Position Paper for Geneva Conference (2020)
Afghanistan is the country which – despite decades of war – is still suffering from domestic violence and international terrorism, corruption, influence of extremists groups and poverty. The recent devastating security situation in Afghanistan further justifies the human beings’ unity, alliance and promise for the common peace and security in the world. Fortunately, the international community has always been a great partner of Afghanistan in its difficult times with its continued support in different sectors. Especially, in institutionalization of the democratic values, rule of law and human rights. The “2020 AFGHANISTAN CONFERENCE AND THE PATH TO PEACE, PROSPERITY AND SELF-RELIANCE IN GENEVA” is also an opportunity for the whole stakeholders to hear the voices of Afghans and support them to reach Peace, Prosperity and Self-Reliance.
The constitution of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (ratified) on January 26, 2004 guaranteed the (Right to Information) RTI to all afghan citizens, which is stated in the 3rd paragraph of article 50th (the citizens of Afghanistan shall have the right of access to information from state departments in accordance with the provisions of the law). Based on this article, the first ATI law ratified on 2014 and amended on 2019 and the rating (https://www.rti-rating.org ) got the first position among the 120 laws all around the world.
AIC is a newly-established organization which needs further developments, but have had tangible achievements in its short period. To make access to information a reality in Afghanistan, there is a long road to go, and newly established organizations usually face problems such as; lack of proper office space, enough budget, qualified staff, equipment and other problems. In addition, there are other major problems in field of accessing information, which includes; culture of secrecy – since long time in administrative bureaucracy of Afghan institutions – low level of public awareness from the law among the society and public institutions, lack of proper documents/record management and archive system, lack of active presence of the commission in the provinces and lack of assigning public information officers (PIOs) in the provinces. To overcome the current problems, AIC-A has developed a five-years strategic plan in which it has identified all stakeholders’ boundary partners and has a specific plan for them. AIC has prospected key outcomes in the strategy, which are; Institutional Development, Raising Public Awareness, Supporting Institutions and Public Information Officers (PIOs) and the Stakeholders.
Fortunately, the AIC has made great achievement such as; receiving the officially approved organizational structure, hiring 80% of the staff, increasing the staff structure from 51 to 162 positions, drafting and approving of five years’ strategy and the procedures for the commission and Right to Information, raising awareness of thousands of Afghan citizens about RTI, proceeding of the complaints, monitoring of the government entities’ websites, having independent budget and possessing an infrastructure.
Notably, the 2020 Geneva Conference for Afghanistan is a great opportunity to add some RTI related indicators to the Afghan government commitments, both to ensure transparency and accountability in government organizations, supporting AIC to reach its objective and indicators and flowing the funds to the right path and combating against corruption. Hereby, the AIC proposes the following indicators for the Afghan government commitment to be ensured within the coming four years:
1. All the government entities (ministries and independent organizations) have created offline or online databases to ensure digitalization of the official records/documents and easy accessibility in retrieval and sharing with the public.
2. All the government entities (ministries and independent organizations) have drafted and approved its Procedure for Classification of Information in accordance to the Law on Access to Information and close coordination of AIC.
3. All the government entities (ministries and independent organizations) have added the PIO position in Tashkeel (Structure) of its central offices and assigned PIOs for its provincial offices.
The AIC leadership commends international support and cooperation with the Afghan Government and its people and hope that the secretariat of the Geneva Conference would consider AIC-A’s proposed indicators in Afghan government commitments/strategy to ensure transparency, accountability.
