(1)   What investigation by the Government has been undertaken into reports that new laws in Afghanistan deny women their basic rights.

(2)   Have any meetings been held on this issue; if so, who attended, and on what dates and locations were they held.

(3)   Has the Australian Government made any representations to the Afghanistan Government on the new laws; if so, can he indicate what response was given.

(1)   The Australian Government is firmly committed to efforts to protect and promote human rights in Afghanistan, and continues to monitor developments in relation to the Shia Personal Status Law (SPSL), which came into effect on 27 July 2009. The Government supports efforts by the international community, led by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), to seek clarification from Afghan authorities of the provisions of the SPSL and their implications for the rights of women. These efforts have been hampered by the absence of an official English-language translation of the law and by uncertainty about how the legislation would be applied in relation to other relevant Afghan laws.

(2)   and (3) The Australian Government has made formal representations on the SPSL to the Afghan Government in Kabul and in Canberra. The Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy Kabul made representations on the SPSL to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in May and June 2009. The Afghan MFA noted Australia’s concerns on this matter. DFAT senior officials also made representations on the SPSL to the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Canberra in June 2009. The Ambassador undertook to relay Australia’s views to Kabul. Further representations were made by DFAT senior officials on two occasions in January 2010. Subsequent to these discussions, the Afghan Embassy advised that it had confirmed that no official English-language translation was available. The SPSL has been discussed in the course of the Australian Government’s regular engagement with Afghan authorities and international partners in Kabul on a range of Afghan matters. In September 2009, I raised the issue of women’s rights in the Group of Friends of Afghanistan meeting in New York, which was attended by Afghanistan’s (then) Foreign Minister Spanta. In my address at the London Conference on Afghanistan in January 2010 I raised the importance of the Afghan Government meeting the needs of women and girls.