Integrity-Forum-2018-Highlights.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Special Report No
SPECIAL REPORT NO. 444 | MARCH 2019 UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE www.usip.org How Peace Was Made: An Inside Account of Talks between the Afghan Government and Hezb-e Islami By Qaseem Ludin Contents Background ...................................3 Talks Begin ................................... 5 Internal Consensus and Divisions .................................7 Components of the Peace Deal ....................................8 Sealing the Deal ......................... 12 Implementation of the Agreement ............................ 13 Lessons for Negotiations with the Taliban ........................... 14 Gulbuddin Hekmatyar addresses supporters in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in March 2018. (Photo by Ghulamullah Habibi/EPA-EFE/ Shutterstock) Summary • For more than four decades, Afghan- • Peacemaking is a difficult process, the challenges and divisions that istan has been in a state of war and but often the most difficult part is had to be overcome in order to violent conflict that has destroyed how to start peace talks. Thus, the make the September 2016 peace much of the country’s physical and experience of negotiating peace agreement possible. social infrastructure and prevent- between the Afghan government • After the peace accord with ed the formation of a state stable and the Hezb-e Islami insurgent Hezb-e Islami, Afghans have an- enough to establish law and order. group offers unique insights on other historic chance to bring an • Although several internal and exter- peacemaking in the modern era. end to years of conflict with the nal factors contributed to the conflict • This report, based on the author’s Taliban. The Afghan government’s and its current political and security experience working as a negoti- negotiations with Hezb-e Islami environment, a key factor has been ator during talks between the Af- provide important lessons that can weak Afghan leadership, exacerbat- ghan government and Hezb-e Isla- be applied to future peace negoti- ed by political frictions among elites. -
Afghanisches Kabinett Komplett Parlamentsabstimmung Bestätigt Alle 25 Minister
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Hauptabteilung INT Team Asien e.V. Politischer Bericht / Kurzbericht Thema: Afghanisches Kabinett komplett Parlamentsabstimmung bestätigt alle 25 Minister Autor: Dr. Babak Khalatbari Ort/Datum: Kabul, 25.09.2006 Länder- / Regionalprogramm: AFGHANISTAN AFGHANISCHES KABINETT KOMPLETT Afghanisches Kabinett komplett Parlamentsabstimmung bestätigt alle 25 Minister INHALT 1. Abstimmungsverlauf 2. Lebensläufe der Minister 3. Kabinettsübersicht 4. Abstimmungsergebnisse 1 AFGHANISCHES KABINETT KOMPLETT Abstimmungsverlauf Das Kabinett von Präsident Karzai, das Am Donnerstag, den 19.04.2006 und am Montag, aus insgesamt 25 den 7. August 2006 stellten sich die von Präsident Ministerien besteht, ist Karzai vorgeschlagenen Minister für die neue nun komplett. Regierung dem Parlament zur Vertrauens- abstimmung. Vorangegangen waren Anhörungen, in denen die Ziele, aber auch professionelle Erfahrung derzeit im Gespräch. Am 23.04.2006 wurde und die Nationalität der Kandidaten thematisiert unserem Büro von einem Parlamentarier mitgeteilt, worden waren. Die Presse in Afghanistan dass im Parlament zwischenzeitlich eine nicht kommentierte den Ausgang der Vertrauens- öffentliche Verfahrensabstimmung (87 Ja- abstimmung im April als Überraschung, da von den Stimmen/53 Nein-Stimmen) die Bestätigung der 25 von Präsident Karzai vorgeschlagenen drei in Frage gestellten Kandidaten ergeben habe. Kandidaten 20 angenommen und fünf abgelehnt Der Kandidat für das Amt des Kulturministers, Dr. wurden. Es mussten demnach fünf Kandidaten Sayed Makhdum -
Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance
Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance Kenneth Katzman Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs May 12, 2014 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov RS21922 Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance Summary The capacity, transparency, and legitimacy of Afghan governance are considered crucial to Afghan stability as U.S.-led NATO forces turn over the security mission to Afghan leadership. The size and capability of the Afghan governing structure has increased significantly since the Taliban regime fell in late 2001, but the government remains weak and rife with corruption. The government has slowly widened its writ, even though substantial powers are concentrated in the elected presidency through powers of appointment at all levels. President Hamid Karzai has served as president since late 2001; he is constitutionally term-limited and will leave office after the conclusion of presidential and provincial elections the first round of which took place on April 5, 2014. Several major figures registered to run for president, and many of their slates included faction leaders long accused of human rights abuses. Karzai appeared to tilt toward his longtime confidant and former Foreign Minister, Zalmay Rasoul, but the final, uncertified vote count showed Northern Alliance “opposition” leader Dr. Abdullah Abdullah with nearly 45% of the vote and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani with about 31.5%. Abdullah’s total, if certified, is close to but still short of the 50%+ needed for victory. A runoff round is tentatively scheduled for June 7. There are discussions among the major candidates, President Karzai, and other senior figures on a settlement that might avoid the runoff. -
Weekly Analysis / 285
Weekly Analysis / 285 www.csrskabul.com Center for Strategic & Regional Studies Kabul Weekly Analysis-Issue Number 285 (Jan 19-26, 2019) Weekly Analysis is one of CSRS’ publications, which significantly analyses weekly economic and political events in Afghanistan and the region. The prime motive behind this is to provide strategic insights and policy solutions to decision-making institutions and individuals in order to help them to design best policies. Weekly Analysis is published in local languages (Pashto and Dari) and international languages (English and Arabic). ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ In this issue: Candidates and the fate of Afghan presidential elections Elections Late Experiences ......................................................................... 3 Current Election Teams .............................................................................. 4 Strong Candidates teams ........................................................................... 5 1-Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and his team ................................... 5 2-Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and His Team ......................................... 6 3-Mohammad Hanif Atmar and his team...................................... 7 4-Gulbadin Hekmatyar and his team ............................................ 8 The Electoral System and the Election Commission ................................... 8 The Future of Elections ............................................................................. -
The Dissipation of Political Capital Among Afghanistan's Hazaras
Working Paper no. 51 THE DISSIPATION OF POLITICAL CAPITAL AMONG AFGHANISTAN’S HAZARAS : 2001-2009 Niamatullah Ibrahimi Crisis States Research Centre June 2009 Crisis States Working Papers Series No.2 ISSN 1749-1797 (print) ISSN 1749-1800 (online) Copyright © N. Ibrahimi, 2009 24 Crisis States Research Centre The Dissipation of Political Capital among Afghanistan’s Hazaras: 2001-2009 Niamatullah Ibrahimi Crisis States Research Centre Introduction Since its establishment in 1989 Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami Afghanistan (The Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan) has been an important political and military player in Afghanistan. Like most contemporary major political parties in Afghanistan, Hizb-e Wahdat is rooted in the turbulent period of the anti-Soviet resistance movements in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It was formed to bring together nine separate and mostly inimical military and ideological groups into a single entity. During the period of the civil war in the early 1990s, it emerged as one of the major actors in Kabul and some other parts of the country. Political Islamism was the ideology of most of its key leaders but it gradually tilted towards its Hazara ethnic support base and became the key vehicle of the community’s political demands and aspirations. Its ideological background and ethnic support base has continuously shaped its character and political agenda. Through the jihad and the civil war, Wahdat accumulated significant political capital among Afghanistan’s Hazaras, which arguably could have been spent in the establishment of long-lasting political institutions in Afghanistan. By 2009, however, Wahdat was so fragmented and divided that the political weight it carried in the country bore little resemblance to what it had once been. -
Human Rights Dialogue
Afghanistan-EU Human Rights Dialogue Kabul, 1 June 2016 Today the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the European Union held their second human rights dialogue in the Ministry of Foreign Affiars. The dialogue was opened by H.E. 2 nd Vice President of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Muhamad Sarwar Danish. The Afghan delegation was led by H.E. Adela Raz Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, while the EU delegation was led by H. E. Franz-Michael Mellbin, European Union Special Representative/Head of Delegation to Afghanistan. The Afghan delegation consisted of a number of Deputy Ministers and other government officials and EU Member States participated at Ambassadorial level. The dialogue followed up on last year's human rights dialogue held on 15 June 2015 and allowed for an open exchange of views on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. In particular the cooperation between the EU and Afghanistan on human rights was discussed in light of the upcoming Brussels Conference on Afghanistan to be held 4-5 October 2016. Constructive and frank discussions were held on a range of issues, including women and children’s enjoyment of human rights, torture, access to justice, freedom of expression and the rights of socially vulnerable and persons with disabilities. The EU welcomed the significant steps taken by the government since the human rights dialogue in 2015, including the launch of the National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security, the launch of the National Action Plan to Combat Torture and the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Oversight Mechanism in the AIHRC . -
Electoral Choices, Ethnic Accommodations, and the Consolidation of Coalitions: Critiquing the Runoff Clause of the Afghan Constitution
Washington International Law Journal Volume 26 Number 3 6-1-2017 Electoral Choices, Ethnic Accommodations, and the Consolidation of Coalitions: Critiquing the Runoff Clause of the Afghan Constitution Mohammad Bashir Mobasher Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Election Law Commons Recommended Citation Mohammad B. Mobasher, Electoral Choices, Ethnic Accommodations, and the Consolidation of Coalitions: Critiquing the Runoff Clause of the Afghan Constitution, 26 Wash. L. Rev. 413 (2017). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj/vol26/iss3/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington International Law Journal by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Compilation © 2017 Washington International Law Journal Association ELECTORAL CHOICES, ETHNIC ACCOMMODATIONS, AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF COALITIONS: CRITIQUING THE RUNOFF CLAUSE OF THE AFGHAN CONSTITUTION Mohammad Bashir Mobasher* Abstract: Article sixty-one of the Afghan Constitution requires a candidate to win an absolute majority of votes to become the president. This constitutional rule comprises a runoff clause, which prescribes a second round of elections between the two front-runners should no candidate win over 50% of the votes in the first round. While this article agrees with the majority view of Afghan scholars and politicians who see the runoff clause as instrumental to developing trans-ethnic coalitions and governments, it distinguishes between the formation of alliances and their consolidation. -
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
PENNIES FOR PEACE CAMPAIGN TOOLKIT Fact Sheet: The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan GENERAL INFORMATION Capital City Kabul Population: 31.8 million (2014), estimated to increase to 82 million by 2050. KAZAKHSTAN Area: 251,827 sq miles UZBEKISTAN KYRGYSTAN Archeological findings provide evidence of human CHINA habitation in Afghanistan dating back to the 4th century TAJIKISTAN TURKMENISTAN BC, and the country’s strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia. However, the country has a long KABUL history of conflict and foreign intervention. Modern-day Afghanistan was founded in 1747 under Ahmad Shah AFGHANISTAN Durrani, the first king of the country. During the 19th IRAN century, the Russian and British empires battled for control of Afghanistan. In 1919 the British Empire gave up its interests in Afghanistan, making it a fully independent state. Afghanistan enjoyed a long period of stable rule PAKISTAN INDIA until the mid-1970s, when a pro-Soviet coup resulted in a Soviet invasion from 1979 to 1989. The 10-year war with the Soviet Union resulted in the deaths of over 1 million Afghans, mostly civilians, and the creation of Arabian Sea almost 6 million refugees who fled Afghanistan, mainly to Pakistan and Iran. Before withdrawing, the Soviets planted an extraordinary number of land mines throughout Afghan farmlands, making them unsuitable for production and a Under the Taliban, another Islamic-extremist group, threat to the population to this day. al-Qaeda, found safe haven. On September 11, In 1990, an extremist Islamic group called the Taliban 2001, al-Qaeda attacked the United States. -
The Elections and Political Realignments in Afghanistan
DIIS REPORT Ghulam Sakhi The elections and political realignments in Afghanistan DIIS Report 2014:05 DIIS REPORT DIIS . DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 1 DIIS REPORT 2014:05 © Copenhagen 2014, the author and DIIS Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Østbanegade 117, DK 2100 Copenhagen Ph: +45 32 69 87 87 Fax: +45 32 69 87 00 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.diis.dk Layout: Allan Lind Jørgensen Printed in Denmark by Vesterkopi AS ISBN 978-87-7605-667-4 (print) ISBN 978-87-7605-668-1 (pdf ) Price: DKK 50.00 (VAT included) DIIS publications can be downloaded free of charge from www.diis.dk Hardcopies can be ordered at www.diis.dk Ghulam Sakhi, DIIS Visiting Analyst [email protected] 2 DIIS REPORT 2014:05 Contents 1. Introduction 5 2. Political alliance-building before nomination 7 2.1 The opposition groups 7 a) National Coalition of Afghanistan 7 b) National Front of Afghanistan 7 c) Right and Justice Party 8 2.2 The pro-government groups 8 a) Technocrats 9 b) Karzai’s family 9 c) Fundamentalists 9 d) Hizb-e Islami associates 9 3. Coordination structures 11 4. Political realignment during candidate nomination 12 5. Major Electoral Alliances 15 5.1 Ashraf Ghani’s ticket 15 a) Junbish Milli Afghanistan 15 b) Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami Afghanistan 16 c) Hizb-e Haq wa Adalat 16 d) National Liberation Front of Afghanistan 16 e) The Ismailis 16 f) Afghan Mellat 17 g) Harakat-e Inqelab Islami 17 h) National Movement 17 5.2 Abdullah Abdullah’s ticket 18 a) National Coalition of Afghanistan 18 b) Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami Mardumi Afghanistan 18 c) Hizb-e Islami Afghanistan 18 5.3 Pro-government tickets 19 5.4 The Islamists 20 6. -
H.E. Sarwar Danish Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Kabul, Afghanistan June 11, 2018 Excellency, We
H.E. Sarwar Danish Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Kabul, Afghanistan June 11, 2018 Excellency, We are writing to thank you for your work on revising the Afghan Mining Law, and to ask for it to contain the strongest possible protections against corruption and conflict. As civil society organizations working on humanitarian, development and governance issues in Afghanistan, we are deeply concerned about the threat posed by abuses around Afghanistan’s natural resources. The sector funds armed groups, insurgents, and corrupt strongmen, undermines stability, and is providing a fraction of the benefit it should either to the Afghan people or to the government’s budget. We are very grateful that the current draft of the new law has several points which improve on current legislation. However, there are significant gaps which threaten to deeply undermine its effectiveness. The most important of these include: 1. Single transparent sub-account Transparency of payment and production data is critical to reducing corruption. Arguably the most important measure the law should take is to create a mechanism for the publication of this data which is automatic, accessible, and difficult to subvert; which publishes individual payments linked to specific contracts and justifications; and is embedded in law. A single transparent sub-account would be a uniquely effective way to achieve this without diluting the primacy and protections of the Treasury Single Account or AFMIS. (Sub-accounts for revenue are already widely used: this would simply require that one be used for all extractive sector payments, and make it public.) The government made a very welcome commitment to putting such a structure in place in the national anti-corruption strategy. -
American University of Central Asian International and Comparative Politics Department
American University of Central Asian International and Comparative Politics Department Understanding the Unity Government of Afghanistan: Case of 2014 Presidential Election By Aalam Gul Farhad Thesis Advisor Kunduz Niiazova Thesis submitted to the Department of International and Comparative Politics of the American University of Central Asia in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Bishkek 2015 Acknowledgements I would like to express gratitude to my supervisor, Kunduz Niizova, for her constant guidance, support, motivation, and assistance in writing my thesis throughout the academic year. I attribute the level of my research paper to her encouragement and effort. Also, I would like to express my gratitude to all professors of International and Comparative Politics Department as a whole, for their assistance and valuable contribution during my study at the American University of Central Asian. Further, I would thank the Soros Foundation for providing me the scholarship. Finally, I would like to appreciate my family for their strong support, encouragement and inspiration throughout the years of my study. Without their love and support it would not have been possible for me to complete my bachelor degree. 2 Abstract The 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan after two rounds did not have any result and the country went in to serious crisis. Only after mediation of the U.S. the dispute was solved and a unity/coalition government was formed, but the influence of the U.S. was not the only reason for which the candidates (Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah) agreed on power sharing. Therefore, this thesis seeks to find out why the National Unity Government of Afghanistan was formed. -
W Orking Pap
No. 20 Working Papers Working A Network in Transition: Actors, Interests, and Alliances in the Afghanistan Conflict as of Early 2014 Arvid Bell with Botakoz Iliyas May 2014 the 1 A Network in Transition: Actors, Interests, and Alliances in the Afghanistan Conflict as of Early 2014 Arvid Bell with Botakoz Iliyas, Frankfurt am Main, May 2014 Abstract This paper maps out the negotiation environment of the Afghanistan conflict. So far, all attempts to end the violence between the Afghan government, insurgency, and US and NATO through negotiations have failed. Key obstacles to negotiations are the complexity of the conflict and the variety of state and non-state actors that are directly or indirectly involved. This paper explores the interests and relationships of these actors and highlights the most important alliances and connections. Finally, these connections are visualized in a network diagram. Table of Contents 1. Introduction: Purpose, Framework, and Caveats .............................................................................. 2 2. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) ................................................ 3 3. The Afghan Political Opposition ......................................................................................................... 4 4. The Afghan Warlords ........................................................................................................................... 6 5. The Afghan Insurgency .......................................................................................................................