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	Want to reach biodiversity goals? International human rights law could help by Stockholm Resilience Centre   Sep. 2021   A healthy and sustainable environment is a human right. International human rights law could help improve compliance with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.   Several assessments have reported on the weak compliance with the Aichi Biodiversity Targets by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)   Research shows that the CBD can draw from international human rights law to address compliance challenges   Improving the CBD’s peer review mechanism is important for strengthening accountability with upcoming the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.   Much to be gained: Although there are a wide range of guidelines designed to help with implementing the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the world has failed to fully meet any of its global biodiversity targets.   Countries are not sticking to their promises, and biodiversity is suffering.   This has implications for human rights too, as the full enjoyment of such rights depends on a healthy and sustainable environment.   In a new paper published in Transnational Environmental Law, centre PhD student Niak Sian Koh, with colleagues Claudia Ituarte-Lima and Thomas Hahn, explores the extent to which the review mechanisms of international human rights law can help to improve compliance with the CBD.   "There is an urgent need to take the compliance gap seriously and initiate the transformative changes required to achieve the 2050 CBD vision of living in harmony with nature" - Niak Sian Koh, lead author   Signed in 1993, the Convention on Biodiversity has near universal membership with 196 member states. This makes it one of the few multilateral environmental agreements that has been ratified by almost every country in the world.   The CBD adopts decisions with commitments via consensus of the states. An example of such a commitment is the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, which contains the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets.   Koh and her colleagues explored why the Aichi Biodiversity Targets have not been fulfilled, despite the fact that states set targets for themselves and guidelines exist for their implementation.   The authors identified key challenges that hamper state compliance with CBD obligations:   Lack of institutional capacity; slow uptake of CBD guidelines into national policies; difficulties in ecological monitoring and establishing universal biodiversity metrics; inconsistent biodiversity policy integration; questionable opportunities for effective and meaningful public participation.   They then analysed what insights could be gained from international human rights law to foster implementation and enforcement of the CBD.   The authors suggest that the CBD can draw from international human rights law to address these compliance challenges, through, for example, facilitating the participation of civil society organizations to provide specific input, and engaging independent biodiversity experts to assess implementation.   Other strategies include self-assessments by the country under review, peer review by thematic experts and member states, country visits as well as formal mechanisms to follow-up with recommendations.   The authors highlight a case where an NGO was able to challenge a development project by using both human rights and biodiversity review mechanisms to build a legal case. This way, a stronger argument could be built to emphasize the negative impacts of the project on people and biodiversity.   “This paper provides evidence that insights from human rights law can be useful for strengthening accountability within the post-2020 global biodiversity framework,” conclude the authors.   http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2021-08-31-want-to-reach-biodiversity-goals-international-human-rights-law-could-help.html   * Access the paper via the link below. Visit the related web page
	Afghan Women call for Protection of Rights by CEDAW, CRC, Amnesty, DW, agencies   Jan. 2022   Afghanistan: Taliban attempting to steadily erase women and girls from public life. (OHCHR)   Taliban leaders in Afghanistan are institutionalizing large scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls, a group of UN human rights experts said today.   The experts reiterated their alarm expressed since August 2021 at a series of restrictive measures that have been introduced since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, particularly those concerning women and girls. “Taken together, these policies constitute a collective punishment of women and girls, grounded on gender-based bias and harmful practices,” the experts said.   “We are concerned about the continuous and systematic efforts to exclude women from the social, economic, and political spheres across the country.” These concerns are exacerbated in the cases of women from ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities such as the Hazara, Tajik, Hindu and other communities whose differences or visibility make them even more vulnerable in Afghanistan, they added.   The experts also noted the increased risk of exploitation of women and girls including of trafficking for the purposes of child and forced marriage as well as sexual exploitation and forced labor.   These exclusionary and discriminatory policies are being enforced through a wave of measures such as barring women from returning to their jobs, requiring a male relative to accompany them in public spaces, prohibiting women from using public transport on their own, as well as imposing a strict dress code on women and girls.   “In addition to severely limiting their freedom of movement, expression and association, and their participation in public and political affairs, these policies have also affected the ability of women to work and to make a living, pushing them further into poverty,” the experts said. “Women heads of households are especially hard hit, with their suffering compounded by the devastating consequences of the humanitarian crisis in the country.”   Of particular and grave concern is the continued denial of the fundamental right of women and girls to secondary and tertiary education, on the premise that women and men have to be segregated and that female students abide by a specific dress code.   As such, the vast majority of girls’ secondary schools remain closed and the majority of girls who should be attending grades 7-12 are being denied access to school, based solely on their gender.   “Today, we are witnessing the attempt to steadily erase women and girls from public life in Afghanistan including in institutions and mechanisms that had been previously set up to assist and protect those women and girls who are most at risk,” the experts said in reference to the closure of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the physical occupation of the premises of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.   “Various vital, and sometimes lifesaving, service providers supporting survivors of gender-based violence have shut down for fear of retribution, as have many women’s shelters, with potentially fatal consequences for the many victims in need of such services.”   Other efforts aimed at dismantling systems designed to prevent and respond to gender-based violence have included discontinuing specialized courts and prosecution units responsible for enforcing the 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and preventing many women aid and social workers from being able to fully perform their jobs and assist other women and girls.   While these measures have affected women and girls of all spheres of life, the experts highlighted their particular concerns for women human rights defenders, women civil society activists and leaders, women judges and prosecutors, women in the security forces, women that were former government employees, and women journalists, all of whom have been considerably exposed to harassment, threats of violence and sometimes violence, and for whom civic space had been severely eroded. Many have been forced to leave the country as a result.   “We are also deeply troubled by the harsh manner with which the de facto authorities have responded to Afghan women and girls claiming their fundamental rights, with reports of peaceful protesters having been often beaten, ill-treated, threatened, and in confirmed instances detained arbitrarily,” the experts said.   “We are also extremely disturbed by the reports of extrajudicial killings and forced displacement of ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Hazara, which would suggest deliberate efforts to target, ban, and even eliminate them from the country.”   The experts reiterated their call to the international community to step up urgently needed humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people, and the realization of their right to recovery and development. The financial and humanitarian crisis has been particularly devastating for groups in situations of heightened vulnerability within the Afghan population, particularly women, children, minorities and female-headed households.   At the same time, the international community must continue to hold the de facto authorities accountable for continuous violations of the rights of half of the Afghan society and to ensure that restrictions on women and girl’s fundamental rights are immediately removed.   “Any humanitarian response, recovery or development efforts in the country are condemned to failure if female staff, women-led organizations, and women in general - particularly those from minority communities - continue to be excluded from full participation in the needs assessments as well as in the decision-making, design, implementation and monitoring of these interventions,” the experts said.   http://bit.ly/33pBK52 http://news.un.org/en/story/2022/01/1109902 http://www.passblue.com/2022/02/15/meanwhile-in-afghanistan-women-are-suffering-needlessly-this-winter/   Sep. 2021   UN committees urge Taliban to honour their promises to protect women and girls   The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) call on the Taliban to honour their pledge to protect Afghan women and girls, and to respect and fulfil the human rights enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Their statement is as follows:   “As the planned withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan is due to be completed within hours, the Committees urge the Taliban and all other parties to take measures to protect the lives and respect the human rights of women and children.   The Committees are alarmed by the restrictive practices and ongoing reports of targeted attacks on women and girls including academics, health workers, human rights defenders, media workers, civil servants and many others who have contributed to the country’s development over the past 20 years, as well as those exercising their right to education. These women should be praised for their important roles and contributions to economic, political and social development in Afghanistan, rather than being subjected to assaults.   The Committees recall that excessive and arbitrary restrictions on women’s and girls’ rights to freedom of movement and expression, education, work and their right to participate in public life are incompatible with the principles of proportionality and non-discrimination.   Both Committees urge those in power and exercising effective control in Afghanistan to comply with the basic tenets of international human rights and humanitarian law, including their due diligence obligation to prevent and protect women and girls from gender-based violence and discrimination.   The Taliban has issued a number of statements in recent days referring to their plans to form an inclusive government. They have pledged to uphold the rights of women to work and of girls to go to school. The Committees urge the Taliban to honour their own commitments and not to let history repeat itself.   The Committees, however, note with deep concern the caveat that women will be very active in society, but within the framework of Islam. They reiterate that under international human rights law, including both Conventions, which are binding on those exercising effective control in Afghanistan, religious norms and traditions cannot be invoked to justify violations of women’s and girls’ human rights.   The right to freedom of religion protects individuals, and not religions as such. The Taliban and any State organs must respect, and ensure to all persons under their jurisdiction or effective control, including women and girls, the human rights set forth in the Conventions and in all other human rights treaties to which Afghanistan is a party.   A humane and inclusive transition will be pivotal in setting the future path for women and children, especially girls, in Afghanistan and in ensuring that their human rights are respected and protected.   The two Committees call on the Taliban and all parties to respect, protect and fulfil all the human rights of women and children enshrined in both Conventions and look forward to engaging with Afghanistan on the implementation of the recommendations issued by CEDAW in February 2020 in its concluding observations on Afghanistan’s third periodic report, and at the upcoming dialogue of the CRC with Afghanistan, respectively.   http://bit.ly/3n9vvtC http://bit.ly/3zylR6E http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2021/9/statement-ed-patten-dismay-and-regret-at-absence-of-women-in-afghanistan-government http://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20210825-afghan-women-s-groups-eye-uncertain-future-under-vague-islamic-framework http://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/12/no-stability-and-peace-without-protecting-women-and-girls http://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/29/list-taliban-policies-violating-womens-rights-afghanistan http://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/day-music-died-afghanistans-all-female-orchestra-falls-silent-2021-09-03/   Nov. 2020   Women’s rights must not be compromised in peace process. (Amnesty, agencies)   Any compromise on women’s rights in a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban would betray two decades of hard-won progress for Afghan women, said Amnesty International, ahead of a new campaign highlighting the incredible work of women human rights defenders in Afghanistan.   The campaign celebrates Women Human Rights Defenders who fight gender-based discrimination and stand up for women’s rights. It calls on governments to prevent, investigate, and prosecute violence against women and girls.   At a moment when the rights of Afghan women are at grave risk of being traded off in a peace deal with the Taliban, Amnesty International is working with women human rights defenders in Afghanistan to showcase their powerful stories.   “Having spent two decades fighting hard to win their most basic rights, Afghan women now face the real possibility of seeing these gains bargained away. The advances made on women’s rights must not be rolled back in this peace process – the human rights of all Afghans, especially women and girls, must be at the heart of any eventual agreement,” said Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s Afghanistan Campaigner.   “As the stories we’ve gathered powerfully demonstrate, Afghan women have been at the forefront of efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan. They have played a vital role in ensuring that issues such as human rights, justice, accountability, victims’ rights, and crimes against humanity are on the agenda in the ongoing peace efforts.”   Under the Taliban, women and girls were denied a whole range of human rights, including the rights to education, health, free movement, and political and social participation.   Since the Taliban regime ended in 2003, important strides have been made on women’s rights. There are now 3.3 million girls in education, and women are politically, economically and socially engaged. Despite ongoing conflict, Afghan women have become lawyers, doctors, judges, teachers, engineers, athletes, activists, politicians, journalists, bureaucrats, business owners.   However, major obstacles and challenges remain. Violence against women is rife, the participation of women at all levels of government remains limited and, according to UNICEF, 2.2 million Afghan girls still do not attend school.   “A just, sustainable peace must uphold the human rights of all of Afghan society. Women are among those who have suffered most and their full participation in the peace process is absolutely essential,” said Samira Hamidi.   “The progress women have been making is starting to redress the near-total exclusion they have faced in the past, and shows how central they are for the future of the country, but much work remains to be done. Any peace deal must not only protect the gains already made but commit to further advancing the rights of Afghan women.”   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/afghanistan-womens-rights-must-not-be-compromised-in-peace-process/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/07/afghanistan-talibans-suffocating-crackdown-destroying-lives-of-women-and-girls-new-report/   * In 2019, Amnesty International featured 16 Afghan Women Rights Defenders: http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/11/16-days-of-activism-afghanistan-whrds/ http://theconversation.com/global/topics/afghan-women-102974 http://www.wilpf.org/afghanistan-advancing-peace-inclusion-and-prosperity/ Visit the related web page
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