AFGHANISTAN: No Short Cuts to Afghan Justice

Plans for rebuilding Afghanistan always seek the shortest route – and have repeatedly resulted in failure. At the London conference last month there was talk of reconciliation or reintegration for the Taliban but, once again, the Afghan government and its international allies failed to put a legitimate and functioning justice system in place.

Reintegration of the Taliban should only be discussed when there is a proper justice system. Not only did the London conference fail to consider how to repair the justice system – what the obstacles are and how to remove them – but numerous meetings organised by the government and international community in Kabul have sought to legitimise and institutionalise traditional legal practices.

There are many problems with this short-cut approach. First, it will undermine the constitution. Second, it will not allow the legal system to be implemented properly. Third, it becomes an obstacle to legal practices based on international human rights. Fourth, and most importantly, it will keep Afghanistan from progress and force it to stay in the dark ages.

Reverting to a jirga system in Afghanistan, as proposed by President Karzai, is also a sign of failure for the Afghan government and its international allies. Historically, almost all indigenous tribes around the world had a similar system of assemblies to resolve their everyday disputes in the absence of a proper legal system. Traditionally in Afghanistan, a loya jirga ("grand assembly") would be held to ratify the king's already-made decisions.

Jirgas never accomplished any substantial results in Afghanistan. They can only be useful when there are minor issues within villages. But it is unrealistic to assume that we can achieve a reasonable and long-lasting solution to terrorism, poppy cultivation, drug trafficking, human right violations or corruption eradication through jirgas.

Most importantly, jirgas are assemblies of men, organised by men for men. Women have never been involved in jirgas in Afghanistan. Now, there are talks of a "women's jirga", which will satisfy our international allies but, in reality, will create more problems for the Afghan society.

For example, Afghanistan has many women in its parliament but very few of them are independent. The bottom line is that the decisions are made by men regardless of women's participation in the jirga. Only through a proper legal system can we increase women's participation in the justice system.

There is an Afghan women lawyers' association and there are Afghan women lawyers who are working with NGOs or other international organisations because they are not acknowledged or included in the Afghan legal system. Most importantly, inclusion of women in the formal justice system will reduce corruption.

In some of the distant villages informal justice systems prevail. In most cases, the informal justice systems are not fair – they always benefit the party who is closer to the elders and decision-makers – and they are rarely in favour of women.

Formalising then jirga system is another attempt by the Afghan government, under pressure from its international allies, to find a short-cut solution so that foreign troops can depart on the due dates.

Afghan people want and demand a legal system to fall back on and to trust. The only way to bring security back to Afghanistan, and therefore to the rest of the world, is through a legitimate legal system which protects the population. No matter how large the military or the police force become, if there is no legal system to shield the population from violations of human rights, we will not have the support of the Afghans, which is crucial to success in this fight.

We will only succeed in this war when we take it seriously and move away from the issues of reconciliation, reintegration and so on. Only then we will move on to the real work by taking serious measures such as restoring the legal system and reinforcing its practices with no exceptions.