How has the commission dealt with issues of cultural rights when they end up in discrimination against women?
If we have individual complaints, then we go through the whole investigation process within the commission, and conciliate, mediate or we refer the matter to court. For example, we had one case where under African customary law, because of the primogeniture rule (i.e. inheritance down the male line), a woman could not inherit either property or title of chieftainship. And so, we realised that that’s not something we could successfully conciliate or mediate and the tribes did not want to give way on this issue of succession to title for women. So, we helped this woman to go to court, to get a court to decide on the discrimination and the remedy. We couldn’t come up with a remedy through mediation that could be enforced. And so, that case went to court. That’s one example where we intervened in a cultural issue through a legal intervention process. The other way we’ve intervened is through a parliamentary process where the practice of virginity-testing became a huge, visible problem. And
Related Questions
- Whenever human rights issues are raised, the situation of women and their rights are focused more; does Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission protect only womans rights?
- Is it true that Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission is the reference center for women to get divorce from their husband?
- How has the commission dealt with issues of cultural rights when they end up in discrimination against women?
