A diverse group of Afghans discuss shared principles and ways to engage with various initiatives worldwide.
From 29–30 August 2025, the Max Planck Foundation and its Afghanistan Legal Research Network (ALRN) and Global Friends of Afghanistan (GFA) hosted a joint gathering at the South Asia Institute, an academic institution within Heidelberg University, on the future of governance and the rule of law in Afghanistan. While many conferences have addressed these topics over the four years since the de facto authorities assumed governance, this conference adopted a distinct approach in both its form and function.
The conference was Afghan-led, providing a neutral, inclusive forum for Afghans to engage in dialogue on issues affecting their country. Around 40 Afghan participants—spanning political, ethnic, generational, and gender divides, and representing elements of civil society, political and human rights activism, legal expertise, and security studies—engaged in plenary and working group discussions in Dari and Pashto without interpretation. Recognising the many principled efforts of Afghan civil society, political and legal actors, and individual advocates, participants took stock of the diverse initiatives on Afghanistan that—within the broad international landscape—often remain disconnected from one another. Drawing on and informed by these, participants worked to synthesize common principles for governance and the rule of law in Afghanistan. To ensure such work, and similar work, is integrated into a structured, international, Afghan-led dialogue and platform, participants then considered ways in which engagement might occur.
During the first session, four working groups of 10 or 11 persons each discussed a set of shared principles authored by networks of Afghans who work in various fields, as well as principles they had brought to the session from the initiatives of which they are individually a part. After discussing the content of the principles and the way they were developed, groups suggested areas for improvement to help build broader consensus. These suggestions included the creation of mechanisms for impartial dialogue, mediation, and trust-building, and the reflection of the voices of the people through modern, democratic processes.
During the second session, the same working groups mapped the large organisational ecosystem, likely comprising more than 64 initiatives. Participants conveyed that these groups are not well coordinated, as they are geographically widespread, and lack trust among each other. Compounding these issues is the lack of funding to properly coordinate. One of the main suggestions for moving forward was the creation of a working group, or secretariat, that could identify and then list these groups and analyse each group’s manifesto, in the hopes of finding commonality on governance, rule of law, and law enforcement. After finding these areas of commonality, the groups would be better placed to work together, fostering a sense of shared ownership in the process.
During the final session, groups had the opportunity to engage with some of the initiatives drawn from the ecosystem, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, to present what they had discussed and their plans for moving forward.
This conference was the Max Planck Foundation’s ALRN’s third and GFA’s fourth, marking the first joint event between the Foundation and GFA. It was also the Foundation’s first event held at the South Asia Institute, which generously provided its facilities for this purpose.
The conference summary can be found here.