Rights & Democracy to Launch New Project on Women's Rights in Afghan Family Law Reform

Kabul - March 27, 2008 – Rights & Democracy will launch its new $5 million project in support of Afghan-led efforts to entrench the domestic rights of women and girls in six provinces, including Kandahar, on April 7, 2008 in Kabul.

The project launch will be followed by a day-long conference on the challenges of family law reform in Afghanistan and lessons learned from similar efforts in Morocco. The new project, entitled A Measure of Equality for Afghan Women: Rights in Practice, will be funded over four years primarily by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and implemented by Rights & Democracy's Afghan-staffed Kabul office and its head office in Montreal.

Rights in Practice will support Afghan government and civil society efforts with regards to Afghan family law reform and the use of a national marriage contract. It will focus on four main initiatives:

Support for Afghan Parliamentarians, legislators, jurists, religious authorities and civil society organizations working on the progressive reform of family law to bring it in line with Afghanistan's Constitution and its obligations under international human rights treaties, as inspired by best practices in other Muslim countries
Support for Afghan civil society organizations and networks interested in developing effective lobbying tools, techniques and strategies for legislative reform
Support for Afghans working to promote the use of a gender-sensitive national marriage contract
Strengthening the capacity of Afghan communities working on issues related to women’s rights, family law reform and the use of a marriage contract

The project will be implemented in Kabul, Kandahar and the four northern provinces of Balk, Herat, Kunduz and Ningarhar by Rights & Democracy's Afghanistan office. The office is staffed entirely by Afghans and seven of its 18 staff members are women, including the Office Director, Palwasha Hasan.

The project builds on Rights & Democracy's experiences in Afghanistan through its Women's Rights in Afghanistan Fund (WRAF), which was initiated with funding from CIDA in 2002. Over the course of its four-year lifespan, WRAF supported more than 55 Afghan-led projects on women's rights throughout Afghanistan.

Rights & Democracy - Where We Work: Afghanistan

Rights in Practice website in Afghanistan

For more information on the project launch, including location, guest list and media accreditation, please contact:

In Canada: Steve Smith, Rights & Democracy, 514-898-4157
In Afghanistan: Alexandra Gilbert, Rights & Democracy, 93 0 798 143 094

(Updated April 2, 2008)

Rights & Democracy is a non-partisan, independent Canadian institution created by an Act of Parliament in 1988 to promote democratic development and to advocate for and defend human rights set out in the International Bill of Human Rights. In cooperation with civil society and governments in Canada and abroad, Rights & Democracy initiates and supports programmes to strengthen laws and democratic institutions, principally in developing countries.