Thirty four members of Afghan civil society organizations, including a remarkable number of women, participated in the Bonn 2 conference.

Bari Salaam, a civil activist and Seli Ghafar, the head of Human Relief for Afghan Women and Children, were the only members representing Afghan civil society in the conference. The rest attended as observers.

“In the conference, we argued about the strengthening of Afghan National Security Forces before the handover process,” said Bari Salam. “We requested the presence of foreign troops until external interventions [Taliban and their supporters] are fully cut off.”

According to Salam, good governance was another issue which civil society insisted be considered. “We insisted on building good governance because Afghan people need to see responsive and accountable government institutions,” he adds.

Salam believes that the transition process would be successful if the government could save all the achievements gained in the past ten years. But he doubts if the government is able to do so. “The civil society cannot count on an incapable government,” he argues.

Besides talks with the Taliban civil society is concerned about women’s rights.

“During the conference, we argued that reconciliation with the Taliban should not harm human rights, otherwise, the country will once again fall into a crisis,” he explained. “Any effort to bring peace should not be based on giving privileges to the extremists, and peace talks should push forward a clear mechanism to prevent the Taliban model of governing.”

Salam said that civil society is concerned that all the achievements of the past ten years, including the Constitution, would be violated and all commitments of Bonn 2 will remain just on paper if the international community leaves Afghanistan.

Any effort to bring peace should not be based on giving privileges to the extremists, and peace talks should push forward a clear mechanism to prevent the Taliban model of governing.

Roshan Seran, the Executive Director of Training in Human Rights for the Afghan Women’s Association and IFES Advocacy Consultant, who was part of the civil society delegation, shared her view about the conference with www.bamdad.af.

“We pointed out the role of civil society forums in ensuring the rule of law,” she said. “We met with the Members of Parliament of Germany as well as a number of official delegations from some other countries and shared our concerns over reconciliation with the armed opponents of the Afghan government. We indicated those concerns relate to change in the Constitution and rights of Afghan citizens, particularly women. We also shared our concerns over deterioration of the security situation by 2014 once the foreign troops withdraw.”

“In a meeting we had with Michael Steiner, Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, he promised that Germany would continue its support to the Afghan government as well as civil society,” Roshan added.

According to Salam, the U.S Secretary of State and Foreign Affairs’ Minister of Germany promised that the international community would not leave Afghanistan alone after 2014 and would continue support to the country.

UN Secretary General Banki Moon, the U.S. representative for women’s affairs, as well as ambassadors from Italy and Finland said that nothing would stop the democratic process in Afghanistan.