FEFA's political rights advocacy meeting
Following its activities for strengthening political participation of Women, FEFA’s Women and Youth section, discussed on controversial issue of the peace process, especially consideration of priorities, peace agreements, the role and participation of women in peace process at the beginning of 2019. FEFA's Advocacy Group has been conducted meetings on 9 and 24th July, 2019 with the participation of 16 members of the group that is comprised of 11 representatives of political parties, one representative from the Wolesi Jirga, one representative from the Independent Election Commission and one representative from the High Peace Council, and three representatives from civil society organizations. The aforementioned meeting was aimed at discussing the priorities, expectations, and the role of women in the peace negotiating teams, consideration of priorities, Dos and Don’ts and the importance of meaningful participation of women in the peace process, the key challenges and basic lines of peace for women, volunteer actions and activities / advocacy Plan for success / achievements) have been discussed within a” one hour meeting”. Initially, FEFA member outlined the following points to the participants about the delay in work of this section during the gap between the sessions of the group. Organizing awareness-raising campaigns: By launching awareness-raising programs in relation to the election, we are in the effort to raise awareness of eligible school students for voting. These programs were conducted in schools at the level of Kabul and four other the city of country. Since the presidential election is coming up ahead, and on the other hand, as youth are the intellectual capital of a country, so the role and participation of youth in all social areas is essential and fundamental, the political insight and political participation of youth are necessary and crucial in political processes.
FEFA
• Political parties • Representative of Wolesi Jirga • Independent Election Commission • High Peace Council • Civil society organizations
FEFA held a meeting on political participation of women
Given this principle, this section has launched the Youth and Election Program to raise awareness regarding the political processes. The main focus of this awareness is to raise the level of youth's participation in political processes, especially the election as voter, candidate observers and volunteer. Therefore, by launching such a program, FEFA strives to involve the youth in the most important issues of the country, and, on the other hand, help youth to be more aware of their importance and mission/obligations towards the electoral process and have a wider participation in democratic processes. - Meetings with the new commissioners of the Independent Election Commission; - Collaborating on Women's Policy with the Ministry of Women's Affairs; She further added that the purpose of the creation of women and youth political Rights youth advocacy group is, to time to time, and in accordance with the needs of the community, work on proposals and partner it with the relevant authorities. To this end, because recently the issue of peace and reintegration of Taliban with the government is a hot topic for the media, the group deems itself responsible to share its views, concerns and suggestions, and discuss (the improvement of the peace process and the role of the youth in this process with the members of the group and discuss the draft plan that contains the role of youth in peace negotiating teams, consideration of priorities, Dos and Don’ts and the importance of meaningful participation of youth in the peace process, the key challenges and basic lines of peace for youth, actions and activities / advocacy Plan for success / achievements) and the aforementioned proposal will be shared with relevant authorities. She added that fortunately the interest of the international community, the government and the Taliban, towards, the peace process have increased and it is expected that the parties will come to an agreement at the end of these negotiations. So it’s time for the women, to know their mission and their responsibilities and their role in the field. The women's expectations of the process, how was the role and presence of women, the role of the High Peace Council, how the list of women who participated in Doha was prepared, and eventually drawing red lines for women, have been of the issues discussed and debated at this meeting. The facilitator added that, as the text of the recent agreement is not satisfactory in any way, and if the provisions of this agreement is implemented, we will lose our sixteen-year achievements. For example, one of the articles is the separation of female and male educational establishments, which limits the educational environment to youth and, on the other hand, unfortunately we do not have the female cadre at the level of the country to individually start teaching. Ms. Soria Bahadur, a participant expressed the following: The Taliban have always claimed that their war is with the United States, not the Afghan government, because the Afghan government is part of American administration. The United States wants the Taliban to initially negotiate with the Afghan government, but the Taliban are not ready to do so. She added that the Taliban were a project, and today the Taliban are different from the Taliban yesterday, and they do not want to change the regime, but they simply want to eliminate certain people out of the system. And the other issue of the group is calling for the establishment of an interim government to regulate how to modify the constitution, how to integrate the Taliban with the government, and ultimately to set up an election that the Taliban can also participate in. But the concerns of Ms. Bahadur was that after the peace talks with Taliban, it will be the IS group seeking to have share in power. Ms. Shakira Parwani, another participant believed that the Taliban wanted to wipe out the young generation of the country, and every day they launch their attacks on the country's army. On the other hand she criticized the list of women who participated in Doha summit saying that in this summit women who have suffered should be attending , not those who are better off speaking in English. Another participant, Ms. Wazhma Ghani, said that the Taliban wanted to change the system of government to so called Islamic system, and not that real and authentic Islamic system, but the customized system created by the group, added that Afghan women have fortunately strived and put efforts over the past eighteen years, and have had significant achievements in the area of their basic rights, she recalled the law on prohibition of violence against women, anti-harassment law and other decrees and regulations passed in favor of women, and emphasized that Afghan women would , in no way give them up. She added that as the Taliban group, the Afghan government and -America is a triangle with three sides, the Taliban must negotiate with the Afghan government, so why do they negotiate with the United States while calling for a change in the Afghan government system. Another member of the group, Ms. Adela Noori, believed that: My expectations as a woman who have to the membership of a political party w in case of peace with the Taliban (securing educational institutions, securing public/common wealth institutions, agreeing to protection of security of life and the property of Afghans, the right to education, the right to work, freedom of speech, the preservation of the 18-year-olds struggles and achievements, and the right to have access to information, and the provisions of the constitution that is regarding equality to men and women) should be considered as red lines. At the end of the day, the participants had Consensus that they were not satisfied with the formation of the delegation sent to Doha because no one had been consulted with, and this list was custom-made. Other members of the group suggested that, during the next session, a religious scholar should be invited from both the Islamic jurisprudence and the Shari'ah to illuminate the members of the group regarding the rights of women, in order to provide a technical description of the proposal of the group. And associate with its relevant authorities as sooner as possible.
7/24/2019
16
1 Day
Kabul
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