Government Initiatives - Afghanistan
- The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Yakin Erturk, reported that though important changes have occurred in the lives of women in the country since the fall of the Taliban, “violence against women remains dramatic in Afghanistan in its intensity and pervasiveness, in public and private spheres of life”.
- The redrafted Constitution has attempted to accommodate the needs of women and the government is in the process of developing an Afghan National Development Strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2020.
- The Ministry of Women’s Affairs oversees issues related to gender empowerment.
- To speed up the process of gender equality, on 6 June 2005, a presidential decree to establish the Inter-Ministerial Task Force to Eliminate Violence Against Women was granted. Led by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), with technical support from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Task Force comprises high-level officials from government and judicial bodies.
- A protocol to eliminate child marriage and forced marriage has been signed by 12 ministries and the IHRC.
- A campaign on child marriage and forced marriage spearheaded by MoWA and supported by different UN agencies, INGOs and NGOs is in operation since November 2005.