Advisor to the Ministry of Justice

On January 10, 2010 Ms. Fouz Abdel Hadi participated in the conference “Gender Justice in Afghanistan”, hosted by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), UNIFEM, the US Department of the State’s Justice Sector Support Project (JSSP) and CANADEM’s Governance Support Office (CGSO). The conference aimed to raise awareness and open discussion on women and men’s human rights in Islam, and how these rights are consistent with those in international human rights law.

Speakers included scholars and researchers from the Afghan Parliament, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), the National Academy of Science, the Kateb Higher Education Institute, CGSO, and IDLO. The conference was widely attended by government departments, university students and faculty members, law institutions, and international organizations. Notable participants included drafters from the Ministry of Justice (Taqnin), officials from the Supreme Court of Justice, the Attorney General’s Office and the Afghan Parliament.

Ms. Abdel Hadi collaborated with the Afghan Ministry of Justice Legislative Drafting Unit through her capacities as Technical Advisor. She assisted the unit in many aspects, including the integration of modern information technology capacities and mainstreaming human rights concepts in the writing of Bills and legislation.

In addition to the “Gender Justice in Afghanistan” conference, Ms. Abdel Hadi contributed as a guest speaker to two other important international events. Rights and Democracy hosted the first on February 23 and 24, 2010 in Kabul, in which she spoke about “The wife-husband mutual relationship in the Islamic Family”. The second, the “International Conference on the Empowerment of Legislation for Women in Afghanistan”, was held by AIHRC on March 6 and 7, 2010. In this conference, Ms. Abdel Hadi spoke of an efficient mechanism that can help the legislators make laws which promote women’s rights while remaining true to both Shari’a and international human rights.

Ms. Abdel Hadi was seconded as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Justice with the financial support of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).