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Media Advisory: Press conference on human rights in Afghanistan

Parliament Hill press conference
Friday, Mar. 10, 2006
10:30 AM
Charles Lynch Room

 

MEDIA ADVISORY – Rights & Democracy will hold a press conference on Parliament Hill this Friday, March 10, 2006, to address the worsening security situation for women in Afghanistan and the pressing need for the international community, including the Government of Canada, to ensure that its efforts to secure Afghanistan include long-term support for human rights and the promotion of gender equality if stability and democracy in the country are to endure.

The press conference will hear from key Canadian women involved in the ongoing struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan, including the Hon. Flora MacDonald, Canada’s former Minister of External Affairs and Chair of Future Generations; Adeena Niazi, president and founder of the Afghan Women’s Organization in Toronto and one of two Canadian representatives to the 2002 Constitutional Loya Jirga in Afghanistan; and Cheshmak Farhoumand-Sims, Toronto-based expert on women’s human rights and peace-building in Afghanistan.

Jean-Louis Roy , President of Rights & Democracy, will also discuss new and ongoing challenges facing staff at the human rights organization’s Kabul office, which administers the CIDA-funded Women’s Rights in Afghanistan Fund.

Rights & Democracy is a non-partisan, independent Canadian institution created by an Act of Parliament in 1988 to promote, advocate and defend the democratic and human rights set out in the International Bill of Human Rights. In cooperation with civil society and governments in Canada and abroad, Rights & Democracy initiates and supports programmes to strengthen laws and democratic institutions, principally in developing countries.

For More Information

Please contact Steve Smith (ext 255) or Louis Moubarak (ext 261) at Rights & Democracy, 514-283-6073.