Human+Rights

HUMAN RIGHTS http://www.humanrights.gov.au/bth/
 * An excellent link **


 * A recent article:**

=Pressure on Karzai to drop sexist law = April 2, 2009 The President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has come under intense pressure to scrap a new law that the United Nations said legalised rape within marriage and severely limited the rights of women. At a conference on Afghanistan in The Hague on Tuesday, Scandinavian foreign ministers challenged him to respond to questions raised over the law.
 * Julian Borger in The Hague **

The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was reported to have confronted Mr Karzai on the issue in a private meeting. Western officials at the summit also heralded a new era in relations with Iran, after Iran made an offer to help US-led efforts in Afghanistan and US officials met Iranian officials for the first time. At a news conference after the meeting, Mrs Clinton made clear US displeasure at Afghanistan's apparent backsliding on women's rights.

"This is an area of absolute concern for the United States. My message is very clear. Women's rights are a central part of the foreign policy of the Obama Administration," she said. Mr Karzai signed the law last month. Although the text has not been published, the UN, human rights activists and some Afghan MPs said it included clauses stipulating that women cannot refuse to have sex with their husbands and can only seek work, education or visit the doctor with their husbands' permission.

International aid officials say the law violates UN conventions and the Afghan constitution. It is widely seen as a political ploy by Mr Karzai to win support from conservative Muslims in presidential elections to be held in August.

Mark Malloch Brown, a British Foreign Office minister, expressed dismay over the law's effect on women's rights. "We are caught in the Catch-22 that the Afghans obviously have the right to write their own laws," he said.

"But there is dismay. The rights of women was one of the reasons the UK and many in the West threw ourselves into the struggle in Afghanistan. It matters greatly to us" At The Hague conference, instigated at Washington's request to rally international support for President Barack Obama's new Afghanistan strategy, Finland's Foreign Minister, Alexander Stubb, called on the Karzai Government to respond to criticism of the laws. Iceland echoed the call, and Norway also expressed concern over the trend in women's rights. The summit was also an occasion for US and Iranian officials to meet for the first time since Mr Obama came to office.

Diplomats said a possible turning point may have been reached between the US and the country it labelled part of the axis of evil seven years ago. Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, had an informal meeting with the Iranian delegate, the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mohammad Mehdi Akhundzadeh. Mrs Clinton later described the exchange as "unplanned but cordial", adding that they had agreed to "stay in touch".

Mr Akhundzadeh told ministers from more than 70 countries at the meeting that Tehran welcomed "the proposals for joint co-operation offered by the countries contributing to Afghanistan". He said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran is fully prepared to participate in the projects aimed at combating drug trafficking and plans in line with developing and reconstructing Afghanistan." He repeated Tehran's criticism of the NATO role in Afghanistan, but used relatively moderate language, saying: "The presence of foreign forces has not improved things, and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective, too." []