Write to your MP: on Afghanistan – GAPS

To: Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, UK Prime Minister

Cc: Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth &
Development Affairs, Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for Home Department and Rt
Hon Ben Wallace MP, Secretary of State for Defence of the UK

Dear Prime Minister
Subject: The UK cannot abandon Afghan women now

We are writing with urgent concern about the immediate risks that Afghan women are facing,
particularly those who have participated in the peace process, led women’s rights-related
activism and journalism, and delivered programmes to meet women’s needs. As the Taliban
have now taken Kabul, it is a matter of hours, days in the best-case scenario, until these
women and their families are at a high and imminent risk of threat to life. As civil society
organisations, experts and networks with members working directly in or with partners in
Afghanistan, we have created strong relationships with Afghan women networks, activists and
peace negotiators who have played a visible, meaningfully enabling role both in partnership
with and on behalf of the UK Government.
As a direct result of this exposure, these Afghan women leaders, activists and
negotiators are now at a high and imminent risk of threat to life.
Collectively, we are calling on the UK Government to immediately:

• Ensure safe and legal routes to those facing imminent danger and their
  dependants to reach safety. This includes:
• Provide visas for, and assist with, the escort and evacuation of Afghan
  women at risk.
• Extend the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) to include
  Afghan individuals and their dependants who are at heightened risk of
  persecution due to their activism, work on human rights and women’s rights,
  and their contribution to the peace process. This would be in line with
  approaches taken by UK allies including Canada, the US, Ireland and Australia.
• Work closely with governments of neighbouring countries for the passage
  out of Afghanistan to be safe and timely.
• The UK should cease forced removals and reconsider any refused asylum
  claims in light of the change of the political situation and expedite any existing family
  reunification applications.
• Prioritise the needs and rights of Afghan women and girls in any actions taken in
  response to the situation in Afghanistan, both nationally and internationally. This
  includes actively leveraging all multilateral avenues to safeguard Afghan women and
  girls and shaping any humanitarian response to ensure it is locally informed and
  gender and conflict sensitive, while encouraging neighbouring countries to keep
  borders open to evacuations and facilitate aid, including supporting safehouses and
  GBV services for women and their families who cannot flee.
  During the past decades, the UK Government has requested the support of civil society
  organisations to host and promote the participation of women’s rights experts, activists and
  advocates, and their organisations and networks. Numerous women human rights activists,
  defenders and humanitarian responders have been hosted by and collaborated with the UK
  Government and others in national and international spaces to advance gender equality,
  peace and security in Afghanistan. However, those women’s meaningful participation doesn’t
  come without a cost (something we all anticipated) or a high level of responsibility. We request
  the UK Government to act urgently to protect these women who are at high risk of
  persecution and death due to their work on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in
  Afghanistan in support of the UK government’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace
  and Security (NAP). The UK must prioritise support and protection for human right
  defenders and individuals as the UK engages with them on their work and priorities, in
  line with our shared commitment to continue engaging with women and girls’ networks
  in conflict affected settings.
  Some examples of these women’s work with and support to the UK government’s work on
  WPS include, but are by no means limited to: UK-funded consultations to inform UK
  Government action on how to implement its existing commitments on WPS, and to assess the
  impact of COVID-19 on women and girls living in fragile and conflict-affected states including
  Afghanistan; multiple events related to the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) in
  London and Kabul, including the main Global Summit in London and Kabul; a workshop on
  the UK’s NAP on WPS hosted at the British Embassy in Kabul.
  The work of women human rights defenders, organisations and networks has made a material
  difference to both the UK’s successful delivery of its mission and objectives in Afghanistan,
  and also achieving gender equality and upholding women’s rights in conflict on an international
  scale. Afghanistan has been a priority country in the UK’s various National Action Plans on
  WPS, the UK’s continued role as ‘penholder’ on WPS at the UN Security Council, and actions
  as a co-founder of the Call to Action on Gender Based Violence in Emergencies, co-leader of
  the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender Based Violence, and signatory to the
  WPS-Humanitarian Action Compact.
  The UK cannot abandon these women now.
  Organisations:

1. Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS)
2. Saferworld
3. International Alert
4. Care International UK
5. Conciliation Resources
6. Bond
7. International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
8. Women for Women International
9. Plan International UK
10. Womankind Worldwide
11. ALIGHT
12. International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)
13. Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI
14. Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy
15. Beyond Borders
16. Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform
17. One Young World
18. Health Professionals for Global Health, UK
19. United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK)
20. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, United Kingdom
21. SecurityWomen
22. Centre for Women, Peace and Security, London School of Economics and Political
    Science (LSE WPS)
23. Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (WMC) network
24. Legal Action Worldwide (LAW)
25. Women of Colour Working in Emergencies (WeCiE)
26. VOICE
27. Security Hub
28. Streets Kitchen
29. Anne-Floor Dekker, WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform
30. Claire Barnett, Executive Director UN Women UK
31. Professor Christine Chinkin CMG, Principal Investigator, UKRI GCRF Gender,
    Justice and
32. Quhramaana Kakar – Founding director of Women for Peace and Participation (WPP)
    UK.
    Individuals:
33. Cordelia Apold
34. LouiErin Heenan
35. Rachel Lipsitz
36. Fiona Dwyer, Solace Women’s Aid
37. Richard Foster
38. Laila Khan
39. Michelle Manuel
40. Lee Abraham
41. Ruth Appleton
42. Carol Baker
43. Anna Rose, Women’s Officer, Haverstock Branch, Holborn & St Pancras CLP
44. Professor Aoife Nolan, Co-Director, Human Rights Law Centre, School of Law,
    University of Nottingham
45. Peter Bond, Unite the Union
46. Brita Fernandez Schmidt
47. Hannah Bond
48. Gareth Murphy, Branch Secretary Unite Community Camden LE/00018
49. Laura Fox-Newby, MD, Good Thyngs,
50. Sangeeta Shah, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Nottingham
51. Helene Reardon Bond
52. Luke Pearson
53. Una Doyle
54. Khaled Daair
55. Avila Kilmurray
56. Kim Roper
57. Delphine Valette
58. Susan Henderson
59. Malini Skandachanmugarasan
60. Hayley Roffey
61. Riva Joffe
62. Andrew Feinstein
63. Diane Pearson
64. Cllr Sean Halsall, Sefton Council
65. Elaine Bolton, Unite the Union
66. Matthew Bond
67. Nora Russell
68. Anna Robinson
69. Griselda Mussett
70. Sylvia Finzi
71. Aline Burgmann,
72. Faye Windridge
73. Cllr Helena Dollimore
74. Sanju Pal
75. Julia Huff
76. Adi Hollander
77. Declan Goodhall
78. Dr Louise Arimatsu (Centre for Women Peace & Security, LSE)
79. Cllr Alison Kelly
80. Harriet Evans
81. Nia Phillips
82. Mary O’Sullivan
83. Julian Hough
84. Lauren Hough
85. Councillor Simon Pearson
86. Gary Lane
87. Linda Heap, Treasurer, Southport CLP
88. Jon Glackin, Streets Kitchen
89. Jonathan Girvan
90. Jane Deighton
91. Cllr Jen Corcoran
92. Cllr Janis Blackburne
93. Jane Jutsum, Director Solace Women’s Aid
94. Karin von Krenner
95. Lesley Abdela, Shevolution
96. Angela Care Evans
97. Debra Noel Adams
98. Lucy Moy-Thomas
99. Reetta Lepisto
100. Paul Renny
101. Haringey Unison
102. Shezan Abdul
103. Ruth Appleton
104. Esra Adibelli
105. Christine Bond
106. Nursen Aydin
107. Louise Osborne, Unite Women’ Committee
108. Baroness Mary Goudie