More than 22,000 of you asked the UK government to support women's rights in Afghanistan | No Women No Peace

More than 22,000 of you asked the UK government to support women's rights in Afghanistan

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This past Monday we met with Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for Afghanistan, to present 22,000 signatures gathered through our joint petition with members of the No women, no peace. campaign, including Oxfam (Channel 16), Women for Women International UK, Amnesty International UK, Womankind Worldwide, and CARE International UK.

The meeting was attended by International Violence Against Women Champion Lynne Featherstone MP and representatives from our member organisations. We presented all of your signatures and discussed the issues highlighted in the petition, including the need for women's participation and the need for women's rights to be respected in any agreement on the future of Afghanistan. The meeting took place just ahead of the international conference that will be held in Bonn, Germany on December 5th on the future of Afghanistan.

Afghan women are standing up to be heard and cannot be abandoned at this crucial time. Activists in the UK and internationally have raised their voices to ensure that their governments champion women's rights in Afghanistan, including the recommendations of the Afghan Women's Network.

The Afghan Women’s Network, a network of women and women’s NGOs working to empower Afghan women and ensure their equal participation in Afghan society, is asking the international community to: 

1. Use their influence to ensure women have an effective voice and role in all levels of the peace process: at the national, provincial and district levels. 
2. Work with the Afghan government to ensure that all the human rights in the constitution are upheld in any peace settlement. These include women's right to an education and the right to participate in political life with a guaranteed 30% female quota in parliament. 
3. Increase support to development programmes that promote women's rights and wellbeing in political, social and economic spheres.

Positive change is possible, and the Afghan government is showing that diligent advocacy by Afghan women and international activists is working. Afghan President Karzai announced that 32% of the official Afghan delegation to the Bonn conference will be women, a huge step up from the 1 woman that was invited to the 2010 Kabul conference as a civil society representative. While this does not immediately mean change for women, it is a positive move towards including the issues that affect women.

You have asked your government to champion the rights of Afghan women at Bonn and going forward. Minister Burt stated his support for the women of Afghanistan, saying:

"Women have an important role to play in the development of a stable and prosperous Afghanistan. While women continue to face enormous challenges in their daily lives, I am encouraged by signs of progress and welcome their involvement, alongside wider civil society, at the Bonn Conference.  The UK Government is working to support the empowerment of women in Afghanistan and will continue to do so after our combat troops leave at the end of 2014."

Read the full blog post about the meeting on the Foreign Office website.

We hope this means that the UK will act as a high level champion of women's rights at Bonn, taking  on the recommendations of the Afghan Women's Network. The Foreign Minister will be representing the UK at the international conference and Lynne Featherstone MP will be representing the UK at the civil society conference.

We will be reporting back on developments at the conference next week and the civil society conference that will come beforehand. Be sure to check back on our blog or follow us on Twitter (follow the hash tags #Bonn2 and #Afghanwomen) for the most up to date news from Bonn.

 

Image credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Image caption: Members of Gender Action for Peace and Security meet with Minister Alistair Burt and Minister Lynne Featherstone to present signatures from petition in support of women's rights in Afghanistan.

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added by Shelagh Daley 30.11.11