AFGHANISTAN: Rights, Gender Equality High on Donors’ List

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Dec 9 1998 (IPS) - The protection of human rights and giving women access to education, health care and work will be the priority areas that donors to Afghanistan will push in the coming year.

This consensus was reached among 15 donor governments and international organisations helping refugees in Afghanistan, at the fourth meeting of the Afghanistan Support Group here. The two- day closed-door discussions ended Tuesday.

Aid to Afghanistan must be addressed on a principled rights- based approach for all U.N. activities whether political, humanitarian or developmental, the donor groups said.

“There must be no discrimination,” Narika Fahnen, Swedish ambassador for humanitarian affairs, explained. Sweden will host the 5th donors’ meeting in June 1999.

Among the donors represented at this week’s meeting were the governments of Britain, Russia, Italy and the United States, and agencies, and United Nations organisations and non-governmental organisations working with refugees.

The humanitarian needs of conflict-ridden Afghanistan remain great, but officials say it is equally important for the donor and humanitarian community to stress the value they put on gender equality in the country under the ruling Islamist Taliban group.

The Taliban’s discriminatory policies against women has already led to the scaling back of suspension of various aid programmes.

Continued civil war between the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance has not helped the humanitarian situation in the country, even as the Taliban has cracked down on non-government organisations this year.

In a nine-point summary released after the Tokyo meeting, the donors said they were “gravely concerned” about the human rights situation in Afghanistan, particularly the recent killings of civilians and the pervasive structural discrimination against women and girls.

The group also endorsed a United Nations suggestion to establish a gender adviser. Proposals were also made by the World Bank to extend a grant to Afghan womens’ NGOs based in Pakistan.

Likewise, there was a call for the development of a human rights operational plan for Afghanistan under the United Nations by the end of February 1999. It aims to develop a relationship with the Taliban leadership based on principles but also on mutual trust.

The programme will monitor the level of cooperation of local authorities on human rights and gender.

The donors’ group also called upon the Taliban and warring groups to ensure security for international aid workers, in the light of concern about their safety and the reduction by the United Nations of assistance to only “life-saving assistance” such as food, drinking water and relief supplies.

In July, several NGO workers were found hanged while the Taliban expelled several NGOs from the capital Kabul and required them to relocate to one building there.

Focusing on the need for better security for international relief personnel working in Afghanistan, the donors called on the Taliban to respect international standards.

The meeting’s summary also contained a pledge to help restore the war-torn economy and end fighting through a peace conference.

“We cannot be optimistic about improving the political and social conditions in the country because prospects for peace remain depressingly remote,” Japanese host Nobutaka Machimura, state secretary of foreign affairs, concluded Tuesday. “But the international community has not lost hope.”

For its part, Japan pledged a fund of 3.5 million U.S. dollars to assist refugees in Afghanistan. Of this, 1.5 million dollars will be provided to NGOs assisting refugees in and around Afghanistan, while 1 million dollars will be offered to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The United Nations has estimated that a total of 188 million dollars is required to maintain the ongoing humanitarian assistance programme to Afghanistan. More than 2.6 million Afghan refugees still live in exile.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the meeting that only 75 million dollars has been made available to mostly multilateral programmes of various agencies. There is an urgent need for more funds as Afghanistan enters another grueling winter, he added.

Japan, in keeping with its foreign policy that aims to pursue peace in Asia, reiterated an earlier offer to hosting a peace conference for Afghan warring parties.

Machimura says that Japan has learnt from its experience in Cambodia the importance of urging the parties in conflict repeatedly, and with patience to engage, in the process of building peace. “The war in Afghanistan is another tragedy in Asia,” he said.

“Japan hopes that peace will be restored and a peaceful and healthy environment is restored so that women and children can have the opportunity to be educated,” he added.

Improving the plight and women will not be easy. Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality in the world, at 1,700 deaths for every 100,000 live births in 1997. The World Health Organisation attributes this to inadequate health facilities and the poor status of women and increased illiteracy.

Neighbouring countries Pakistan and Iran were not represented at the Tokyo meeting, to stress its humanitarian focus. Machimura said Japan was keen that the meeting not be bogged down on political issues but focus on the problems of ordinary people.

The meeting condemned the deaths of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan — which led to troop build-ups by Iran on its border with Afghanistan a few months ago — but did not release a separate statement.

It also discussed the need to find alternative crops to poppy in order to rein in Afghanistan’s booming narcotics production.