Community Based Dispute Resolution in Afghanistan

Welcome to this podcast from the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. It’s a lecture on Community Based Dispute Resolution in Afghanistan that took place in November 2010. The speaker is Dr. Deborah Smith, who for four years was a Senior Research Manager at AREU.

I hope you’ve been enjoying this AREU podcast. To conclude her presentation, Deborah talks about the draft of a new national law, that will attempt to regulate Community-based Dispute Resolution in Afghanistan and its relationship to the state system.

Q1: The first question refers to the practice of baad, in which, to resolve a dispute, a woman or girl is given by the family of the guilty party to the family of the aggrieved party, as a form of compensation. are given from one family to another, in order to solve a serious dispute. Baad is a common topic at forums on women’s rights in Afghanistan, and Deborah is asked to address it.

Q2: The next question asks if it is important to maintain flexibility about the forums in which disputes are resolved.

Q3: Deborah is then asked to talk about Taliban-style punitive justice. Does it ever form part of CBDR?