CIAO DATE: 09/2010
August 2010
United States Institute of Peace
This report discusses informal justice in Afghanistan and its relationship to state institutions. It draws on a series of pilot projects sponsored and overseen by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and on work by other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international donors, and the international military in Afghanistan, as well as on field visits by the authors. Over the past several years, the USIP team that oversaw the projects spoke with hundreds of Afghan government officials, community leaders, citizens, members of the NGO community, international government officials, and military personnel about informal justice issues. The report provides a summary of this research and a series of recommendations for the Afghan government and the international community engaged with rule of law in the country. Noah Coburn is a political anthropologist and traditional justice specialist who has conducted research in Afghanistan since 2005. He is based at USIP’s office in Kabul. John Dempsey is a lawyer and senior rule of law adviser with USIP in Kabul, where he has worked on justice-related issues since 2003. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors.
Resource link: Informal Dispute Resolution in Afghanistan [PDF] - 267K