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Gender Department

The Gender Department of the Ministry of Justice, was established in 1390 under the Department of Policy, Planning and Foreign Relations in order to ensure the equality between men and women and empowering women. In 1391, it was separated from the Department of Policy, Planning and Foreign Relations and since then it operates under the Office of the Deputy Minister (Admin. & Finance). The Department of Gender mainly functions to strengthen the gender equality, raise the level and quality of women, and ensure the physical and psychological safety of all staff members, particularly women in their working environment and to create equal opportunities for women within the various departments of the Ministry of Justice.

Given the restraining factors, social and cultural realities that have limited many opportunities for women, made them unable to acquire proper education and to develop their natural abilities. In general, the role of women in the social, cultural, economic and political arenas of the country remains inconspicuous, thus, the social equality among the genders has not been materialized. Furthermore, the services provided by the Ministry of Justice to the people, most sections of the ministry require the extensive and active participation of women. Therefore, the Department of Gender, mostly focusses on two main objectives to provide equal opportunities for women, derived from the National Working Plan for Women that are:

  1. Upgrading the capacity of women staff members of the ministry

  2. Increasing the presence of women staff members in the key positions of the ministry.

In order to attain the two objectives, this department has been adopted and implemented the policy paper of gender, in addition to the strategic plan of gender.

The principle activities of the Gender Department are as following:

  • Developing policy for the Gender Department, titled “ Social Gender Policy”

  • Developing strategic plan for the Gender Department based on the strategy of the Ministry of Justice and Social Gender Policy.

  • Convening awareness programs and encouraging female graduates of the universities to apply for the vacant positions in the Ministry of Justice.

  • Introducing (11) female staff members of the ministry to obtain higher education to the Salam University, introducing (3) female staff members for one year course of learning English language to the Kardan University and introducing (23) female graduates for a novitiate term to the ministry and the Balkh province.

  • Equipping the kindergarten of the ministry as well as preparing the gender training manual.

  • Developing, preparing and printing one brochure, three posters on gender related issues with the financial support of the GIZ.

  • Collecting and preparing statistics of the male and female staff members of the Ministry of Justice on the basis of ranks, gender, province and various zones of the country in 1394, with the technical support of the JSSP.

  • Conducting around 47 workshops within the Ministry of Justice and educate some 532 staff members of the ministry on gender, gender related policies and documents, law Against Violence on Women, Human Rights, and indicators of the National Working Plan for Afghan Women, women harassment and management and leadership issues.