Human rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) releases appalling briefing paper

medica mondiale suggests: "Instead of football players, take along women's rights activists to Afghanistan."

Cologne/Germany, May 10, 2002. "It is terrifying to learn about the atrocities against women in Afghanistan. The HRW-briefing paper once more proves that acts of violence against women form part of any crisis. The international community has to considerably intensify their efforts to protect and promote Afghanistan's women," demanded a spokeswoman of the German women's relief organisation medica mondiale, commenting a study issued by the American organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The briefing paper released yesterday [May 9, 2002] states: "Sexual violence and harassment related to repressive Taliban-era edicts continue to restrict women in their movement, expression and dress. Women can only participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan if they can be physically safe. The international community must act now to end violence against women."

The HRW-briefing paper documents cases of attacks and threats against women that include many cases of gang-rape and other acts of sexual violence.

The human rights organisation calls on the Afghanistan Interim Administration to take all possible steps to protect women from sexual violence and other gender-specific violence. In addition, Human Rights Watch demands to bring perpetrators to justice. To achieve these aims, HRW recommends that all Afghanistan laws that discriminate against women and are inconsistent with customary international law and international treaties should be repealed.

medica mondiale appreciates the demands postulated by Human Rights Watch and emphasises the call for action. A medica mondiale spokeswoman said:
"It is high time to put into practice the promises made by the international community. The international community's pressure on Hamid Karzai and the other members of the Interim Administration is almost imperceptible. Our colleague in Kabul reports that every single effort to help women to gain more rights is extremely toilsome and dangerous, both for women in Afghanistan and the local staff. For the next state visit, we would very much appreciate a clear sign to be set in favour of the women's concerns. Why not, for example, take along a women's rights activist as companion of a member of government - instead of a football player?"

medica mondiale is building up - among other things - a safe house for widows and single women in Kabul, in cooperation with "Shuhada", an organisation founded by Dr. Sima Samar, Afghanistan's Minister of Women's Affairs.

The HRW-briefing paper is available under
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/wrd/afghan-women-2k2.htm