Monday, April 06, 2009
International human rights: Karzai and Sharia law
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is moving forward. He acknowledges the international concerns that the law he signed in March sanctions a horrific Islamic creed against women. The law applies to 10 percent of Afghans, the Shiites, and includes the following mandates:
- a man can have sex with his wife every fourth day, if she is not ill (aka RAPE)
- endorses child marriage, when girls are able to menstruate
- a wife must ask her husband's permission to leave the house, unless there is a medical emergency
U.N. Development Fund says that the law "legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband" by allowing men to force sexual intercourse on their spouses.
Politicos observe that Karzai signed the law in a hurry, in order to gain support for the 2009 August election.
NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, suggests that European countries might be wary of increasing troops to stabilize Afghanistan and fight the Taliban, after Karzai signed the law. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also suggested restraining troop levels.
But Karzai is more flexible than he was when he ruched into signing the law.
According to the FOCUS Information Agency, on April 4, 2009 Karzai said:
"If there is anything that is of concern to us then we will definitely take action in consultation with our [religious clerics] and send it back to the parliament.This is something that we are also serious about and we should not allow."
What are the international community's options if the law continues? Can the International Criminal Court (ICC) step in?
International law imposes a subjective moral standard on state sovereignty. For now, the ICC only prosecute, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
The following actions are considered crimes against humanity:
-Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, or enforced sterilization;
-Persecution against any identifiable group based on gender, political affiliation, race, nationality, ethnicity, culture, or religion; or
The ICC is one impetus to quell laws against women.
I wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal to respond to their editorial, which attacked the capabilities of the ICC. The letter is at www.courtneyhibbard.com.
- a man can have sex with his wife every fourth day, if she is not ill (aka RAPE)
- endorses child marriage, when girls are able to menstruate
- a wife must ask her husband's permission to leave the house, unless there is a medical emergency
U.N. Development Fund says that the law "legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband" by allowing men to force sexual intercourse on their spouses.
Politicos observe that Karzai signed the law in a hurry, in order to gain support for the 2009 August election.
NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, suggests that European countries might be wary of increasing troops to stabilize Afghanistan and fight the Taliban, after Karzai signed the law. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also suggested restraining troop levels.
But Karzai is more flexible than he was when he ruched into signing the law.
According to the FOCUS Information Agency, on April 4, 2009 Karzai said:
"If there is anything that is of concern to us then we will definitely take action in consultation with our [religious clerics] and send it back to the parliament.This is something that we are also serious about and we should not allow."
What are the international community's options if the law continues? Can the International Criminal Court (ICC) step in?
International law imposes a subjective moral standard on state sovereignty. For now, the ICC only prosecute, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
The following actions are considered crimes against humanity:
-Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, or enforced sterilization;
-Persecution against any identifiable group based on gender, political affiliation, race, nationality, ethnicity, culture, or religion; or
The ICC is one impetus to quell laws against women.
I wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal to respond to their editorial, which attacked the capabilities of the ICC. The letter is at www.courtneyhibbard.com.
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