Promoting and Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions In recent years, NHRIs in the Asia Pacific region have undertaken public inquiries on a broad range of issues including: mental health and human rights; freedom from torture; forcible removal of indigenous children from their families; access to public transport for persons with disabilities; the right to health; and the right to food. In the area of women’s human rights, NHRIs worldwide are increasingly using public inquiries to expose widespread violations. AFGHANISTAN: NATIONAL INQUIRY INTO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN In Afghanistan, traditional customs and practices – including women’s seclusion; their domination by husbands, fathers or brothers; judicial recognition and enforcement of moral crimes; dominance of traditional discriminatory practices over religious principles; early and forced marriage and sexual assault; and low levels of education and women’s security – result in women being kept under men’s control and at risk of violence. These issues have come regularly to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission through its complaints work and investigations. The Commission has specialist women’s rights units and staff and seeks to protect and promote women’s human rights through all its regional and provincial offices and nationally. It has investigated violations of women’s rights since its establishment and reported regularly on the situation of women in Afghanistan. In undertaking its work, the Commission became convinced of the need for a more systemic investigation of violence against women, with a view to drawing public and political attention to women’s experience of these grave human rights violations and to developing recommendations for governmental and community action to address and eliminate the violence. The Commission commenced a national inquiry into violence against women in 2012, focusing in particular on so-called “honour killings” and rape. Work on the inquiry began with internal planning and preparation. A special inquiry team of a Commissioner and staff was appointed. Internal workshops were conducted to explain the inquiry and its methodology to staff, including eight workshops over six weeks involving 250 staff. During this period, the Commission also consulted and briefed senior government authorities at national and provincial levels, civil society, the media and other stakeholders to gain their support and cooperation. The Commission sought broad public involvement in the national inquiry, especially the participation of women affected by violence. It adopted a number of complementary strategies to enable this. During the last months of 2012 and the first month of 2013, the inquiry team and other Commissioners and staff documented 124 cases of violence against women, 41 cases of killings and 83 cases of rape. They collected other evidence and heard the views of many of those involved with the issues, including victims and their families, government officials, community leaders, NGOs and others. As part of the inquiry, the Commission: • Interviewed victims and victims’ families, using standard form questionnaires • Conducted interviews in detention centres and prisons with accused and convicted abusers • Organized 61 focus group discussions • Held a number of public hearings, including three at the national level and in 14 provinces with 470 speakers and over 1000 participants. 68