Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) help tackle corruption, (b) promote human rights and (c) improve the justice system in Afghanistan.

The UK is committed to supporting President Ghani’s efforts to eliminate corruption, promote human rights and improve the justice system as set out in his ambitious reform agenda at the London Conference on Afghanistan.

There has been significant progress, particularly on women’s rights, since 2001, but the gains made are fragile and the country still faces huge challenges. The UK provides support and funding for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission to help it protect human rights, investigate and catalogue violence and support those seeking justice. We play an active role, along with EU Member States, on protecting human rights defenders as part of the EU Local Strategy. In addition, the Department for International Development (DFID) also funds a number of humanitarian programmes that help to promote human rights.

Through DFID’s Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund we run a public financial management reform project to strengthen procurement, audit and reporting controls to improve transparency and accountability. The fund is also used to increase access to legal services through a justice services delivery project. In addition we’re working to increasing women’s access to justice by funding services providing legal advice to women suffering from domestic violence.