Global Rights first began working with Afghan women in refugee camps in Pakistan and established our Kabul field office right after the Taliban fell in 2001. We now work to increase access to justice for poor and marginalized people and promote women’s rights in Afghanistan by building the capacity of our local partners to understand human rights law and use legal mechanisms to protect human rights and promote the rule of law. Our programming includes the following:

The Young Lawyers-in-Training Program (YLTP) aims to expand access to justice through intensive training in Afghan civil, criminal, and international human rights law for students in Kabul University’s law faculty and the law and shar’ia faculties at Al-Biruni University.

The Legal Fellowship Project (LFP) places promising young YLTP graduates in government ministries and local human rights and justice nongovernmental organizations. The project allows fellows to strengthen their legal and advocacy skills by gaining practical work experience working as lawyers to advance human rights. Global Rights also administers the Women’s Legal Services Program, which places recentlygraduated fellows with women-led and women-focused organizations to provide much-needed legal services to the local communities.

We also provide technical assistance to our local partners as they establish new Legal Advice Bureaus (LABs) at the courts where lawyers will assist clients with finding and completing the appropriate forms to register their cases, provide basic advice on simple family law matters, and, if necessary, refer them to attorneys willing to provide pro bono legal assistance.

In the first program of its kind in Afghanistan, Global Rights is also working to increase  access to justice for Kabul family court clients through our Family Law Clinical Training Program (FLC). It aims to ensure that poor and marginalized populations—particularly women—are able to secure the legal services they need to understand and assert their rights in basic family court cases involving issues such as forced marriage, domestic violence, and child custody.

Through these targeted programs and our continuing outreach and technical assistance to the broad-based Afghan civil society community and state justice sectors, we are building the capacity of our local partners to defend human rights and promote the rule of law.

Fact Sheets

English | Dari | Pashto

Publications

Living with Violence: A National Report on Domestic Violence in Afghanistan (2008) English