Afghanistan: Women’s Rights

Baroness Warsi Excerpts

Monday 2nd December 2013 Grand Committee

[The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi) (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Hodgson for highlighting this important issue. This is a timely debate. Along with her, I had the privilege this morning of addressing the Afghan Deputy Minister for Women’s Affairs, Fawzia Habibi, and her fellow parliamentarians Shukria Barakzai, Dr Nilofar Ibrahimi and Raihana Azad at the Chatham House event on the status of Afghan women post-2014.

I share my noble friend’s deep concern—echoed, I know, by everyone who has spoken in this debate today—that the considerable progress that women have made over the past decade in Afghanistan may be eroded and some gains may be lost. The protection and promotion of women’s rights in Afghanistan is a central pillar of our activities in Afghanistan and a cause to which I am personally committed; indeed, my maiden speech many years ago was on the issue of Afghan women’s rights.

Despite having been a cynic when we first intervened in Afghanistan, I have seen the progress and the transformation that have taken place and the contribution that women are making at all levels of Afghan society. I have had the privilege to meet some of the truly inspirational women who are risking their lives and leading the way on this issue. It is a central issue against which we will be judged when we consider the sacrifices that have been made in Afghanistan and whether they were worth the state in which we leave it.

I had hoped that more Members of your Lordships’ House would take part in what I think is an incredibly important debate. All noble Lords said that the gains made must not be lost, a message that we continuously reiterate to the Afghan Government. Last week my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development highlighted the importance of this with President Karzai during her visit to Afghanistan. My noble friend Lady Jenkin referred to the gains on education, employment and political participation. I co-chaired the joint commission on the enduring strategic dialogue between the UK and Afghanistan, and I stressed those gains when we had that meeting a few weeks ago in Afghanistan, which I co-chaired with the Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Ershad Ahmadi. There is one female vice-presidential candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections, Habiba Sohrabi, who is an ex-governor of Bamyan province. When I spoke with presidential candidates, I said that it is not just about having front-facing candidates but whether you have women in all aspects of your decision-making, in terms of your policy, the inner circle and the campaigning theme which is going to take these elections forward. I think I gave them some food for thought, given that at least two of the candidates could not mention a single lady.

Challenges, therefore, remain in many parts of the country, but Afghan women are starting to take control of their lives. They rightly want a voice in deciding Afghanistan’s future. Next year’s elections are a real opportunity for women to play an even greater role in shaping their society. As the noble Lord, Lord Collins, mentioned, through the Asia Foundation DfID will provide up to £4.5 million to strengthen women’s political participation as candidates and leaders and in other ways.

The noble Lord, Lord Collins, and my noble friend Lady Jenkin raised the issue of girls’ education. We welcome DfID’s commitment to provide education for 250,000 of the poorest girls in Afghanistan, and this complements the UK’s existing funding for education there. As my noble friend Lady Jenkin notes, virtually no women were in education in Afghanistan in 2001, and to date over 2 million girls have been educated, largely thanks to funding by international donors including DfID.

My noble friend Lady Hodgson, followed by the noble Lord, Lord Collins, asked about the new DfID programme announced by my right honourable friend Justine Greening. DfID will provide a further £8 million to the UNDP’s Elect II programme, bringing DfID’s total support to £20 million, and this will support the three key Afghan election institutions, including the independent election commission’s gender unit. The UK will also provide £7.5 million to strengthen political governance in two main ways: first by capacity building for parliament, and secondly by developing skills for women provincial councillors.

I was pleased that the Afghan Government reaffirmed their commitment to implement the measures included in the human rights reform agreed under the Tokyo mutual accountability framework, the TMAF. At the Afghan Government’s request, the UK will co-chair the first ministerial review of progress against the TMAF in 2014. The final timings and venue of that have not yet been fixed, but as soon as I have more information I will update the House.

Achieving lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan must be our primary aim, but we will continue to make clear that any political settlement involving the Taliban must preserve the progress made to date and respect Afghanistan’s constitutional framework, including the protections it provides for women and minorities. Reconciling the Taliban must never be at the expense of gains made in women’s rights.

It is for the Afghan Government to ensure that women’s rights are protected. We welcome their intention to publish a national action plan for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the fact that UN Women and other partners, including civil society, are being consulted in its formulation. The British Government will continue to provide assistance where appropriate. It is important that the Afghan Government ensure that a strong political will is galvanised behind implementing it fully.

With regard to women’s rights generally, I think I said this morning that we must keep them on the agenda. It will be so easy, when we have withdrawn our combat troops at the end of 2014, for this to start slipping. One way to do that is through the Afghanistan universal periodic review at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The review will take place in early 2014, and that will provide an opportunity for us and the rest of the international community to raise our concerns, and for the Government of Afghanistan to show the strength of their commitment to safeguard women’s rights.

Afghan civil society also plays a vital role, and our support for it will have to endure. The British Government recognise their contribution through the DfID-funded Tawanmandi programme, which has been referred to in today’s debate. This includes a specific focus on women’s rights. To date, for example, 66% of grants awarded either focus specifically on gender issues, or have a strong gender component. Funding for this is going to continue until at least 2016.

We must also acknowledge that Afghanistan, as many have said, is a deeply conservative country. Substantial improvement to the situation of Afghan women is likely to take place over the long term, and progress is likely to come in short steps. Against this backdrop we should recognise the courageous efforts of all those across Afghanistan who are working to defend the rights and fundamental freedoms of others. In particular I applaud female human rights defenders, who face enhanced risks from conservative elements of their society. The Government will continue to support and defend these brave individuals who, by seeking to protect the rights of others, are challenging historic and very conservative social norms.

We continue to contribute to the work of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. We will continue to work closely with all our international partners to improve our understanding of the risks faced by human rights defenders so that they can be mitigated. Every time I visit Afghanistan—I think that I have visited four times in the past 12 months—I make a point of meeting the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and Sima Samar, an incredibly inspirational individual at its head. We will continue to raise our concerns and, where appropriate, to issue public statements condemning violence. These days, with the progress in terms of social media and being Twitter-linked to many female Afghan parliamentarians, it only takes a direct message for us to become aware almost instantaneously when things are starting to go wrong in Afghanistan.

My noble friend Lady Hodgson also raised the issue of stoning for adultery and the penal code, which of course has been in the media. The Secretary of State for International Development raised concerns about these reports in her meeting with President Karzai last week. I think that we saw some rowing-back from what was then described as a consultation. However, even a consultation is dangerous territory for the Afghan Government to be starting to venture into. The UK opposes abhorrent practices such as stoning, which are a disturbing reminder of the type of justice carried out under the Taliban. That has no place in modern Afghanistan.

The noble Lord, Lord Collins, asked about recruitment of Afghan women to the police. The UK agrees that the recruitment of women in the police has not been a high enough priority. The Afghan Ministry of Interior has set up a working group. The EU police commission to Afghanistan is seconding in some expertise to come up with a comprehensive approach to the role of females in the police. Its aim is to increase the number of police women by adjusting selection procedures, improving working conditions and providing better training. However, the risks are incredibly high for these individuals. I saw a tragic case. One female officer whom I had met on a recent visit to Helmand was attacked and killed by the Taliban purely for being a member of the local police.

My noble friend Lord Alderdice raised India, which, of course, is an important regional power and an important country in terms of the future of Afghanistan. It is actively involved in Afghanistan, including among other things through the development work that it does there. The Pakistan-UK-Afghanistan trilateral procedure is one of a number of forums created to try to create a better process between countries in the region in order to progress on issues such as women’s rights. Other processes are, for example, the Heart of Asia and, of course, bilateral relationships. It is not an either/or situation between Pakistan and India in terms of Afghanistan. We regularly keep the Indians updated on the trilateral process. Indeed, the Prime Minister did so on his recent visit to India when he spoke with Manmohan Singh. At the last trilateral meeting, both Afghanistan and Pakistan indicated that they would like us to continue with this and to try, effectively, to act as an annoying friend to allow the two to develop their bilateral relationship further.

My noble friend Lady Hodgson spoke about the Elimination of Violence Against Women law being a key deliverable in the TMAF. Our £7.1 million of assistance to the Ministry of Interior includes a strong focus on developing Afghan policy and promoting human rights in the security sector and protecting women from violence. The UK also supports the Afghan national police response unit, which investigates domestic violence and provides support to female victims of crime. DfID has made tackling violence against women and girls a strategic priority for its work in Afghanistan. It will make announcements in the near future on what more it can do to address this issue. As my noble friend is aware, this issue is incredibly close to the Foreign Secretary’s heart in terms of preventing sexual violence in conflict.

In conclusion, the Government have made long-term commitments to Afghanistan’s future through financial aid and political support. In return, we expect to see clear progress from the Afghan Government on a range of issues, including on human rights. UK support to the women of Afghanistan will remain long after our combat forces withdraw. Afghanistan has come a long way since 2001 but we are not going to be complacent. We know that it still has a long way to go.

I can assure this House that the British Government will continue to support Afghanistan as it continues on this journey. On a very personal basis, it was part of my maiden speech and I am sure that it will be part of many more speeches and debates in this House. We owe it to the women of Afghanistan to keep this matter on the agenda by ensuring that this House continues to discuss these issues.

Committee adjourned at 5.45 pm.