The involvement of regional warlords in drafting Afghanistan's new constitution raises doubts about whether free elections can be held this year, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.
The constitution, adopted Sunday after an exhausting battle over power-sharing and minority rights at the three-week conference, is supposed to draw Afghanistan's unruly tribes together in a moderate Islamic republic under a strong central government.
"Human rights protections were put on paper," said John Sifton, Human Rights Watch's researcher on Afghanistan. "But there were a lot of missed opportunities, and complaints about threats and corruption during the convention."
The New York-based group said the biggest gain is that women are now guaranteed a substantial number of seats in Afghanistan's bicameral National Assembly. One provision of the constitution also provides specific equality between men and women under the law.
Human Rights Watch said the constitution contains provisions enunciating basic political, civil, economic and social rights, but little strong language empowering institutions to uphold them.
The constitution also fails to adequately address the role of Islamic law and its relationship to human rights protections, Human Rights Watch said. It is concerned that conservative factions could use appointments to the new judiciary to implement interpretations of Islam that may violate human rights standards.
The group said it was concerned about the political intimidation and vote-buying that took place before and during the convention. The abuses proved that warlords and local factions continue to dominate Afghanistan's political processes.
During elections for delegates to the convention, Human Rights Watch said it documented numerous cases of death threats and corruption, and a general atmosphere of intimidation at election sites. UN officials told Human Rights Watch that many of the elected delegates to the convention were proxies or allies of local factional leaders, and that much of the substantive discussion at the convention took place between allies of President Hamid Karzai and various factional representatives, behind closed doors.
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