ABOUT THE REPORT
This report analyzes the array of programs that dealt with the so-called informal justice sector in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2011. It focuses on a series of pilot projects sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace that engaged local Afghan organizations at the district and provincial levels to observe and record how informal justice systems resolve (or fail to resolve) people's disputes, and how informal and formal justice actors relate to each other in practice. It also examines the expanding role of international actors in local dispute resolution and the impact that such interventions have had on local practices and perceptions of justice. The report finds that the informal justice sector provides a pervasive and effective, if sometimes flawed, venue for the majority of the Afghan population to access justice and argues that the international community should commit more fully to supporting local informal justice mechanisms.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Noah Coburn is a political anthropologist at Bennington College. Since 2005, he has conducted over four years of research in Afghanistan for the United States Institute of Peace, the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit, and other organizations. His study of local political structures, conflict resolution, and violence, Bazaar Politics: Power and Pottery in an Afghan Market Town, was recently published by Stanford University Press. He has a PhD in anthropology from Boston University and an MA from Columbia University.
Cover photo: iStock. Supporters of Afghan presidential candidate and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah line the streets in Gazni province for a campaign rally in Jaghori Afghanistan. (Photo by Paula Bronstein)
The views expressed in this report are those of the authors alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Institute of Peace.
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Peaceworks No. 84. First published 2013. eISBN: 978-1-60127-172-3
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