THE SENATE

S.R. NO.

1

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


SENATE RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING THE APPOINTMENT OF AFGHAN WOMEN TO THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF AFGHANISTAN TO ENSURE EQUITABLE TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN THE NEW GOVERNMENT.

 

 

WHEREAS, Afghan women were the first victims of the Taliban regime; and

WHEREAS, on September 27, 1996, the Taliban, an extremist militia, seized control of the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, and plunged Afghanistan into a brutal state of gender apartheid in which women and girls were stripped of their basic human rights; and

WHEREAS, prior to the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan had a constitution, adopted in 1964, that included universal suffrage, equal rights for women, and separation of powers with an independent judiciary, and Afghan women were members of the judiciary, parliament, and cabinet, and comprised thirty per cent of Afghanistan's civil service workers; and

WHEREAS, the Taliban banished women from the work force, leading to poverty and starvation for many women and children who were suddenly stripped of their ability to earn an income; and

WHEREAS, the Taliban closed schools to girls in cities and expelled women from universities, prohibited women from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative, forced women to wear the burqa, and prohibited women and girls from being examined by male physicians while at the same time, prohibited most female doctors and nurses from working, causing deaths from treatable medical conditions; and

WHEREAS, with the ouster of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan have begun to reclaim their basic civil rights; and

WHEREAS, women must play a key role in reconstituting civil society in Afghanistan at every stage, in the planning of the post-Taliban Afghanistan, in the reconstruction of the country, and in its future government; and

WHEREAS, Afghan women's full participation is essential for the rebuilding of a peaceful, democratic Afghanistan, to ensure that women's rights are restored fully and permanently, and to re-establish a constitutional democracy in Afghanistan, representative of women and of ethnic minorities; and

WHEREAS, women are essential to reshaping Afghanistan's infrastructure, as seventy per cent of the pre-Taliban teachers in Afghanistan were women, and forty per cent of the pre-Taliban doctors were women; and

WHEREAS, in June 2000, a "Conference for Women of Afghanistan" organized by Afghan women, was held in Tajikistan, which produced a Declaration of the Essential Rights of Afghan Women, a statement that affirms the essential rights that Afghan women own for themselves, demonstrating the Afghan women's continued commitment to and involvement with their country; and

WHEREAS, the United Nations is supporting Afghanistan in regaining its government, by establishing an Interim Administration on December 22, 2001, headed by Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, and assisting in the organization of an Emergency Loya Jirga; and

WHEREAS, the Emergency Loya Jirga will elect a Head of the State for the Transitional Administration and will approve proposals for the structure and key personnel of the Transitional Administration; and

WHEREAS, significant numbers of women need to be appointed to the interim and transitional governments of Afghanistan to ensure that their hard-earned rights, so ruthlessly torn from them, are restored, and so that they may play a significant role in devising the permanent government of their country; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2002, that the Chairman of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan and the Chairman of the Special Independent Commission for the Convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga are respectfully requested to appoint and include a significant number of Afghani women to positions in the provisional government of Afghanistan; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to Hamid Karzai, the leader of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan, the Chairman of the Special Independent Commission for the Convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga, the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of State, the Secretary General of the United Nations, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Appointment of Afghani Women to the Provisional Government