Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-24-Speech-5-050"
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"en.20090424.6.5-050"2
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"Mr President, the international community has been absolutely appalled at the information that we have all heard about the law that is being drafted in Afghanistan on the status of Shia women. It is appalling to believe that, at the beginning of the 21st century, a country that wants to be a democracy and wants to abide by its international commitments can have a law that limits the rights of women.
However, I believe that in our debate, and in everything that we do with Afghanistan, we have to be very careful how we approach things, because Afghanistan is a country that has come through a violent, repressive religious dictatorship; it has endured years and decades of civil war; it is a society in which people, more than buildings, have been hurt and destroyed.
We have to be very consistent in our messages, but we also have to be very careful in how we phrase those messages. We should call on the Afghan authorities to take a look at the law, to revise it and make sure that it is entirely in line with the international commitments of that country, as well as its constitution.
We should not use this as an election opportunity here for us in Europe but as something that we can pass on to our colleagues and friends in Afghanistan to make sure that they can fulfil the obligations that they have voluntarily undertaken themselves.
In this case we have to assist President Karzai and the Government of Afghanistan in revisiting this law and making sure that it is in line with international commitments and the constitution. It is part of our dialogue, and we have to be absolutely firm that no measures should be adopted that impede the rights of women.
I agree entirely with what Ana Maria Gomes has just said. But let us be very careful because, when we deal with a society that has been so traumatised, it is far more important how our messages are heard there than how our messages are understood here. Let us be very consistent in that and let us call on the Commission and the Council to pass on this message via all of our assistance programmes to the government and authorities in Afghanistan."@en1
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