Final evaluation Netherlands participation in ISAF 2006 - 2010

the TFU handled the issue of detention. Amnesty International concluded in2007 that the Dutch MoU seemed to function better than that of some othercountries.4.4.7 Human rightsThe government set itself the objective that, by the end of the mission,human rights would play a greater role in Uruzgan, as laid down in theArticle 100 letter of 2007. The human rights situation in Afghanistan was,even after the fall of the Taliban, a cause for concern. The principal themeswere violence against women and girls, restrictions on freedom of speech, aculture of impunity and the administration of the death sentence. Theopaque Afghan legislative process and the weakness of the formal judicialsystem hindered the achievement of this objective. At the same time, civilsociety was still too weak to properly monitor compliance with human rightsby the Afghan government.Human rights, and more specifically the protection of the population andimproved access to basic facilities, formed an important point of departurefor the Dutch mission. All interventions and activities were first analysed inrespect of the question as to whether they could contribute to improvingthe situation of the population in Uruzgan, with particular attention forhuman rights in all areas of the mission.The Netherlands provided funding at a national level for a variety ofactivities in the field of human rights. These included access for Afghanwomen to the legal system, transitional justice, education anddemocratisation. The Netherlands invested in special programmes of, forexample, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) andthe AIHRC, which were aimed at combating discrimination against womenand promoting equality between men and women in respect of rights andduties. In bilateral contacts with the Afghan government, the Netherlandshighlighted various human rights issues on several occasions. In addition,close contacts were maintained with the AIHRC, various Afghan NGOs,European partners and the UN. Financial aid from the Netherlands alsoenabled technical assistance to be given to Afghanistan for the compilationof the first national Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report of the UN. TheNetherlands contributed to financing an Afghan radio and TV station thatmade educational programmes about the rights and duties of Afghancitizens under the Afghan constitution.The Netherlands was particularly concerned about violence against womenand girls and restrictions on freedom of speech in Afghanistan. Theinternational community, including the Netherlands, has on many occasionsexpressed its concern to the Afghan authorities about a number ofprovisions in the Shia Family Law which discriminate against women. TheNetherlands also had a role in the drawing up of the NATO report“Operational Effectiveness and UN Resolution 1325 – Practices and Lessonsin Afghanistan”. On the basis of this report, it was decided to appoint twogender advisers at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul. The Netherlands itselfdeployed a human-rights specialist who is particularly active in the field ofwomen’s rights and youth delinquency, a gender specialist as part of theDutch personnel contribution to the EUPOL mission in Afghanistan, and agender specialist at the ISAF headquarters. In addition, the NGO “Save theChildren” drew attention to children’s rights by means of radio programmesmade for and by children, as well as by preparing courses on children’srights aimed at teachers and police officers.Page 60 of 133