Joint Meeting of Political Parties for Establishing a Contact Committee for Peace

A joint meeting of political parties for establishing a contact committee for peace was held at the State Ministry for Peace (SMP) with the presence of Dr. Alema, Deputy Minister of Human Rights and Civil Society of the Ministry, Laila Jafari, Director of Political and Civil Society Organizations, and representatives of more than 40 political parties.
Dr. Alema, Deputy Minister of Human Rights and Civil Society of the SMP, spoke about the role of political parties in the peace process and said that political parties could work to defend and preserve the values of the Afghan people in the peace negotiations.
According to Dr. Alema, defending the system, protection of civil rights, development, return of refugees, the post-peace agreement integration process, rights of war victims, and etc are among the issues that are very important in the peace negotiations and political parties can work together on these issues and come up with specific plans.
The Deputy Minister of Human Rights and Civil Society Organizations of the State Ministry for Peace said that the ministry has held several meetings of the negotiation team with the people, which are supposed to continue for sharing the political parties' concerns, suggestions and questions with the negotiation team.
She added that considering the suggestions of the political parties in the previous meetings, a contact group of political parties will be established to convey the voices and demands of the people to the negotiation table through this group. She stated that the State Ministry for Peace will facilitate it.
Ms. Laila Jafari also spoke about the purpose of the meeting and said that this meeting was held in order to get the views of the representatives of the political parties on creating a single group, which would be in contact with the negotiation team.
Representatives of political parties also expressed their views and suggestions for establishing the contact group.
They praised the intention of the SMP for establishing the group and said that the group could pave the way for cohesion of the political parties’ views.
After discussions, the representatives of political parties decided to be established an eleven-member committee to represent the parties, and after voting and collecting views, eleven people were elected as members of the committee of political parties for peace.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Alema said that the eleven elected members, in coordination with all parties, would set up a working mechanism for the committee, as the mechanism would be discussed at the next meeting.