Violence against women and criminal justice in Afghanistan

Violence against women has emerged as perhaps the single most important issue for women's rights activism and gender-oriented development aid in Afghanistan since 2001. Efforts to counter such violence have mostly focused on strengthening the Afghan government's ability to prosecute and punish perpetrators. This strategy is based on the recognition that an important cause of violence against women in contemporary Afghanistan is the prevailing tendency to consider such violence a private matter rather than a criminal act requiring public action. Progress has been slow, however, despite the enactment of a landmark law on Elimination of Violence Against Women (2009). Moreover, precise data on how many cases registered with the prosecution actually lead to a criminal conviction have not been available. This project has sought to identity patterns in the cases that drop out of the legal chain and cases where a criminal conviction is obtained. What are the conviction rates of rape, murder or domestic violence? Are there any patterns in the type of cases that lead to a criminal conviction, and in those dismissed or withdrawn at an earlier stage? The research carried out in altogether eight of Afghanistan s 34 provinces found that average conviction rates for cases registered with the prosecution was 20 percent, although the conviction rate differed sharply according to the type of crime. Whereas the conviction rate for murder was 47 percent, the conviction rates for rape and beating was 41 and 15 percent respectively. In rural and more conservative provinces, a main bottleneck for women complainants is at the level of registration. Prosecutors here are extremely reluctant to register cases both because they think such ?problems? should be solved in private, and because they are unduly influenced by perpetrators. As a result, many women can only register their cases through the mobilization of outside pressure such as the help of the Human Rights Commission. The caseloads in these provinces are much lower than in the urban provinces of Herat and Kabul, also when population size is taken into account. However, easier access to registering a complaint does not necessarily mean a conviction. In Kabul, the prosecution unit for VAW operates with a more ?open door? policy and women and their families are generally welcome to register cases, and staff display little open contempt for women complainants. However, prosecutors generally work with the intention of reaching a settlement between the parties rather than to refer cases to trial. Moreover, many women (or their families) arrive with other objectives in mind than to see perpetrators sentenced and imprisoned, such as a guarantee that the violence will cease, or a civil settlement. Thus, only 13 percent of cases of domestic violence registered with the prosecution in Kabul are referred to court, and even fewer lead to a criminal conviction. An important reason for this is that prosecutors, and sometimes women themselves, do not believe women can survive financially and socially outside of marriage or without family support. They are therefore reluctant to press for charges. Moreover, many women also have difficulties accessing basic civil claims such as divorce or child custody in the civil courts. As a result criminal charges of violence are used as leverage and withdrawn once a civil settlement is reached. The findings of the project therefore suggest that more attention needs to be paid to women s economic and civil rights, if impunity for gender violence is to be addressed. The research has been a collaborative project between the Research Institute for Women Peace & Security in Kabul and the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen

This project focuses on violence against women (VAW) as it is treated in the criminal justice system in Afghanistan. Although progress has been made, most cases, even if registered with the prosecution, fail to make it through the criminal justice system. The complex reasons for such attrition are poorly understood and form the subject of this research project. The project will be divided into two phases. First, it will map the course of registered cases through the legal process, disaggregating them b y type of incident and outcomes in eight provinces. This will provide important data on what types of VAW incidents are most commonly registered with the prosecution, and what offenses have the highest and lowest attrition rates through the legal chain. S uch data is currently not available. Secondly, in four sample provinces, we will map the reasons for why individual VAW cases exit the criminal system. This will help us identify the factors influencing the failure to move from registration to prosecution and/or conviction, such as withdrawal of complaint, lack of evidence, quality of the legal defense, the judges interpretation of the law or ideological outlook, or extra-legal considerations such as family relations, political pressure or bribes. Finally , as part of this qualitative research we shall systematically consider the legal basis for convictions as well as the socio-political identity and status of convicted perpetrators. The proposed project is a collaboration between an established Afghan r esearch and advocacy institute, Research Institute for Women Peace & Security (RIWPS,) and the Chr Michelsen institute (CMI). RIWPS and CMI have jointly developed the proposal based on previous research, policy analysis and activism.