TALKING POINTS

Update on the Loya Jirga

All Phase I selections have now been completed in Herat region. Phase II elections will begin the day after tomorrow, Tuesday 28 May.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, phase I and II in the northern region have been completed.

Women
Twelve (12) women have been elected in Phase II elections, six from the central region, Bamyan, one from Herat and five from Kabul.

Phase II elections for the Eastern region will begin tomorrow in Nooristan and Laghman and the following day in Kunar.

Phase I selections in Nangarhar are scheduled to take place 29 May with Phase II beginning the following day.

In the Eastern region, Khost, Paktia, Paktika and Logar, Phase II elections will begin at the end of this week.

In the South West, Kandahar, Phase II elections are expected to begin at the end of May and the beginning of June.

DSRSG Nigel Fisher's Trip to Delhi Conference on South-South Cooperation and the Reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Hosted by the United Nations Development Programme and the government of India, the conference focused on efforts to rebuild peace and development in Afghanistan. It took place on 23 and 24 May. It attacted high-level participation from nearly 50 contries, largely from the developing world.

The two-day meeting created a platform for developing countries to translate commitments, made in Tokyo at a donors' conference, into action.
Experience and expertise were offered by Bangladesh, Malaysia, Vietnam and Mozambique, to name but a few. Of particular note was the emphasis on the development of the private sector as an engine for Afghanistan's reconstruction. India pledged to help set up a Chamber of Commerce in Afghanistan, while the conference also recommended the formation of a 'South South' private sector business forum for Afghanistan. It was also agreed that Afghan civil servants, and others will be sent to other 'Southern' countries for technical and vocational training.

Extension of ISAF Mandate

On 23 May, last Thursday, the Security Council adopted resolution 1413 (2002), which extended the authorization of the International Assistance Force in Afghanistan for a period of six months beyond 20 June.
As many of you are aware, Turkey will now take on the role of lead nation for ISAF on or around 20 June.
Briefing the Council before the adoption of the resolution, to extend ISAF's mandate, United Nations Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, told the Council that, despite the progress in the past six months, it was too early to take the Bonn process for granted and to assume that it was cemented firmly into the destiny of the country.

UNICEF-WHO - Polio Immunization

A three-day National Immunisation campaign against polio will start on Monday, 27 May - a joint operation between the Ministry of Public Health, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The latest round of the nation-wide National Immunisation Days (NIDs) is targeting some 5.8 million children under the age of five. Teams of vaccinators will go from village to village and house to house, to ensure that all children in the target group are immunised. As in previous rounds, emphasis will be placed on ensuring that women vaccinators and monitors play a prominent role to facilitate access to mothers.

UNICEF is providing 6.9 million doses of vaccine for each polio immunisation campaign, as well as more than 16,000 vaccine carriers and 1,500 cold boxes.

This is the second of the four rounds of NIDs in 2002. The third and fourth rounds will take place in September and October, respectively.

We have copies of the joint UNICEF-WHO press release at the back of the room.

UNESCO - International Seminar on the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage

An International three-day seminar on the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage will begin tomorrow, 27 May in Kabul at 9.00 a.m. at the Hotel Intercontinental.

The Conference, organized jointly by the Ministry of Information and Culture of Afghanistan and the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has two main aims: first, to mobilize the international community behind efforts to conserve and safeguard Afghanistan's cultural heritage; and second, to promote and facilitate the effective coordination of short-term and long-term activities in the field.

The issues to be addressed at the seminar include: the urgent emergency needs of monuments and archaeological sites at risk; future plans for the Kabul Museum; creation of a national inventory of cultural properties; and legal instruments to regulate the protection of cultural properties and guard against illegal trafficking.

Attending the seminar will be representatives of the Interim Administration and a number of prominent cultural heritage experts as well as representatives of the various donor countries involved in Afghanistan's cultural projects.

If you have any more questions about this event we have Mounir Bouchenaki here, Director General for Culture of UNESCO, who is representing the Director General of that Agency, Koichiro Matsuura.

UNHCR Update on Returnees - Ragnhild Ek

The rate of repatriation continues at a high level. Since the start of the Afghan Interim Administration and UNHCR assisted return programme on 1 March, 730,000 refugees have returned to Afghanistan. An average of 2,500 families or 13,000 people per day returned during the month of May. At this rate we will reach our planning figure for this year within a weeks time. The ongoing operation is shaping up to be the swiftest voluntary repatriation facilitated by UNHCR since 1992 in Afghanistan.

The majority are still coming from Pakistan, from where so far 660,000 Afghans have returned. 590,000 have come through Torkham and Nawa Pass border crossings and some 80,000 have come through the Spin Boldak border crossing to their final destination.

A large part are returning from urban areas in Pakistan and Iran. As of this week, 35.3 % or some 217,000 returnees have come back to Kabul province. 28.4 %, or 175,000 have returned to Nangarhar. Other big destinations are Parwan, Kandahar and Kunduz. Pashtun are still the largest ethnic group, followed closely by Tajiks.

AIA, UNHCR and the Government of Iran signed a joint programme to facilitate the return of 400,00 Afghans from Iran on 4 April. More than 54,000 refugees have crossed from Iran through Islam Qala border post in north-west since 9 April, and Zaranj in the south-west since 4 May, 2002.

The latest group of some 100 Afghan refugees left Dushanbe in Tajikistan on 23 May. Most are coming back to Kabul, but some are from the northern provinces. The repatriation from Tajikistan is being carried out by the UNHCR in cooperation with the Tajik Foreign Ministry and the IOM in Tajikistan. Almost 10,000 returnees have returned from Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

WHO Health Update - Loretta Hiebert Giradet

The World Health Organization would like to point out some of the risks concerned with the high number of refugees and IDPs returning to urban areas. In particular we are concerned about an outbreak of Cholera and other diarrheal diseases. When situations such as Kabul reach overcrowding point, there is a lot of strain put on water and sanitation. Diarrheal diseases have already caused the deaths of about 85,000 children a year in Afghanistan. Therefore, we are very concerned about a possible outbreak of cholera here in Kabul and in some of the other urban areas as well. Currently, 20 - 40% of all deaths of children in Afghanistan are due to diarrhea and cholera is, of course, a diarrheal disease linked to poor drinking water and lack of sanitation.

Less than 25% of the population have access to safe water and only 12% have access to good sanitation. With the return of the refugees and the IDPs, we are preparing ourselves for an increase in these deadly diseases. We have set up inter-agency cholera task forces in all of the major urban centers in order to provide health education to the returnees and to the local population. In addition, we are attempting to put chlorination of water into place as well as disease surveillance and transport of lab specimens. As you know, cholera has a high mortality rate and people can die within a few hours if it is not treated. This is of primary concern to us in the upcoming months as cholera usually takes hold in the summer months.

On polio vaccinations, as was noted, this is joint UNICEF, WHO initiative. We are vaccinating six million children with 60,000 trained volunteers in this round. In the previous round, Afghanistan is on the verge of a major victory in the health sector, perhaps its only victory in the health sector. If this round is successful along with the two additional rounds planned for later this year, Afghanistan will be one of the first countries in all of this region to eradicate polio successfully.

WFP - Alejandro Chicheri

Yesterday Saturday 25 may, Tufts University famine expert Sue Lautze gave an overview of the 1,100 household survey that her team has completed over the last 5 month on the Food security situation in Afghanistan

The report is based on group interviews in 1,100 a number of areas throughout Afghanistan, and has been commissioned by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The full report will be released next Wednesday, 29 May. Preliminary conclusions released yesterday indicate that Afghanistan's poorest households have suffered over the last years from a tremendous collapse of the coping mechanisms due to conflict, drought and sociopolitical causes. The report shows as well that even when there has been a very positive 300% increase in the level of Food assistance in the country over the last year, this increase is not yet enough to cover all the needs of the Afghan people. Ms Lautze, recommended donors and aid agencies to continue and expand targeted, sustained, balance and generous assistance to Afghanistan.

Pipeline Constraints
Last week Kabul Area Office informed that stock position worsened because of a weakened pipeline. IP's were subsequently informed of the wheat shortage. The Area Office scaled down project wheat stock dispatches and reserved priority stock to sustain the bakery projects and assist the return of refugees from Pakistan and Iran.

This week there has been no improvement in the pipeline situation and in consequence, project implementation has been restricted even further. Wheat stocks are at their lowest levels - 52 million tons.

In the North, Mazar-i-Sharif Area Office, commodity pipeline shortages continue to negatively impact programme implementation and have resulted in the following stock management and priority revision consequences:

· 3 months rations distributions are being re-negotiated to 2 months with IPs.
· Retroactive free food distributions for early April and May will not be carried out.
· Food for Work (FFW) agreements has been temporarily postponed.
· 220,000 students targeted for the FFE programme have been reduced to 50,000.
· Teacher Training (TT) and Non-Formal Education (NFE) will be deferred.
· Mixed food commodities will be withdrawn from the Drought Affected Programme allocations.

Food for Assets Creation projects were approved with ACTED and GOAL amounting to 17,356 MTs of wheat and mixed commodities which is planned to impact 92,527 beneficiaries.

GOAL re-evaluated the food security situation in Jawzian, Khoja, Dukho, Khamyab and Qarqin Districts. An AFSU/VAM mission to the area verified the conclusions of the earlier assessments and confirmed that 60-75% of the population requires food assistance. Hungarian International Agency (HIA), who already provides free food distribution to 25% of the population have submitted proposals for 3 Food for Assets Creation projects. Continued pipeline shortages however will impact the capacity of WFP and IPs to fulfill community needs.

In the North Eastern Region (Faizabad Area Office)
Mixed commodity stocks have not been replenished due to the pipeline weakness. Unless shipments are received within the next 2 weeks Civil Servants and Food For Education (FFE) distributions scheduled for June will not occur. Cancellation of some carried forward distributions for the drought-affected populations are imminent unless wheat stocks are replenished. 5,000 million tons of wheat, 258 million tons of pulses and 280 million tons of vegetable oil replenishments are urgently required for June distribution.

Limited Food Distributions during The Harvest Period
Harvest has begun in the East. As a result, by the 3 week of May, WFP significantly reduced Food for Assets Creation, Food For Work and free distribution in the Eastern provinces (Jalalabad Area Office), to ensure stable cereal prices in the market during the harvest period. Distributions were suspended in Kunar, Laghman and Nangharhar, except a few pockets of extremely food insecure areas. The suspension remains in effect until the end of August when the results of the Food and Crop Assessment will delineate the Area' actual food security and vulnerability status. Food distributions however, will continue under the Returnee Refugee, School Feeding, Institutional Feeding, Supplementary Feeding and Civil Servants Programmes.

IOM - Assistance to Afghan Returns from Australia and Nauru

IOM is to implement an assisted voluntary return programme for Afghan irregular migrants in detention centres in Australia and the offshore processing centre in Nauru.
Under the programme, which will be funded by the Australian government, IOM will provide counselling to migrants who volunteer to return home, help them to obtain Afghan travel documents, arrange their air travel to Kabul, and facilitate their onward travel from Kabul to other locations in Afghanistan.

As part of the programme, IOM will also administer an Australian-funded reintegration package consisting of a cash payment of A$2,000 (US$ 1,100) per person or up to A$10,000 per family to help the migrants restart their lives in Afghanistan.
Australia will also fund an IOM project to refurbish a returnee processing and transit facility in Kabul. The Jangalak Centre was set up in the 1980s, but was badly damaged during fighting in the mid-1990s. The centre will be used for initial accommodation and vocational training for the returnees.
About 260 Afghans in detention in Australia who have been found not be refugees, or who are still waiting for a decision on their applications for protection status, are eligible for the programme. Another 750 Afghans in Nauru who are undergoing refugee status assessment, or who have already received a negative assessment, are also eligible.
Migrants who decide to take up the package will have to decide within 28 days of being formally notified about it, or within 28 days of being told that their asylum claims have been rejected. The package will also only be offered to people who arrived in Australia, Nauru or Christmas Island before 16 May 2002.
The terms and conditions of the voluntary return programme were agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Australia and the Afghan Interim Administration in Kabul last week.

Questions and Answers

Q: Regarding the Loya Jirga, you said twelve woman had been elected, how many men?
PIO: I would have to check my notes on that but it is quite a lot. If you come back to the office after the briefing, we can give you that figure.

Q: UNHCR mentioned a figure before, is that based on some kind of [inaudible]?
UNHCR: No I was just checking that before I left the office and they estimate about two million but they don't have detailed information so this should be taken with a lot of caution.

Q: cont: Is that a city or a province?
UNHCR: I understood it as a city but let me check on this for you.

Q: Is there any clarity from the commission about access for the press to the Loya Jirga.
PIO: No, they are meeting this afternoon and that issue is going to be debated. As Manoel mentioned last week, so far it has been proposed only for the opening and the closing, but that will be discussed this afternoon.

Q: Is ISAF or the UN in a position at the moment to comment on whether there has been any signs of intimidation in the Loya Jirga process in Kabul as has been reported outside Kabul?
PIO: No we have no information on that right now.

Q: We heard at the ISAF briefing today that Romania is bringing in 1,000 AK 47s for the Afghan National Army. Given the huge amounts of weapons that this country and the huge amount of weapons that the coalition forces have seized and the [inaudible] Interim Administration. Does the UN have a position on bringing more weapons into the country?
PIO: The UN's mandate does not extend to security. I think security comes under the purview of the Interim Administration and ISAF. As such we don't have a point of view at this moment.

We have a guest at today's briefing, Craig Mokhiber, the Special Advisor to the SRSG on Human Rights, however before he comes to talk to you, I would like to inform you that yesterday, the last in a series of four national workshops on human rights was concluded here at UNAMA. This workshop on the establishment of the Independent Human Rights Commission finalized proposals for the establishment of legislation for the proposed Commission as well as for the terms of reference of a programme of activities for that Commission for the next two years.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop was Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Lakhdar Brahimi who said, "Whether the future Independent Human Rights Commission had five or twenty members, it would require wide support." He added that he "hoped that many would participate in the human rights revolution that needed to take place in one generation in Afghanistan. While the United Nations was happy to contribute some help in the preparation of the Commission, he stressed that Afghans must do the work on human rights for their country. The United Nations and the international community, however, stood ready to help in every way in the creation of the Commission and during its lifetime. "

I will now pass you over to Craig who will fill you in more on the Commission and the developments that are taking place for human rights.

· Update on the Implementation of the Human Rights Provisions of the Bonn Agreement - Craig Mokhiber

On 9 March, at the UN offices in Kabul, a national process for the implementation of the human rights provisions of the Bonn Agreement was launched. Chairman Hamid Karzai, Minister Sema Samar, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi opened a session in which eighty leading Afghan human rights activits and defenders together with members of the Loya Jirga Commission, and the Interim Administration, set out the framework for this process of how the human rights provisions of Bonn are going to be implemented.

Since that time, there have been intense and broad consultations and technical preparations underway here in Afghanistan, in particular through the establishment of a number of national working groups that have been empowered to take forward this Afghan led process for human rights in Afghanistan. These working groups have brought together men and women from all around the country, the various provinces, to develop and agree a two-year framework for the promotion and protection of human rights in five key areas. Those areas are the establishment of an independent human rights commission as mandated by Bonn; a national programme of human rights monitoring and investigations to deal with current violations; processes of transitional justice so that Afghans can look at the abuses of the past and make a determination on how to deal with those abuses; a national programme for the advancement of the human rights of women and a national programme of human rights education, also mandated by the Bonn Agreement.

In each of these areas detailed national programmes have now been completed and each will be implemented, with UN and donor support, over the course of the next two years.

Yesterday marked another important milestone in this process. In a national workshop held here at the UN's Kabul headquarters, fifty Afghan human rights activists and defenders gathered together with the Interim Administration and with the United Nations to hash out the final details for the establishment of the first Independent National Human Rights Commission for Afghanistan. What they have done is to prepare a package that contains proposals for detailed terms of reference, the establishing legislation, and a two-year programme of activities for the Commission. In a few days, their work will be officially transmitted to Minister Sema Samar, the focal point within the Interim Administration for human rights matters. She in turn will present that package to Chairman Hamid Karzai and to the Cabinet for official adoption sometime during the first week of June. The Commission will thus be established during the first week of June and will begin to carry out its programme of activities for two years beginning in July.

This process has also produced detailed terms of reference for the Commission which set out its functions in the following areas. The Commission will be responsible for human rights investigations and monitoring; human rights reporting; human rights case work, in other words dealing with individual complaints and petitions; a national programme of human rights education; overseeing human rights institution building in the official and non-governmental sectors; a national programme for the human rights of women and, importantly, facilitation of broad national consultations on transitional justice and how to deal with the abuses of the past.

Questions and Answers

Q: So they haven't decided on how to deal with the atrocities of the past, but are setting a framework in which that can be discussed?
HRA: That is exactly right. They explicitly dealt with this question and decided not to preempt national consultations and a discussion asking the people of Afghanistan, in the various communities of Afghanistan, what they want to do about the abuses of the past. They have framed a programme of approximately 18 months of consultations around the country to ask those communities how they want to address those abuses of the past and to look at all the options that are available including Chairman Karzai's proposal for a truth commission. That is just one example of how they might come out on this in a year and a half.

Q: Will this body have some kind of formal secretariat?
HRA: It will have a formal secretariat. It will have a headquarters in Kabul with some 34 staff. In addition, it will have regional satellite offices in all the major centers of the country including Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad, Bamyan and Gardez as proposed by the national working group, and each one of those offices in turn will be fully staffed by professionals carrying out the various functions of the Commission.

Q: How would this be financed?
HRA: It is going to be entirely financed for the two-year period by external donor support. There is a project of support that is being developed in close consultation with office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNAMA. Already a number of donors have indicated their support this multi-million dollar programme.

Q: What is the proposal in terms of writing human rights into the law? Will that be a part of the common justice system or will they perhaps propose a separate package of legislation to cover human rights abuses with punishments?
HRA: In terms of the legal framework, the Bonn Agreement already essentially writes human rights into the law. A part of that framework, as you know, is the international treaty obligations of the country. Afghanistan is one of the countries in the world that has ratified virtually every human rights treaty with the exception of the Women's Convention. All of that is part and parcel of the national law at this moment. Bonn sets out a test in which any of the existing laws are applicable to the extent that they are consistent with 1964 constitution, international legal obligations and the Bonn Agreement itself.

Q: Is the record of people who are now part of the Interim Administration likely to be open investigation or the fact that Bonn Agreement has actually sanctioned the inclusion in the Interim Administration really make them immune from the usual prosecution?
HRA: There is no provision in the Bonn Agreement that actually provides immunity for future prosecution, on the contrary, it explicitly holds the Interim Administration and the subsequent bodies to be established to international human rights norms and standards. The decision on who will be held accountable and in what way will be what comes out of this national consultation process to take place over the course of the next year and a half. There is no amnesty and there is no immunity for perpetrators of gross violations of human rights, war crimes or crimes against humanity.