Welcome to our new website
Kabul nights, July 2011, ©Bente Aika Scheller
Welcome
Heinrich Böll Stiftung is a German foundation close to the German Green Party. It is a non-profit organization with its head office in Berlin.
Since 2003, Heinrich Böll Stiftung has been actively involved in post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan. The main goal of our work here is to support democratization through promotion of a gender-sensitive legal framework and citizenship agency. Moreover we want to contribute to domestic and regional stability and security and to a sustainable development process through people’s participation.

Heinrich Böll Stiftung Afghanistan is currently working in the fields of Democratization, Peace & Security and Ecology.

The Afghanistan activities and the Civil Society Forum (2./3. December in Bonn)

Concept

Civil Society Forum Prior to the International Foreign Ministers’ Conference on Afghanistan

- October 12, 2011 - The International Foreign Ministers’ Conference on Afghanistan will take place in Bonn on December 5, 2011. The German Federal Government hereby meets Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s request, which was addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel at the November 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon. The conference will be held under Afghan leadership.

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Foreign Ministers Conference and the inclusion of the Afghan civil society

The Afghanistan activities and the Civil Society Forum (2./3. December in Bonn)

 - October 6, 2011 - On December 5, 2011 in Bonn an international Foreign Ministers Conference on Afghanistan will take place – nearly exactly to the day ten years after the Petersberg Conference on Afghanistan. Also representatives of the Afghan civil society will ask to speak with their own political proposals regarding Afghanistan’s future.  more»

INTRODUCTION

What moves Afghanistan?

- June 21, 2011 - In December 2011, ten years after the Petersberg Conference, the future of Afghanistan will be discussed anew. How can Afghanistan increasingly become militarily, politically and economically more independent? And where does the Afghan parliament and civil society stand in this year’s Bonn Conference? Will they be included? Or will they – as is so often the case in international conferences – be excluded? Barbara Unmüßig more»

Peace & Security

Article

Ending the War in Afghanistan: Towards a negotiated settlement

November 27, 2011 -

The current situation in Afghanistan is difficult. The violence is increasing, and neither the international forces nor the Afghan government seem to be able to prevent this. A peace process between the government and the rebels which regulates the distribution of power in the state, could pacify the situation.

Hamish Nixon more»

Study Paper

How do International Actors React When Their Universalistic Project is challenged? An Evaluation of Western Policies in Afghanistan under Conditions of a Drawdown

 - November 27, 2011 - In 2014 Western combat troops will leave Afghanistan after 13 years of engagement. In the wake of this caesura certain policy changes of actors of the international community have taken place. The author traces these changes in the cases of (I) the negotiations with the Taliban and (II) German governmental development cooperation. Thomas Kieschnick more»

Democratization

Report

Beyond 2014 there is still a lot to do

 - November 13, 2011 - As the date 2014 is approaching, and along with that the prospects of negotiations with the Taliban are mounting, there are a lot of unanswered questions among the Afghan society as well as the international community concerning the concrete ISAF policies on the state building project in Afghanistan. more»

Research and Policy Brief

Religion, Politics and Gender Equality

 - August 8, 2011 -

Some observers see incompatibilities between democracy, human rights and gender equality, on the one hand, and a world in which religion plays an active role in public affairs, on the other. Others ask whether it is useful to see religion as the nemesis of gender equality, and secularism as others ask whether it is useful to see religion as the nemesis of gender equality, and secularism as the precondition for it.

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Report

A First Step on a Long Journey: How People Define Violence and Justice in Afghanistan (1958-2008)

 - July 18, 2011 -

How People Define Violence and Justice is a joint research project of ACSFo and HBS on international crimes, massacres, rapes, murders, destruction of residential areas, homicide and imprisonment of intellectuals, torture and human rights abuses of the past fifty years.  The standards for justice and human rights violation in this project are defined by people. Views, beliefs and utterances of respondents constitute the basis of this research.

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Women in Society

Research Report

Women’s Perceptions of the Afghan National Police

The security needs of Afghan men and women differ. Whereas men bear the brunt of the direct impacts of conflict, women disproportionately suffer from the indirect effects such as increased levels of domestic violence, decreased access to health care and poverty. Due to this difference in security needs, gender must be taken into account when evaluating the relationship between citizens and the Afghan National Police (ANP).

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Ecology

Report

The conflict is not the only urgent concern that challenges our future

November 13, 2011 -

In a Heinrich-Böll-Foundation organized conference NGOs and Afghan civil society organizations exchanged their views on the challenges and threats of environmental pollution in Afghanistan. Besides naming the problems they formulated political demands and proposed solutions to the most urgent concerns.

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Ecology Publication Series

Ecology Publication Series

Afghanistan is haunted by numbers of problems. While people are already aware of many issues security, health …, but environmental issues were not yet topic of discussion. Nonetheless, ecological problems have a strong impact on people’s life. HBS Afghanistan Office in relevance to its activity in the area of ecology considering the role of media as good source of dissemination in public awareness and civic education, has already started a series of ecology publication in cooperation with daily 8 a.m. The goal of the publication is “To encourage the debate on environmental issues” in order to raise awareness for the importance of ecology and “green issues”, enhance people’s understanding of why the environment needs to be cared for and strengthen the idea of citizenship through identification with their country. 
This series is going to be translated in English and regularly published in HBS Afghanistan’s website.  

HBS Afghanistan in the media

Encouraging citizenship agency and political participation

Actively encouraging citizenship agency and political participation, we are in constant exchange with many Afghan activists and organizations working in that area. HBS therefore has become a valuable source of information particularly for German language media where a number of interviews, comments and articles from HBS or with contribution of the office can be found. more»