WHEN SELAY GHAFFAR AND BARRY SALAAM, the two representatives chosen by Afghan civil society, rose to speak, you could hear a pin drop in the conference hall. There had never been anything like this before: prominent seats directly in front of the presidential rostrum and preferential speaking times in the opening part of the conference were reserved for this one woman and one man, both previously unknown, as the spokespersons of civil society. From the Afghan government they calmly and tenaciously demanded good governance, a campaign against corruption and, with particular emphasis, the guarantee that, despite all the need for inner-Afghan reconciliation, there should be no amnesty for criminals. This was one of the climaxes of the International Afghanistan Conference in Bonn “From Transition to the Transformation Decade”. It was rewarded with vigorous applause from the delegates of 85 countries and 15 international organizations, among them the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) as well as numerous observers and journalists.
Internationally, Germany plays a key role in relation to Afghanistan: as chair of the International Contact Group on Afghanistan, as lead in the UN Security Council, as third largest provider of troops and as civilian donor. At the beginning of December 2001, after the defeat of the Taliban, the first Afghanistan Conference at Petersberg near Bonn defined the roadmap for the reconstruction of the country. Thus it came as no surprise that during the NATO Summit in Lisbon in October 2010 Afghanistan’s President Karzai asked the Federal Chancellor to organize another conference ten years later to define the future international engagement. In the light of the withdrawal of international combat troops by the end of 2014, it was necessary to define a new and dependable foundation for Afghanistan and make a lasting contribution to peace and security in a dangerous region.
The special value of the Bonn conference is not only to be found in the smoothly run event of 5 December 2011. Germany led the preparatory process with the Federal Government Special Representative in the chair of the 50-member International Contact Group and steadily built consensus over the months before the conference in close coordination with the Afghan government. Skilful agenda and expectation management enabled concrete advances to be made before the conference, and eventually the complete agreement of the international community with Afghanistan was achieved on important questions.
The organization of a civil society support process played an important role. The goal was to give Afghan civil society room to formulate positions and to present them at the conference in a publicly visible way independently of government influence. It was possible to gain the support of four of the German political foundations. The Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBS) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) supported the dialogue process in Afghanistan organized by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). In the course of several conferences the latter formed a delegation of 34 regionally and thematically representative civil society delegates and agreed a civil society position paper. With this group, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNS), organized the Afghanistan Civil Society Forum in Bonn on 2/3 December 2011, immediately before the Foreign Ministers Conference, as the culmination of the six-month negotiation process. It was also attended jointly by the foreign ministers of Germany and Afghanistan, Westerwelle and Rassoul. The two delegates who were selected as spokespersons had equal status with foreign ministers when they spoke at the Bonn conference.
The core outcome of Bonn is the firm “joint pledge” by the international community and Afghanistan for the remaining phase of transition and for the transformation decade from 2015 to 2024. On the Afghan side, in addition to a long-term commitment to democracy, pluralism and the established constitution, increased efforts in the implementation of the reforms of the Kabul process were made a firm political priority. Seven principles were defined for the inner-Afghan peace and reconciliation process. The peace process must be (1) under Afghan leadership, (2) be inclusive and take into account the legitimate interests of all Afghans. The result of the process must include: (3) the confirmation of a sovereign, stable and undivided Afghanistan, (4) the rejection of force, (5) the renunciation of international terrorism and (6) respect for the Afghan constitution including the human rights contained within it, especially women’s rights. Furthermore, (7) the region must respect and support the peace process and its outcome. These principles now form a framework that has been internationally agreed with Afghanistan for the inner-Afghan peace process.///
More information at www.diplo.de/afghanistanconference
