Tag Archives: afghanistan

U.S. Releases Its First-Ever Strategy to End Violence Against Women Globally

August 13, 2012 at 1:39 PM
survivors of sexual violence in colombia

Survivors of sexual violence unite in Bogotá, Colombia.  1 in 3 women will be victim of violence worldwide. (Photo Corporación Sisma Mujer)

The U.S. government has just released its much anticipated global strategy to prevent and address gender-based violence. The strategy, and accompanying Executive Order, will help ensure that the United States effectively prevents and responds to gender-based violence globally.

This new strategy for the first time puts the full weight of U.S. foreign policy and international assistance behind efforts to end this global human rights violation.

Why is this strategy needed?  Because an estimated one in three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. In countries from Nicaragua to Afghanistan to the United States, violence against women is global epidemic.

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Congress Introduces Legislation to Bring Women to the Peacemaking Table

August 2, 2012 at 4:09 PM
Women Call for Peace in Congo

Congolese women demonstrate for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo on August 1, 2012. (PHIL MOORE/AFP/GettyImages)

Peace is hard to come by. And a peace that is robust and lasting is all the more difficult to secure when a major stakeholder is left out of the peace process: Women.

Today, the US Congress took a big step in recognizing the critical role that women all over the world play in the prevention and resolution of violent conflicts through the introduction of the Women, Peace and Security Act (WPS) of 2012 (H.R 6255, S.3477).
Thanks to the bipartisan leadership of Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO) and Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), the WPS Act will ensure that the US promotes the meaningful inclusion and participation of women in all peace processes that seek to prevent, alleviate, or resolve violent conflict. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Disturbing Video Reported to Show Taliban Execution of Afghan Woman

July 9, 2012 at 3:48 PM

An appalling video has surfaced that shows what news reports have said is the execution of an Afghan woman in Parwan province by Taliban commanders for alleged adultery.  The video shows a woman who has been identified as a 22 year old woman named Najiba, sitting in the dirt as a man walks up behind her and shoots her multiple times.

In the video, a crowd of men has gathered to watch the execution.  As the woman is shot once, then three times, and then eventually nine times, the crowd cheers.

Amnesty International is seeking further information about the facts of the case but multiple news sources have reported that the woman was accused of adultery by two Taliban commanders who staged a fake trial and may have used the charge as a way to “save face” as they fought about the woman.

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Congress Takes Step to End Violence Against Women Globally

June 7, 2012 at 2:15 PM
violence against women rally in peru

Protesting violence against women in Lima, Peru on April 28, 2012. (Photo Geraldo Caso/AFP/GettyImages)

Today, Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Nita Lowey, and Howard Berman, re-introduced the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), a bill that will help end the epidemic of violence against women and girls around the world.

Amnesty has long supported this crucial piece of legislation that would make ending violence against women a diplomatic and foreign assistance priority for the U.S. Government. IVAWA would coordinate and improve U.S. government efforts to stop the global crisis of violence against women and girls.

For example, when the US responds to humanitarian crises, IVAWA will ensure the US addresses the needs of women and girls who are vulnerable to attacks in camps for refugees and internally displaced people.  The bill also provides support to and help builds the effectiveness of non-governmental and community-based organizations working to end violence against women and girls globally.

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We Get It

May 19, 2012 at 12:57 PM
amnesty bus shelter afghan women

Amnesty Ad in Chicago

As the NATO summit gets underway tomorrow in Chicago, Amnesty International USA will host a “Shadow Summit”with leading Afghan women’s rights activists to remind NATO of the conversation it should be having on Afghan women’s human rights.

The shadow summit poster, which features the words “Human Rights for Women and Girls in Afghanistan” and “NATO: Keep the Progress Going!” has generated some controversy over the last few days.  You can guess which sentence triggered the controversy.

Some are asking, is Amnesty now a cheerleader for NATO?  Does Amnesty support the war?  What was Amnesty thinking?!

The shadow summit — and the poster — is directed at NATO, not to praise it, but to remind the leaders who will be discussing Afghanistan’s future this weekend about what is really at stake if women’s rights to security, political participation and justice are traded away or compromised.

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Afghan Women to NATO: Don’t Bargain Our Rights Away

May 15, 2012 at 1:30 PM
afghan women at school

Afghan teacher Meher Afroza with her students at an Islamic school in Kabul. Under the Taliban, few girls attended school. Today 3 million girls go to school, and 20 percent of university of graduates are women. (Photo: ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)

World leaders, dignitaries and reporters will convene in Chicago next week for the 2012 NATO summit, and among the urgent questions they will consider is that of Afghanistan’s future after the 2014 withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops.

Yet Afghanistan’s female leaders were denied a place at the table for these critical discussions—despite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s promise that the United States would not forsake the rights of Afghan women.

Indeed, recent developments signal that the significant but tenuous gains Afghan women have made over the past decade are mere bargaining chips in negotiations between U.S., Afghan and Taliban leaders seeking to expedite the transition to Afghan rule. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has proposed a program of “reintegration and reconciliation” with the Taliban that holds grim implications for women and girls, and in March he briefly endorsed an edict issued by a council of clerics that would allow husbands to beat their wives in certain situations and encourage gender segregation in workplaces and schools.

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Is the US Abandoning Afghan Women?

May 3, 2012 at 12:11 PM
afghan women protest

Afghan Young Women for Change (YWC) activists, holding placards which read "where is justice?", take part in a protest denouncing violence against women in Afghanistan in Kabul on April 14, 2012.

President Obama made an announced visit to Afghanistan on May 1 to sign an agreement intended to lead to a pullback of US troops from Afghanistan by 2014. The document is very specific on issues around the arrangements related to security and interestingly, trade and commerce but inadequate when talk to turns to human rights in general and specifically women’s rights.

Amnesty will continue to urge the US government to implement an action plan to protect and promote women’s rights in Afghanistan as they pull back from the country.

Women in Afghanistan, however, aren’t waiting around for vague assurances by the US and Afghan governments. They are taking matters into their own hands and demanding justice for the victims of past human rights violations and the promotion of human rights for all in their country.

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Punishing "Moral Crimes" in Afghanistan

April 16, 2012 at 1:23 PM
afghan women protest

Afghan Young Women for Change (YWC) activists, holding placards which read "where is justice?", take part in a protest denouncing violence against women in Afghanistan in Kabul on April 14, 2012.

Despite enormous improvements to women’s livelihoods in the decade since the fall of the Taliban, much action is needed by the Afghan government and the international community.

For example, women in Afghanistan face some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, more than half of all girls in the country do not attend school, and many women are forced into marriage shortly after puberty.

To make matter worse, women can face the prospect of being jailed for reporting violence perpetrated against them as reported in Human Rights Watch’s new report, detailing the detention of 400 women and girls imprisoned in the country for “moral crimes”.

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US: Don’t Abandon Afghan Women

March 8, 2012 at 1:21 PM

“We will not abandon you, we will stand with you always . . . [it is] essential that women’s rights and women’s opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled in the reconciliation process.” -U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton speaking to female Afghan officials in 2010

President Obama and Secretary Clinton’s legacy on women’s human rights will face a defining moment with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

When the U.S. and NATO entered Afghanistan in 2001, one of the justifications of the mission was to ensure the protection of human rights, including women’s rights. More than ten years later, peace talks between the Taliban, the Afghan government and the U.S. jeopardize women’s human rights.

So where is the Obama Administration’s plan to protect and advance human rights in Afghanistan?

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Attack on Afghan Minority Group Leaves Over 60 Dead

December 8, 2011 at 11:35 AM

Suicide bombers struck Shiite (mostly Hazara) pilgrims on December 6, killing over 60 people in Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif during holy holiday of Ashura. I was moved by a photo of a woman crying out in horror at the carnage around her. It was also a cry of helplessness and a cry of sorrow. I couldn’t help but feeling that sense of helplessness and sorrow.

The attack seemed timed to coincide with the Bonn Conference on the future of Afghanistan 10 years after the first conference held in the same city. Amnesty International has a delegation in the city monitoring the conference. We have been arguing that human rights must not be sacrificed as the US winds down its security presence in the country. This bombing is an example of need for the international community to maintain its commitment to protect human rights in Afghanistan.

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