Bonn and Beyond: Afghan Women at the Peace Table | No Women No Peace

Bonn and Beyond: Afghan Women at the Peace Table

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Thank you to all of you who signed our joint petition in support of the rights of Afghan women. Now that the petition has closed, we can announce that we gathered over 20,000 signatures (!!) between our members running the petition, our supporters holding events and all the word spreading that you have done! We are thrilled with the result and presented our petition to the government at a meeting this week. For more details on the meeting we had at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, click here.

On December 5th, a conference will take place in Bonn, Germany with delegates from over 90 states and organisations to discuss the future of Afghanistan. Foreign Secretary William Hague will be representing the UK at the conference. Your signatures have told him that the UK public expects him to support the rights of Afghan women at Bonn and going forward.

The basic asks being made by Afghan women's rights activists are simple: women should be included and women's rights should be respected. What does this mean in practice? Well, for example, Afghan women should form at least 30% of the participants at peace talks at the international, national and community levels. The official Afghan delegation to Bonn has recently been announced as having 13 women out of a delegation of 40. That is 32.5% Afghan women, a step which hopefully translates into real respect for women's rights in negotiations at Bonn.

Learn more about what women's rights activists are asking for by reading the Afghan Women's Network's paper on Bonn, along with ActionAid UK's recent policy briefing on the conference.

Women's rights activists in Afghanistan are risking their lives to stand up for their rights and our government needs to demonstrate that it is sticking to its promises to support them. Write a letter to your MP asking them to champion this issue and ask William Hague to ensure that women's rights are respected at Bonn. 

More updates on Bonn and other developments on women's rights in Afghanistan are to come.

Image credit: Women for Women International UK

 

 

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added by Shelagh Daley 28.11.11