However, Building Women's Leadership in Afghanistan
Convened by UNIFEM and the Government of Belgium
Brussels, 10 - 11 December 2001

Afghan women have been convening in numerous venues in the past two months to discuss and analyse how peace building and reconstruction in Afghanistan can take women's talents, skills, contributions and rights into account.

Through a series of discussions, panels and workshops including the UNDP/World Bank and ADB Meeting in Islamabad, the United Nations Conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, the Civil Society Meeting in Bonn, the Afghan Women's Summit for Democracy in Brussels, Afghan women have been setting out their expectations for future government, the international community, of each other and of themselves.

UNIFEM and the Government of Belgium convened a roundtable on Building Women's Leadership in Afghanistan in Brussels 10 - 11 December 2001. The roundtable brought together a diversity of Afghan women from different backgrounds and political beliefs, from within and outside Afghanistan to engage in a dialogue with major donors, UN agencies and the World Bank on Afghan women's participation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Recognising the present opportunity to put in place mechanisms for supporting Afghan women's leadership in shaping the future of their country, Afghan women attending the Roundtable called for immediate and concrete action to ensure women's participation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The Brussels Action Plan makes specific recommendations to the international community, United Nations bodies and the Interim Administration of Afghanistan. It calls for security guarantees, without which women's participation in political and socio-economic development cannot be ensured.

Afghan women underscored the need for tolerance and freedom to be principles guiding the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Recognising, historically, the situation of women in Afghanistan, and taking gender issues into account, the following Action Plan identifies immediate priorities for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

We, the Afghan Women present at this Meeting, have determined the following priorities for Afghanistan and request support from the international community, donors, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and key players in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan to assist us in implementing them:

Assess the Situation of Women and Gender Issues in Afghanistan

- Conduct a situation analysis and needs assessment of women and gender issues, building on the 1989/1990 Reconstruction Plan for Afghanistan

Guarantee Women's Protection and Security

- Consistent with Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security deploy a United Nations Peacekeeping Force with a robust mandate to protect civilians with special attention to the security and protection of women.

- Enhance and accelerate gender-sensitive mine action to the Afghan community inside and outside Afghanistan, with a special emphasis on mine clearance, mine awareness, assistance and rehabilitation.

- Establish an International Human Rights Commission for Afghanistan to monitor the human rights situation of women in Afghanistan as well as in refugee camps in neighboring countries. The Commission will monitor and report on compliance with the Bonn Agreement of 5 December.

- Recognize the moral responsibility of the international community in the 23 years of armed conflict in Afghanistan and establish national/international trials to bring to justice those who have committed serious war crimes and crimes against humanity, including gender based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual violence.

- In planning for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, consider the different needs of female and male ex-combatants and take into account the needs of their dependents, including through long-term training, education and economic employment opportunities.

- Prevent the trafficking of women and girls; provide assistance and remedies to survivors of these and other related violations.

Support Women's Leadership and Governance

- Ensure women's equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security in Afghanistan and increase their role in decision making in the negotiation and implementation of the peace process

- Support local women's peace initiatives and indigenous processes for conflict resolution.

- Building on Afghanistan's 1964 Constitution, adopt measures to ensure the protection of and respect for human rights of women and girls, particularly as they relate to the constitution, the electoral system, the police and the judiciary.

- Establish a timeline for the full implementation of the constitution throughout Afghanistan and initiate an inclusive process for re-establishing the Afghan legal justice system that supports women's access to justice

- Ensure that women's participation in the interim/provisional and permanent governance structures is proportional to the population.

- Fund and establish a Commission of Afghan women, which will provide names of Afghan women around the world to the interim/provisional government, to ensure women's participation in all aspects of governance. The interim/provisional government of Afghanistan must recognize this commission officially. This process also includes the creation of means of access to and communication with Afghan women in all parts of Afghanistan (vehicles, computers, telephones etc).

- Create and implement educational awareness programmes for women's rights.

- Adopt a system-wide policy among international actors and UN agencies and NGOs, to ensure that Afghan women be appointed to senior positions, including leadership and advisory roles.

- Establish a UNIFEM Fund for Afghan Women in order to support and promote capacity building for women leadership.

Ensure Women's Food Security

- Ensure food security for women by involving women in the design and distribution of food and water programmes, including women and their families in the rural areas and in camp situations.

Support Women's Health

- Provide urgently needed medical equipment and medicines to Afghanistan.

- Provide immediate support for women's psychosocial health care, disability, emergency and reproductive health needs, including those related to HIV/AIDs.

- Provide refresher and new courses at village and neighborhood level to train women in health services, including health-education, child-delivery and mother-child health-care.

- Provide scholarships and specialist training for women physicians in the field of gynecology, internal disease and surgery.

Support Education for Women and Girls

- Provide massive and immediate teacher training courses to ensure the reopening of schools on 22 March 2002.

- Prioritize the rebuilding of girls' schools and build new schools equipped with all necessary supplies, tools and material, including provision of school feeding.

- Revise existing primary, secondary and high schools textbooks from a gender-perspective and ensure the printing and distribution of primary, secondary and high school textbooks.

- Provide scholarships and support to university departments of Islamic studies to promote progressive and enlightened Islam teachings.

- Support scholarships and education in foreign languages in order to enable Afghan women to use their existing skills more effectively in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

- Provide computer equipment, national and international network facilities, as well as advanced relevant training for women.

- Provide kindergartens, playgrounds and mother-child-care centers to enable mothers to take up and enjoy employment opportunities.

Support an Independent Media and Confidence Building Measures

- Re-establish the media infrastructure, including repair of technical facilities and equipment, including printing press, as well training of women media professionals in all related fields.

- Establish a women radio-station for national and international broadcasting to convey peace messages, human rights awareness, gender issues and information on reconstruction, rehabilitation and political developments, as well as cultural and religious awareness raising programmes for children, youth and families.

- Support the transfer of archives and libraries created by Afghans abroad to Afghanistan, including the establishment of a national library and archive to preserve the research and data (which will facilitate the research capacity within the country).

Strengthen Women's Community Based Organizations

- Conduct a survey to identify the problems and solutions to women and girls, who have been forced into prostitution and trafficking as a result of war, poverty and an oppressive regime.

- Assist community-based women's organizations by identifying their weaknesses and responding with adequate support to strengthen them.

- Provide vocational skills training in management and leadership for women and young girls at the Community Based Organization, Non-Governmental Organization level and government departments.

- Provide vocational skills training relevant to women activities, including entrepreneurship and loan-programmes, economic opportunities, marketing, child rearing (e.g. enhance mothers ability to provide adequate support to disabled children).

- Identify the needs of the Afghan family unit, including women, men and children.

- Establish a Coalition of Afghan Women to ensure interaction and coordination of all humanitarian and development activities carried out by Afghan women inside and outside Afghanistan.

- Provide housing for widows and female-headed families and disabled women.

- Formulate a national policy of action to meet the special needs of women rendered vulnerable by the conflict for various reasons (e.g. victims of war, disabled, single mothers).

Guarantee Safe Repatriation and Return

- Ensure that repatriation of refugees to Afghanistan is voluntary and based on conditions conducive to return.

- Ensure the protection and safety of women refugees and internally displaced persons.

- Provide and continue the existing resettlement programme for those who are unwilling to return to Afghanistan.

- Increase Resources for Afghan Women's Leadership in Peace building and Reconstruction

- Establish a multi-donor gender consortium that will support a country-led strategy for integrating women into all aspects of nation building on a sustainable basis. This committee must be co-chaired by an Afghan woman.

- Ensure the transfer of best practices from international experience on the integration of women into development processes and monitoring of donor programmes to ensure full mainstreaming of gender issues and the provision of women's specific programmes.

- Ensure that the budget allocation for the recovery and development of Afghanistan is gender-sensitive.

- Condition international funding for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan on the restoration of women's human rights.

Request UNIFEM to follow up on the Brussels Plan of Action, formulated by the Afghan women at the roundtable in Brussels.

Gen. Mohammed Qasim Faizi, a prosecutor at the nascent Justice Ministry, said that the number of women who have disappeared runs at least into the hundreds.

"Just from the families of our ministry, they have taken 10 people," Faizi said. The Taliban also seized an unknown number from a women's prison they operated in Kabul, officials said.

"My office has received about 70 or 80 cases" from Kabul and its environs, said Gen. Din Mohammed Jurat, the newly installed director of public safety.

"With the cooperation of the girls' families, we have recovered about 20 of them" and arrested a number of Taliban and foreign militants who failed to flee Kabul before the Northern Alliance's arrival, he said. Other women appear to have been taken to Taliban-controlled areas in the south, he said.