The Reaction from Afghan women civil society leaders to the Communiqué of the London Conference on Afghanistan recommends monitoring of any process leading to 'Peace and Reconciliation and Reintegration' to ensure that women are not victims to a process that does not account for their perspectives and experiences of conflict in Afghanistan. The process shall a) include women as participants and organizers of the process, and b) ensure women's rights and achievement of the last nine years are not violated or compromised and are fully addressed as a national security concern in any Reconciliation and Reintegration Process.

On Security

• The Government of Afghanistan's commitment to continue development of a National Security Strategy must be consistent with UN Security Council resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889. A National Action Plan on Women peace and security should be integrated as a core element of the national security policy, and a quota of women's representation in all peace and security deliberations be established.

• Women should be consulted by and represented by the authorities developing the national Peace and Reintegration Programme. The proposed Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund to finance the Afghan-led Peace and Reintegration Programme should ensure that a proportion of the financial incentives to communities to support reintegration are used to support women's empowerment and development and the protection of their human rights through rigorous monitoring and redress.

More specifically this paper summarizes Afghan women's concerns and strategic requirements emphasizing the need for information sharing with and inclusion of women representatives in all phases and aspects of the National Peace and Reintegration Programme. The active participation of women will provide meaningful contributions to the process by sharing their unique experience of war, conflict and peace building and sharing their thoughts on constructive process of reintegration. Only in this way will the process result in a strategy where women's perspectives are reflected and women rights are protected leading to the creation of the shared goal of enduring and sustainable peace in the country.

A. Reintegration:

• Lesson Learned from past processes : The lesson learned from the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR, 2005) and Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG, 2003) can inform and shape the success of reintegration process. There is need for a consultative evaluation of these efforts with Afghan communities and experts to determine relevant lessons that can inform the new process of reintegration - particularly from a gender perspective.

• Reintegration as community support package: Reintegration should be in the form of family support packages that can be used as incentives benefiting the entire community, including women and children, .i.e. the creation of employment schemes, schooling for girl and boy children, vocational education. Reintegration incentive packages should include a clear set of objectives with specific indicators that can be used to evaluate if objectives are being met..

• Creating greater respect for women' rights and civil liberties : The reintegration process should include orientation/training on civil liberties and women's rights improvement in Afghanistan over the last nine years as part of a training and rehabilitation process to armed groups to equip them with the knowledge of rights and responsibilities of new citizenship under the current constitution. Special focus must be placed on the equal rights of men and women under Article 22 of the Constitution, the incentive to women to hold public positions of decision making in Article 83 of the Constitution, and the protection of women and girls from sexual and physical violence in the Elimination of Violence against Women Law.

• Family repatriation and settlement as part of reintegration

The reintegration process should comprehensively involve repatriation and resettlement of entire families--and not simply focus on single insurgents--to safe neighborhood communities. Family centrality to Afghan culture and women's centrality to family honor can help ensure the success of reintegration as well as safeguard the security protection of communities reintegrating the new groups. Above all, women and children affected by the conflict should directly benefit from peace settlement processes, and efforts should be made to monitor the process to ensure quality of life for women and children does not suffer by the reintegration of new elements.

- Reintegration and Nationality Registration : The reintegration process should be in coordination with other national development schemes, such as national statistical efforts, the election commission, and national identity registration to both integrate new elements of the population with larger development project as well as to clearly distinguish Afghan nationals from international terrorist groups.

Peace and Reconciliation:

- Justice : A comprehensive peace process needs to address the past crimes and healing of wounds created as result of violations of human rights during years of conflict. In order to make sure the reintegration process is based on justice and protection of vulnerable communities it is important that there is a national consensus of dealing with past crimes from three decades of war and ongoing impunity. The Tribune of the Kabul Peace Jirga (2-4May 2010) shall be a used as an effective platform to stimulate a comprehensive national debate on addressing past crimes (genocides, mass killings, widespread rape, etc.)) which should lead the Afghan government to a transitional justice process with clear directives, framework and strategic plan as part of the reintegration and peace development process.

- Consultative Peace Jirga (CPJ) : According to Afghan constitution, ANDS and reaffirmation of commitment in the London Communiqué women should not only be participants but also be organizers and decision makers of the CPJ.

- Representation : a. The female representation to CPJ should go beyond state institutions (11 out of 13 categories of representatives currently are from state institutions, where women continue to be underrepresented). Women leaders, nominated by Afghan women's groups, who can speak comprehensively of women's priorities should be included for representation.

b. The proposed number of women to be invited to the peace jirga is inadequate. Women should have 25% representation on all relevant bodies, including decision making bodies, in line with the constitutional right quota of reserved seats for elected office.

- Peace Agreement: Any peace agreement should include an explicit re-commitment to the full implementation of NAPWA to ensure the protection of women's rights and progress made in last nine years. In addition to The Afghan Constitution (2004) as an overall framework, there should be an elaboration of all basic rights and privileges afforded to women and girls over the last nine years-- education, work, travel and political representation should be clearly part of the agreement to avoid future ambiguity and misinterpretation of women's rights and duties as citizens of the country before the law.

-Laws and policies regarding women's rights: The Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) Law, National Action Plan for Women for the Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA) and other achievements regarding women's rights should be used as a guarantee of protection of women's rights in the legal framework in peace agreement. Concrete benchmarks and indicators must be developed to monitor implementation progress and to ensure

- Oversight by a Third Party: International parties and stakeholders supporting the peace process in Afghanistan shall provide oversight of and ensure the inclusion and integration of women's rights within any peace accords based on international standards, such as CEDAW and UN SCRs 1325 and 1820.

The women of Afghanistan have suffered much over the last three decades of violence, and they have a vested interest in bringing peace and stability to the country. Yet, sustainable peace is only possible with women's full contributions and participation, and their rights must be leveraged at every possible opportunity to ensure that security in Afghanistan is based on peace with justice for women, men, and children.

The representatives who sign below represent the women leaders of the country who, in consultation with their constituencies and under the leadership of AWN, endorse above all women's full, meaningful and effective participation of women in any and all peace processes for the future stability of Afghanistan.