Roundtable event on ‘The Role of Civil Society in Afghanistan’ convenes Afghan diasporic scholars and civil society

The three-day event concluded the Foundation’s series on legal and social developments in Afghanistan after 2021.

After August 2021, the Max Planck Foundation maintained its role of observing and analysing rule of law developments in Afghanistan through a wide-ranging network of Afghan and international scholars. Expert working groups and webinars laid the ground for a recent conference to explore the potential and future role of civil society in Afghanistan.

Participants met in Istanbul for three days of discussion while others joined online. They included members of the now-defunct Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, legal scholars, former judges, and others.

Topics under discussion included broader trajectories at the intersection of Afghan law and society since 2021 as much as specific instruments for accountability before international courts and institutions, and the practical and diplomatic ramifications of engagement with Afghanistan’s current de facto authorities.

The proceedings were designed as a direct contribution to the discourse and debate on the law in Afghanistan, offering a platform to many who are directly concerned in their efforts and attachments to a country in upheaval.

The event was part of a series of the project Civil Society and the Rule of Law in Afghanistan’, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.