National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan - The Secretary ...

This mission will be pursued at all levels of state apparatus, with the executive branch of
government playing implementing and enabling roles under the leadership of the Ministry of
Women‘s Affairs, which will continue to be the government‘s lead ministry for the promotion of
women‘s advancement.
3. GOALS
NAPWA will pursue the twin goals of women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Gender equality is a condition where women and men fully enjoy their rights, equally contribute
to and enjoy the benefits of development, and where neither is prevented from pursuing what is
fair, good, and necessary for living a full and satisfying life.
Women‘s empowerment, on the other hand, is a condition where women take control and
determine the direction of their lives, develop their full potential, make enlightened decisions, and
exert positive influence over processes, mechanisms, and decisions that affect their well-being.
4. STRATEGIES
Women‘s empowerment and gender equality can only be
attained through participation, support, and partnership between STRATEGY
and among women and men. The NAPWA goals will be To eliminate discrimination
pursued through a three-pronged, interlocking gender equity
strategy that has been adopted by the Government under the
Afghanistan Compact and the I-ANDS, which is ―to eliminate
discrimination against women, develop their human capital,
against women, develop
their human capital, and
ensure their leadership in
order to guarantee their full
and ensure their leadership in order to guarantee their full and and equal participation in
equal participation in all aspects of life” 20 . The first two all aspects of life.
strategies are preconditions to women‘s empowerment, and can
be effectively pursued through partnership between women and men. The last is both an
outcome and a facilitating factor for Government‘s goals of women‘s empowerment and gender
equality. All three strategies are discussed in more detail below.
4.1 Elimination of discrimination against women
The Government of Afghanistan recognizes that discrimination against women is a major
obstacle to women‘s empowerment and gender equality. It violates the constitutional provision of
equality of rights and respect for human dignity, and constrains women from accessing the means
to improve their capacities and well-being.
CEDAW, one of the international conventions to which Afghanistan is a party, defines
‗discrimination against women‘ as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of
sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women,
of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or
20 ibid: p.91
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