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Human Rights Educationin Afghan School System
Ahmad Nader NaderyT

he three decades of war and rule by governments guided by ideology (communism and socialism) or religion (radical Islam) seriously affected the education system in Afghanistan. Those who went through the formal education
system within one academic cycle (twelve years from primary till secondary levels)
starting in the 1980s would have gone through at least three ideological changes
in the syllabuses and subject contents that were taught in the schools. Conflicting
values were incorporated into the school educational materials—driven by thecommunist ideology, or radical Islam, or the need for new recruits for the war.
The tolerant and culturally pro-nonviolencesyllabus and content of school textbooks werereplaced by messages of violence and hatred.
In addition, the absence of gender-sensitive
textbooks —influenced by tradition— has further exacerbated the situation in the education
system of Afghanistan. As an example, in the
1980s the pro-communist regime modified thehistory and language textbooks and equipped
them with the revolutionary messages of violence and pro-totalitarianism. At the same time,to keep the cause of Jehad and freedom fighting
alive, the Afghan mojahiddin groups in refugee
camps developed textbooks that would help
their cause of producing more fighters. As an
example, in the primary schools textbook one
could read: “A person had 25 bullets and byusing one at a time he killed 9 communists.
How many bullets are left with him?”needs and did not prepare them to successfully
cope with today’s challenges and could not help
build a culture of tolerance and peace.

Establishment of the Human Rights
Commission
The civil war ended through an agreement
entered into by the representatives of various
ethnic groups of Afghanistan in early 2000s. In
a conference mediated by the United Nations
in Bonn, Germany, the Afghan representatives signed the “Agreement on Provisional
Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending theRe-Establishment of Permanent Government
Institutions” (more popularly known as theBonn Agreement) 1 on 4 December 2001.
The Bonn Agreement laid the foundation fora mechanism to protect and promote humanrights in Afghanistan.
Section C subsection 6 of the Bonn agreement states:

The worst ill effect was the closure of schoolsfor girls (50 per cent of the population) in
1996 during the Taliban Period. Females werebanned from employment; girls were not allowed to go to schools and universities. Thecurriculum provisions did not meet the people’s

The Interim Administration shall, with theassistance of the United Nations, establish

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

an independent Human Rights Commission,
whose responsibilities will include human rights
monitoring, investigation of violations of humanrights, and development of domestic humanrights institutions.

Based on this provision, the first-ever national human rights commission was establishedby a presidential decree of Hamid Karzai, thethen Chairperson of the interim administration,issued on 16 June 2002.
The terms of reference of the presidential
decree provides the following:
The Commission shall be charged with developing a national plan of action for human rights in
Afghanistan, and with human rights monitoring, investigation of violations of human rights,
development and implementation of a national
programme of human rights education, undertaking of national human rights consultations,and development of domestic human rights
institutions, in accordance with the terms of theBonn Agreement, applicable international humanrights norms, standards, and conventions, andthe provisions of this decree and annex. It shallcarry out these functions in all of Afghanistan.

(Article Two, Terms of Reference)2

However the mandate of the Commission
was co-terminus with the effectivity of theBonn Agreement, and thus was meant to last
only during the two-year transition period.
The Commission’s work was recognized asvaluable and led the drafters of Afghanistan’s
new Constitution to provide for the establishment of a permanent National Human Rights
Commission.
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic ofAfghanistan3 was adopted by the Constitutional
Loya Jirga (National Assembly on the Constitution) during its 13 December 2003 – 4 January
2004 session and was formally ratified by President Hamid Karzai on 26 January 2004.

The new Constitution, in its Preamble,
states one of the reasons for its adoption. The
new Constitution aims toForm a civil society void of oppression, atrocity,
discrimination as well as violence, based on ruleof law, social justice, protecting integrity andhuman rights, and attaining peoples’ freedoms
and fundamental rights.

This provides the appropriate basis for Article 59 of the new Constitution that provides:
The State, for the purpose of monitoring theobservation of human rights in Afghanistan,
to promote their advancement and protection,
shall establish the Independent Human Rights
Commission of Afghanistan. Any person, whose
fundamental rights have been violated, can filecomplaint to the Commission. The Commission
can refer cases of violation of human rights to thelegal authorities, and assist in defending the rightsof the complainant. The structure, and functionsof this Commission shall be regulated by law.

The “Law on Structure, Duties and Mandate of the Afghanistan Independent Human
Rights Commission,” issued by President Hamid Karzai on 14 May 2005, provides for theobjectives of the institution:
1. Monitor the situation of human rights
in the country
2. Promote and protect human rights
3. Monitor the situation of and people’s
access to their fundamental rights andfreedoms
4. Investigate and verify cases of humanrights violations, and
5. Take measures for the improvement andpromotion of the human rights situationin the country. (Article 5)
Human rights education is part of theobjectives of the Afghanistan Independent
Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) underHuman Rights Education in Afghan School System

the promotion of human rights objective.
Thus, one of the duties and powers of AIHRC
is “[D]issemination and promotion of humanrights for public awareness.”
The government’s Five-Year Strategic
Benchmarks (2006 - 2011)4 complemented
the establishment of a permanent AIHRC. The
benchmarks focus on five programs, namely:• Program 1: Empowering the National
Assembly• Program 2: Justice & the Rule of Law• Program 3: Religious Affairs• Program 4: Public Administration Reform• Program 5: Human Rights
Under Program 5: Human Rights, the following is the benchmark:
1. By end-2010: the Government’s capacity tocomply with and report on its human rights treaty
obligations will be strengthened; Government
security and law enforcement agencies will adopt
corrective measures including codes of conduct
and procedures aimed at preventing arbitraryarrest and detention, torture, extortion, andillegal expropriation of property with a view tothe elimination of these practices; the exercise offreedom of expression, including freedom of themedia will be strengthened; human rights awareness will be included in education curricula, andpromoted among legislators, judicial personnel,
and other Government agencies, communities,
and the public; human rights monitoring will
be carried out by the Government and independently by the Afghan Independent Human
Rights Commission (AIHRC), and the UN[United Nations] will track the effectivenessof measures aimed at the protection of humanrights; and the AIHRC will be supported in thefulfillment of its objectives with regard to monitoring, investigation, protection, and promotionof human rights.



Human rights education in general (including human rights education in the formal education system) constitutes one of the benchmarksof the government human rights program.

AIHRC Program
The AIHRC adopted a Strategic Plan covering the 2005-2006 period, including provisions
for human rights education. The Strategic Plan
is based on six main programmatic functions tofulfill its mandates, namely:
1.	 Human rights education
2.	 Promotion and protection of women’srights
3.	 Promotion and protection of childrights
4.	 Monitoring and investigation of humanrights violations
5.	Transitional justice
6.	 Protection and promotion of the rightsof persons with disabilities.
The 2006 Strategic Plan provides for thetwo major activities on human rights educationin the school system:
1.	 Integration of human rights issues into
the curriculums of educational andacademic centers in the country and theremoval of references to violence anddiscrimination; and2.	 Filtering of intermediate school textbooks for violence and discriminationand integration of human rights principles.
The AIHRC has to undertake these activities
in partnership with the Ministry of Education,
Ministry of Higher Education, universities andteacher training higher education institutions.
These activities are supported by provisions in the Strategic Plan on staff training(including those in the education ministries)
and the establishment of a network (among

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

Ministries, national organizations, influentialpeople, private sector and clergy) to gain broad
participation in human rights education activities nationwide.
The Strategic Plan provision on children
consists of the raising of awareness on childrights through child-to-child education programs using visual materials (one session eachyear in eleven AIHRC offices for 300 childrenper year); and the organizing of contests tocelebrate children day once each year (halfday activity for two thousand children in theregional offices).
The AIHRC is operating out of elevenregional offices and four provincial offices
throughout the country and conducts regular
Human Rights Monitoring through deployment of Human Rights Field Monitors tomostly rural and remote areas of the country.

Human Rights Education
Article 21 sub article 10 of the “Law on
Structure, Duties and Mandate of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission”
states that the AIHRC shall be “[F]ormulating
and implementing a national human rights education plan and public awareness programs.”5
As part of its mandate on human rights
education, the AIHRC entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Education (MoE) in2004 to address the insensitivity of the school
textbooks towards human rights values. The
agreement dealt with the content of subjects
and textbooks. The AIHRC noted the existenceof messages that promote violence. The MoE
agreed to revise the content of the subjects andthe textbooks and take out all inappropriate
messages.
Since then, the AIHRC has been assisting
the MoE in preparing the new school curriculum and textbooks that respect acceptedinternational human rights standards and basic
principles of human rights. The detailed five-year strategic plan developed by the MoE in2006 made human rights a core component of
Afghanistan’s formal education. The AIHRC
provided substantial technical support in thedevelopment of this five-year strategic plan.
Under Article 16 of the Constitution ofAfghanistan, in addition to the two nationalstate languages (Dari and Pashto), the six ethnic
languages are recognized as the respective third
official languages in the areas where the majority of the inhabitants speak them. The MoE,
required to prepare textbooks for the children
who speak in these languages, decided to makethe textbooks for the six minority languages
human-rights-sensitive and provide sufficient
contents in the promotion of human rights.
The AIHRC actively lobbied the MoE toestablish new Departments for the following
languages within its structure:
1.	Uzbaki,
2.	Turkmani,
3.	 Pasha-e,
4.	 Balochi,
5.	Nooristani,
6.	 Pamiri (Shaghni and Wakhi).
The required textbooks for these languages
are in different stages; e.g., Uzbaki textbooks
are prepared, printed and distributed in schools
from grades 1-4 in the northern part of thecountry. All six Departments would like to prepare the textbooks for grades 1-12 only in one
language (their mother-tongue language).
In March 2007, the MoE and the AIHRC
signed a second agreement on human rights
education. The 2007 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) provides for the representationof the AIHRC in the work of the curriculum
development department of the MoE and for
AIHRC staff to work closely with textbook
authors in order to ensure that the textbooks
are human-rights-oriented and gender sensitive. The specific relevant MoU provisions are
the following:Human Rights Education in Afghan School System

A. Duties and responsibilities of the MoE• Inclusion of human rights concepts into
the general education curriculum at different school levels with the special focus
on literacy program and the teacher
training institutions of the MoE• Development of syllabuses on humanrights education as short-term courses
in the teacher training institutions• Provision of facilities for the humanrights education unit staff of the AIHRC
to hold human rights education workshops and training for school teachersand students, including students andteachers of teacher training institutions
all over the country.
• Establishment of Human Rights andGender Departments within the new
MoE structure in 2008 to facilitate andfollow up on the mutual programs ofMoE and AIHRC and their effective
cooperation.
B. Duties and responsibilities of the AIHRC• Provision of human rights education materials and sufficient technical assistancein developing human rights syllabuses,and provision of advise on how to makethe new school curriculum for grades
1-12 human-rights-oriented and gendersensitive.
•	Seconding of two fulltime qualified staff
to help the research and syllabus development department of the MoE ensure
the incorporation of human rights values
into the new syllabuses.
• Helping the capacity-building requirements of MoE Department staff.
The AIHRC has been providing technicalassistance in the development of the following
human rights curriculum contents:

Primary classes - Grades 1-6:
1- Individual rights,- Family rights- Environment/school-	Society- Government,- Basic concept of human rights, tobe incorporated into the literature
textbooks- Human rights course
Secondary classes - Grades 7-9:
1.	 Individual and family rights- Individual and self-recognition- Individual rights/human rights-	Self-esteem and human dignity- Family	Skill: Communication, motivation forthinking and expression
2.	 Individual and society-	Respect for others- Protection of vulnerable groups andthe persons with disabilities- City and citizenship- Individual rights	Skill: Recognizing your own and others’ rights and training to establish
healthy relations with others
3.	 Government and political system- Government-	Security- Justice- Freedom- Law	Skill: Discipline and dispensation ofjustice and commitment
4.	Some essential concepts of humanrights- Environment (and human rights)- Freedom of expression- Women’s rights- Child rights

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS-

Cultural heritage and historicalmonuments- International community and globalization- Conflict and violence	Skill: Accountability towards cultureand community
Secondary classes - Grades 10-12
1.	 Individual and family	Skill: Establishing relationship withfamily members and community
2.	 Individual and society- Human needs (demands and rights)- Humanitarianism- Conflict and violence- Peace Skill: Understanding and fostering healthy relationship with otherpeople
3.	 Government- Law- Democracy- Civil society- Mass media- Pluralism (culture of dialogue)-	National participation
	Skill: Familiarity with governmentand democratic values
4.	Some universal concepts of humanrights- International Human Rights standards- World peace (familiarity with international courts)- Cultural legacy- Pluralism and acquaintance withdiversity of human cultures
	Skill: Understanding of universal
concept of human rights and humanbeing

Other Ad-hoc Programs
The AIHRC conducts a wide range of human rights education activities through theregular training of journalists, teachers, civilsociety organizations, religious figures, civil
service employees, police and national army
personnel. It also convenes human rights workshops, seminars, and conferences on thematic
issues, and engages the local communities andcivil society as trainers on human rights.
AIHRC funded the printing of at least six
human rights messages on the cover of thetextbooks of two subjects (Dari and Pashto) in
two national languages (Dari and Pashto) forGrades 7-12. These textbooks were distributed
to Afghan schools in the middle of the school
year 2008. This was undertaken under the 2007
MOU between AIHRC and the MoE.
The messages were taken from the chapter
on rights and responsibilities of citizens in
the new Afghan Constitution, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the Islamic
Human Rights Declaration. The messages wereprepared by the AIHRC. This is the first timethat the Afghan education system has the human rights messages and real stories reflecting
human rights issues in the textbooks of thepublic schools in the country.
Since the human rights syllabuses and modified school textbooks have not yet been fully
introduced into the Afghanistan school system,
it is too early to assess the level of success ofthe program and know the challenges involved.
But there are likely challenges including thefollowing:•	Some level of resistance throughout theschool system is likely to occur due tothe introduction of a new concept• Insufficient number of professional andqualified teachers will slow down theintroduction of the human rights courses
at the school level•	Since the MoE is underfunded, it will
be hard to secure enough budget forHuman Rights Education in Afghan School System

the development of the human rights
education program and build specialized
capacity on human rights education at
the Afghan educational institutions•	The implementation of the humanrights education program will face theproblem of wrong interpretation of theinternational human rights standards
by the politically-motivated religious
leaders who consider human rights as
contradicting Islamic principles.
However, the experience of three decadesof continued gross human rights violations inAfghanistan has brought a good level of publicattention for the institutionalization of humanrights in the country. This provides an opportunity for a successful implementation of humanrights education program in Afghanistan.

Endnotes
1	The full text of the agreement is available at www.
afghangovernment.com/AfghanAgreementBonn.htm
2
Decree of the Presidency of the Interim
Administration of Afghanistan on the Establishment ofan Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Accessed from: http://www.aihrc.org.af/decreeofp.
htm
3
Full text of document available at Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan, Office of the President, www.
president.gov.af/english/constitution.mspx
4Full text of document available at Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan, Office of the President, www.
president.gov.af/english/np/governance.mspx#HR
5
Law on Structure, Duties and Mandate ofAfghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Accessed from http://www.aihrc.org.af/law_of_aihrc.
pdf