The Search for Legitimate Rule, Justice and a Durable Peace: Hybrid Models of Governance in Afghanistan

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

^* The authors would like to express their appreciation to Dr Richard Ponzio for reviewing and providing helpful editorial advice on several drafts of this brief.

¹ Agreement on Provisional Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending the Re-establishment of Permanent Government Institutions (Bonn Agreement), December 2011: 2.

² ELJ district-level delegates were elected by approximately 25,000 ‘level 1 voters’, who in turn were elected by acclamation by more than 250,000 base-level voters.

³ Other significant issues included the role of the former king, Zahir Shah, Islam, creating a new parliament, and socio-economic development.

⁴ Saikal further contends that the loya jirga ‘set the foundation for democratic practices which Afghan leaders could follow to govern and chart the future of Afghanistan.’ Amin Saikal, ‘Afghanistan after the Loya Jirga,’ Survival 44, no. 3 (Autumn 2002): 48.

⁵ According to Francesc Vendrell in an interview on 1 May, 2006, ‘Some jihadi leaders participated openly with weapons, and the Loya Jirga helped legitimise them. If the jihadis had succeeded in creating an Islamic transitional administration, they would have overturned the Bonn Agreement.’

⁶ In addition to the 450 delegates from Afghanistan's then 32 provinces, the president was also permitted to select 52 additional representatives. 20% of CLJ participants were women.

⁷ Before the UN Security Council on 31 January 2003, Brahimi himself stressed the need to ‘broaden the political base supporting the peace process’ because ‘too many Afghans feel excluded from the government and political transformation which Afghanistan is undergoing’. The briefing is available at www.un.org/News/dh/latest/afghan/brahimi31jan03.htm.

⁸ Interview with Professor Al-Mojaddedi on February 21, 2006.

⁹ However, as Jean Arnault, then UN Deputy-Special Respresentative of the Secretary-General for Political Affairs and later SRSG, stated in an interview on January 25, 2006, ‘While the UN facilitated the CLJ, we had no preferred system of [of democratic governance]. Our concern was that the interference of factional powers might have adverse effects for stability.’

¹⁰ In addition, women would be guaranteed at least 25% of the seats in the lower house of parliament.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Humayun Hamidzada

* * The authors would like to express their appreciation to Dr Richard Ponzio for reviewing and providing helpful editorial advice on several drafts of this brief.