Foreign Affairs committee  My colleague can tell you more if time permits. Before the project is set up, there has to be a tripartite dialogue involving the state that receives the investment, the business that will be investing and the populations that will be touched. That is the first measure that must

Foreign Affairs committee  I think there are two ways of resolving that problem. You can solve it when the damage has been done, when a complaint has been filed. Then, an investigation has to be held. Since I presided a human rights commission in Canada for several years, I know that that is a long and com

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I wish to introduce to you my colleague Carole Samdup who is the program officer responsible for this file at Rights and Democracy. I would like to begin by thanking the chair, Mr. Sorenson, as well as the committee members for their attention

Afghanistan committee  The drafting committee was aware that the clerics were promoting some contentious articles in the law. That's why they were bringing forward their own version of what they thought would meet the Sharia law and the principle of Islam while respecting women's rights. So the draftin

Afghanistan committee  At that time, the drafting committee was in the process of negotiations with other elements in society. They felt this was going well enough that there was no need to make it public. We have to realize this was Afghan-led. We provided them with support, but this was their own law

Afghanistan committee  Yes.

Afghanistan committee  We have the commitment of the President and of the Minister of Justice that the version of the law will meet these commitments, that the process will be open and transparent, that it's not going to be a one-time sort of affair. There will have to be many meetings and exchanges of

Afghanistan committee  The commitment is that it will go to the Parliament.

Afghanistan committee  The task force at the time...now we call it the drafting committee. We called it the task force, but it was composed of similar people. They did have these negotiations about the text of the marriage contract. What I know from the reports that I read is that the most contentious

Afghanistan committee  It probably went to the Parliament to become law, but I remember that a crucial part of it was that they needed to make sure that the Supreme Court would support this text. The Supreme Court was part of it and also had a representative on the committee.

Afghanistan committee  It wasn't what I'm being told. A marriage contract was not a law. It's simply a legal document that was approved by the Supreme Court.

Afghanistan committee  Well, now the contract is being used across the country and even promoted by religious leaders.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, of course. We expected that once the Ministry of Justice was satisfied that everything that needed to be done to have the Shia personal law had been done and it met all the requirements of the constitution and the convention on the rights of women, then they would draft the

Afghanistan committee  Well, there is a Sunni family law. There is a family law that was revised, the last time in 1977, but it's based on Sunni jurisprudence. When the constitution was negotiated, the Shia minority asked to have their own law, because right now they live under the Sunni family law.

Afghanistan committee  In six provinces—and what we hope to do in the near future is extend it to all of the 34 provinces—we are working with legal aid clinics that are providing support to women whose rights are abused.