Strengthening legal rights and protections in Afghanistan’s rural communities

The program aimed to educate local mediators and citizens on their legal rights and obligations under Afghan constitutional and statutory law, strengthen women's roles in disputes affecting women, and establish the state's exclusive jurisdiction over criminal prosecution and penalty. RLS-I was piloted in 2010 in 15 key districts as a legal awareness-raising initiative and later expanded to an additional 33 districts over two program phases. The program's impact was evaluated through surveys of members of RLS-I's key beneficiary groups, including elders, disputants, and citizens, in nine districts before and after programming. The evaluation also included a survey of 1,800 households before and after the program in six districts. The evaluation found that RLS-I participants reported a 95% satisfaction rate with the program's activities, with over 80% of elders consulting RLS-I learning and outreach material at least occasionally and sharing the information with someone outside of their immediate household. Over 70% of surveyed elders reported applying some aspect of RLS-I training in their home communities, and nearly half of RLS-I elders reported a willingness and ability to attend activities even if lunch and transportation were not provided. RLS-I elders were in higher demand and reported changes in personal and community practice, with Afghans requesting the mediation services of RLS-I elders 15% more than comparison group elders in the previous 3-6 months. RLS-I elders were also 30% more likely to report a positive change in how disputes were resolved in their communities compared to one year ago. The evaluation also found that RLS-I elders recognized the legally-acceptable scope for non-state dispute resolution, with elders reporting that their dispute adjudication resolved the criminal aspects of a case falling by 11% and those reporting that their dispute adjudication resolved only the civil aspects of a case increasing by 38% relative to comparison group elders. RLS-I elders recorded and registered decisions more often than elders who did not participate in RLS-I, with a 26% and 13% increase in formality of informal decisions contributing to their longevity, legality, and visibility to state actors. RLS-I elders demonstrated strong knowledge gains of 10-40% in topics such as family, inheritance, and rights of the suspect, detained, and accused. However, the evaluation also found that RLS-I elders struggled to retain knowledge of legal rights they may not see in their communities or practiced by their district government, particularly on measures of more abstract constitutional rights such as freedom of assembly or gender equality under the law. The success of RLS-I was contingent upon an elder's capacity to learn, with overall literacy rates at one-third to one-half for men, but much lower literacy in the South region and among women. The evaluation results suggested that learning barriers could be overcome with repeated exposure to RLS-I workshops, with one experimental district showing very strong results after the program cycle was repeated over the course of two years.