Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State, Foreign and
Commonwealth Office
GLOBAL SECURITY:
AFGHANISTAN AND
PAKISTAN, FAC EVIDENCE
SESSION, 14 MAY
2009
I greatly appreciated the opportunity to give
evidence to the FAC on the Government's policy in Afghanistan
and Pakistan. I felt it was a valuable session which covered a
lot of ground. There were several points I undertook to follow
up for you.
Sir John Stanley mentioned that you had met the British
All Party Parliamentary Group during your trip to Afghanistan,
and he asked that the British Embassy in Kabul make contact with
them. I am pleased to let you know that our Ambassador in Kabul
has already invited the Group to the Embassy to meet with him
and other officials soon.
You asked for clarification about the "Shia
family law". We too were very concerned by reports that a
draft bill on the Personal Status of Followers of Shia Jurisprudence
(the "Shia Family Law") would enter into force in Afghanistan.
While we have full respect for the independence of the Afghan
Government and Afghan democratic institutions, we were gravely
concerned that some provisions of the draft bill as it was set
out ran counter to the Afghan Constitution and Afghanistan's international
human rights obligations. The Prime Minster made our concerns
clear to the Afghan Government, both publicly, and privately with
President Karzai. We therefore welcomed President Karzai's announcement
on 27 April that the law would be changed to bring it in
line with the Constitution, which guarantees equal rights for
women, and the international treaties to which Afghanistan is
a party.
The law is now under review by a committee established
by the Afghan Ministry of Justice. The United Nations Development
Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has been coordinating the response to
the law and held a meeting in May with Afghan MPs, local and international
non-governmental organisations, UN agencies and Embassies in which
we participated. At the meeting MPs and civil society organisations
updated the international community on their efforts to raise
this issue with the Government, and their lobbying efforts to
persuade President Karzai to ensure that the offending articles
are removed. Once the review is completed, the law should go back
to Parliament. The UK continues to monitor the situation very
closely to ensure that the Afghan Government lives up to its commitment
to review the legislation. We will intervene with the Afghan Government
again should we consider it necessary.
You may also be interested to know that the
UK and other international partners are assisting the Afghan Government
in the drafting of a new law on the Elimination of Violence Against
Women. This is a key piece of legislation which will criminalise
acts of violence against women. We hope that the adoption of this
law will further serve to strengthen the rights of women in Afghanistan.
Eric Illsley cited an honour killing which took
place in the Kabul area. He said a father had killed his daughter
because of her contact with a foreign soldier and that no action
had been taken against the father. Despite our best efforts we
have not been able to find out any further information about this
particular incident, but if Mr Illsley could provide additional
details, including the source of his information, we will of course
follow up on it.
I trust that this further information will be
useful for your inquiry, and look forward to the release of your
report in July.
1 June 2009
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