Parliamentary Committee Notes: Canada's support for Afghan women and girls
Canada strongly condemns the Taliban's widespread restrictions on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, including their ability to access education, freedom of movement and dress, participation in public life and the workforce, and access to justice.
Canada continues to advocate strongly for the full realization of Afghan women's and girls' rights at every opportunity.
Supplementary messages
Canadian officials consult frequently with a broad range of Afghan women leaders and human rights defenders to better understand their perspectives and to inform our efforts to promote and protect human rights.
Canada remains committed to providing gender-responsive and principled international assistance in Afghanistan and will continue to do so wherever women have equal and meaningful access to that assistance.
Our approach is in line with Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy and a principled approach of program delivery by women, for women as agreed jointly through international donor coordination fora.
Supporting facts and figures
Since 2021, the Taliban have issued over 100 edicts systematically restricting the rights and freedoms of women and girls. Women and girls cannot access secondary or university education, are barred from engaging in most economic activities and public life, and are restricted from leaving their homes without a male guardian.
The latest edict, issued in August 2024, prohibits women from singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public, and from looking at men they are not related to by blood or marriage.
Background
Canada's Support for Afghan Women and Girls
The promotion and protection of human rights has been a cornerstone of Canada's engagement in Afghanistan since 2001. Canada has been vocal in expressing our condemnation of decisions by the Taliban to bar Afghan women and girls from public life and systematically violate their human rights. Canada's engagement in political fora including the Doha Process, and in donor coordination fora, remains centered on the urgent need to uphold the human rights of Afghan women and girls. Canadian officials regularly engage with a broad range of Afghan women leaders and human rights defenders, to inform these interventions.
CEDAW Case
On September 25, 2024, Canada alongside Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands, formally took steps to call on Afghanistan to cease its violations of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), to which Afghanistan is a State Party. This is the first step ahead of officially filing proceedings with the International Court of Justice (ICJ). CEDAW member states can challenge other members over alleged breaches of the convention. While no country in the world recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, the Taliban are liable for Afghanistan's commitments under international treaties.
Canada's Support to Afghan Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
Canada is currently providing support to Afghan activists in exile who are monitoring human rights violations in Afghanistan and leading global advocacy efforts to call attention to these abuses. Canada is also exploring opportunities to directly support women's CSOs in Afghanistan through capacity building activities and flexible funding to support operations, to respond to the shrinking civil space in Afghanistan. Canada is a top donor to the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund, a Country Based Pooled Fund managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which supports national and local organizations, including women led organizations.
Education of Afghan Girls and Women
Canada has launched programs supporting alternative pathways to education for Afghan women and girls, including online classes for secondary school students and university scholarships for studies outside Afghanistan, and is currently exploring opportunities to support technical and vocational training and education in health and education sectors, where they are not banned from working for NGOs and UN agencies.
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