Afghanistan

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

My hon. Friend is right to ask that question. It underlines the importance of building up the Afghans’ capability to look after their own security and to develop their own economy—that is the only sure answer to the excessive interference by, or influence of, any other power in the region. It also shows the importance of supporting an Afghan-led peace process with the active co-operation of Pakistan. That is the best hope of bringing about a political settlement and a general peace in Afghanistan that would also then minimise outside interference in Afghan affairs. So those are two central planks of what the Government are trying to do.

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

Yesterday, I met two female Afghan MPs. One had narrowly avoided being killed by a suicide bomber, and the other had been evacuated from her constituency by the UN and ISAF after having the temerity to celebrate international women’s day. Does the Foreign Secretary accept that not all Afghan women are victims, that those are exactly the kind of women we need to work with to ensure that the gains in women’s rights are not lost post-2014, and that an important way to do that is to implement the EU guidelines on human rights defenders in Afghanistan?

[Mr Hague]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Afghan Government made a series of public commitments at the Tokyo conference in July to uphold the human rights of all Afghan citizens. That includes women, of course, and the promotion and protection of their rights as enshrined in the Afghan constitution. It is vital not only that human rights are upheld, but that human rights defenders are defended and protected, and that the Afghan Government fully implement their commitments on the law on the elimination of violence against women and the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. We will try to hold them to all those things.