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V. ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS TO AFGHAN AUTHORITIES, AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Further recommendations to President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan Transitional Administration (see also above)
· In coordination and consultation with UNAMA, the Afghan Transitional Administration should take immediate steps to restructure and strengthen the Afghan Human Rights Commission so that it can more effectively investigate human rights conditions in Herat and throughout Afghanistan, including issues pertaining to women's rights.

· The Afghan Transitional Administration should reaffirm its request to all relevant nations for expansion of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to other areas in Afghanistan outside of Kabul, including Herat. The Administration should request ISAF forces to lend assistance to the Afghan Human Rights Commission in its work, and help protect other at-risk persons.

· The Afghan Transitional Administration should work with the Ministry of Women's Affairs to accelerate efforts to open offices in Herat and other areas outside of Kabul.

· The Afghan Transitional Administration should ratify both the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which Afghanistan signed in 1980, and the Convention Against Discrimination in Education (CDE), both of which set proper criteria and standards on women's and girls' rights.


To the United Nations
· UNAMA should use all available means to pressure regional leaders to repeal restrictions specifically targeted at women and girls, especially restrictions on their freedom of expression, association, and movement; and rights to equality, work, education, sexual autonomy, and bodily integrity, including freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

· UNAMA should continue and expand efforts to facilitate Afghan women and girls speaking and advocating on their own behalf. In this respect, helping to strengthen the role of the Ministry of Women's Affairs (especially in areas outside of Kabul) is critical. UNAMA officials should also work with UNICEF, UNIFEM, U.N.-Habitat, and relevant NGOs to protect and support women and girls in Herat and other areas in Afghanistan who seek to organize civic groups and associations.

· UNAMA should expand human rights monitoring in Afghanistan, with special emphasis on areas outside of Kabul. A greater number of monitors must be put on the ground, and with more resources. UNAMA should publicly raise human rights problems with regional leaders and publish detailed reports of violations. UNAMA officials should continue helping the Afghan Transitional Authority to investigate allegations of human rights abuses, including those contained in this and previous Human Rights Watch reports, and to protect witnesses and sources.

· UNAMA should continue to make efforts to ensure that reconstruction funds under its control do not directly benefit (financially or politically) regional leaders who are committing human rights abuses, including implementing repressive measures against women and girls.

· The U.N. secretary-general and the special representative of the secretary-general should continue to urge relevant U.N. member states to expand ISAF.

· The United Nations Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on violence against women and the special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan should visit areas of the country where women and girls are being subjected to restrictions and serious human rights abuses.


To the United States, the European Union, and other nations involved in Afghanistan
· The United States, European Union (E.U.), and other states with established relationships in western Afghanistan should use their influence through political, military, and diplomatic representatives to pressure Ismail Khan to immediately take the necessary steps to improve the human rights situation for women and girls in the Herat region. These governments should adopt appropriate measures to influence regional leaders across Afghanistan to repeal decrees and policies targeted specifically at women and girls, especially restrictions on their freedom of expression, association, and movement; and on their rights to equality, work, education, sexual autonomy, and bodily integrity, including freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Focus should be put on facilitating efforts by Afghan women and girls to speak and advocate on their own behalf.

· The United States should halt all military and other direct assistance to Ismail Khan and all other regional leaders in Afghanistan operating independently of the central government. If military assistance is to be provided to Afghanistan, it should only be channeled through the central government for the creation of the national army. The U.S. Congress should conduct an immediate investigation of the role of U.S. military and non-military assistance to Afghanistan in strengthening warlords who are known to be engaging in human rights abuses, including abuses against women and girls.

· Donor governments should provide additional assistance, including support and protection, to the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs and Afghan Human Rights Commission to enable them to open offices in regional centers like Herat. Donors should also seek to strengthen independent women's groups in Herat and elsewhere in Afghanistan.

· Officials from the United States and other countries should work with U.N. agencies and NGOs to improve protection for women and girls, and to end threats, intimidation, and other barriers to effective organization of women and girls' groups.

· Relevant officials should work with the Afghan government and all donor bodies to ensure that reconstruction funds do not directly benefit (financially or politically) regional leaders like Ismail Khan who are committing human rights abuses or implementing repressive and discriminatory measures against women and girls. E.U. and European Commission (E.C.) officials must also ensure that their projects comply with existing E.U. and E.C. human rights conditionality requirements.

· All nations involved in Afghanistan's reconstruction, especially those on the U.N. Security Council and Germany and the Netherlands, who will soon assume leadership of ISAF, should take part in immediate high-level consultations about expanding ISAF to areas in Afghanistan outside of Kabul, including Herat. The United States, which has voiced willingness to provide logistical support, intelligence, and other resources, should provide those resources.

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