Bonn Conference Has To Focus On The Afghan Population – OpEd

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By Dr. Nooralhaq Nasimi, Director, ECHRA

The aims and hopeful outcomes of the conference, we believe, would be to grow Afghanistan’s economy and extend the new and burgeoning democracy that the country has experienced after 2001. A great deal has changed in the country since 2001, such as the number of children attending schools, having a parliament, better International relations, better stability than during Soviet rule, better roads, more returnees from outside but building of better government institutions, the fighting of corruption and in building better governance and the rule of law still needs to be improved. The majority of people in Afghanistan want to continue with the freedoms and rights that we now enjoy. We hope that those attending the conference have the Afghan population at the heart of the agenda as it will be them who are the most affected by the decisions made.

One of the central themes of the International Conference on Afghanistan will be the international community’s long-term involvement in Afghanistan after the transition process, when responsibility for security is in Afghan hands. This is going to be an important milestone for the future of Afghanistan, and there needs to be a clear road map for the Afghan people to see where the security and improvement of the economy will feature after the transition.

The ECHRA would like to see the long-term involvement of the international community to continue. There will still be a significant degree on the interdependence of security, funding, public finances and economic development and without the involvement then there are concerns that these areas could be seriously affected.

The main hopes of the ECHRA are:

  • Improve women rights
  • Compulsory primary education (article 26 UDHR)
  • More employment opportunity
  • Attention to Rural and deprived areas
  • Improve Environment in major cities
  • Freedom of expression
  • Eradicate drugs production
  • Empower civil society
  • More networking with exile (round table and discussion on the latest situation)
  • Feedback from the past 10 years success and achievement made by international community
  • More pressure on Afghanistan government to build better system in place
  • Strengthening press and media

ECHRA is the UK-based European Campaign for Human Rights in Afghanistan

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