School of Peacemaking and Media Technology is a nonprofit media
development organization focusing on peace research, advocacy, and training on
media issues. Organization vision statement aims at supporting freedom of
expression, access to information and citizens making informed opinions and
decisions as a means of promoting an informed, democratic and tolerant
society. We as well promote free and
fair journalism in areas of crises and conflicts in Kyrgyzstan and the Central
Asian Region.
Our organization was established in June 2010 after ethnic violence in the southern Kyrgyzstan for mediation and peacemaking training and capacity building of the local community in the post-conflict period. School of Peacemaking was registered as a Network of Social Mediators Public Foundation.
On October 24-25-26-27, 2013 a training on peacemaking journalism, conflict reporting and the destruction of stereotypes for print and online media in Osh, Jalalabad and Batken oblasts of Kyrgyzstan was organized by the School of Peacemaking and Media Technology of Network of Social Mediators public foundation.
The aim of the event was to teach reporters to media tools for reducing the charge to a confrontational society, techniques destabilizing confrontation, the organization of post-conflict rehabilitation of journalists, and ways to find common mechanisms to improve the efficiency of media peacemaking efforts.
The training was held in the form of an interactive discussion. Reporters learned the theory of reporting on conflicts and consolidated their knowledge by participating in an interactive game, prepared by experienced trainers Arif Aliyev (Azerbaijan) and Ashot Melikyan (Armenia).
Training participants also used their knowledge for practical exercises to overcome xenophobic stereotypes, working with publications of local journalists containing hate speech.
With the help of the trainers journalists have developed a glossary of stereotypes, which must become a handbook for journalists working in conflict zones.
"I acquired a lot of useful knowledge in the training. Now I know how to cover conflicts correctly," a training member Apihazan Amitova, correspondent of the Osh Shamy newspaper said.
There are a lot of problems mecessary to report on in our region, however, it is dangerous to cover these problems in media. The training has taught us to conflict reporting technologies and post-conflict rehabilitation of the journalist, Alina Sydykova, correspondent of Oshmedia site said.
Today, the School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies has been trained about 80 journalists from media outlets in southern Kyrgyzstan. The training was conducted by specially developed techniques, which are based on practical experience of building media dialogue in conflict-prone areas of the world: the Balkans and the Caucasus. Within the School webinars on destroying stereotypes, clichés, and overcoming the image of the enemy in mass media are conducted.
The training is organized to promote peacemaking journalism, the ability of journalists to discuss openly issues of conflict, training of finding the common ground between the opposite sides of the conflict, and techniques of finding active groups from different communities who are ready for dialogue, analysis of existing patterns of conflicts and methods of their destruction.
The four-day training seminar for journalists in southern Kyrgyzstan is led by an experienced team of media experts with extensive practical experience in building a media dialogue in conflict areas of the world: in the Balkans and the southern Caucasus.
The event will be held in the form of interactive discussion, the combination of theory and practice.
The training will be held in Bishkek, date on October 24, 25, 26, 27 (arrival on October 23, exit on October 28) 2013. All expenses are paid by the organizers.
To participate in the seminar, it is necessary to fill out an electronic form on the site www.ca-mediators.net or to send your resume and motivational letter by October 10, 2013. In motivational letter you should indicate why you would like to participate in this training, and how it will affect the future of your career. Also, e-mail to thepeacemakingschool@gmail.com a scanned copy of your passport.
The bids are considered only if there is a complete set.
Leading trainer in multimedia report production at the Camp for Media Innovations Oksana Silantieva recommends the following: first of all, it is important to start mastering skills of photo and video shooting using simple equipment, creating infographics on available free websites and combine everything together. Multimedia journalist is a balance between the meaning and the form, she says.
Multimedia journalism is a craft. As any other craft, this profession is based on basic principles and skills. Multimedia journalist can write decently, shoot decently, make photos and create infographics decently.
If you wrote only in newspapers earlier, then you will have to learn how to make photos, study what composition and color are at a basic level, rather than at the professional photographer’s level. This is needed to make photos with correct composition, and that are meaningful. Such basic things are offered by distance courses. Now a lot of manuals can be found on the internet – go for it! Further on you will have to practice only.
As soon as you master photography, you can start video shooting. What is the difference between the photo and the video, what is editing, what views can be or cannot be edited? Just find the Principles of video editing on the internet, read them, and start shooting video. There’s no need to have classical big cameras.
Don’t try to master some extra professional equipment under any circumstance! Leave it to broadcasters. A smartphone is enough to take a nice shot that can be posted on the web. A multimedia journalist is known not for techniques (though, he can have them), but for the skill of combining them.
A multimedia journalist is a reporter obsessed with the stories. When he sees the issue, he sees what event it can be. He looks at the event and starts gathering information just like any traditional journalist does. But he structures the story in the multimedia format in his head, “So many people have gathered here! I can make a 360 degree panoramic shot to demonstrate the event vividly.”
Or, for example, the event is full of movement. People are running, bicyclers are cycling, something is falling down, someone is shouting. This movement is better demonstrated by a video. A multimedia journalist reacts promptly to that: he takes out his smartphone and records a video, collects people’s quotes, runs to the office (or uses his notebook on the spot), assembles the story out of small parts, adds some text, some photos, some infographics. Present technology helps people not master highly professional applications, but mastering figures and meaning is a must.
When you take a course in a multimedia journalism, you should not forget about traditional journalism, which implies the search and check of information, search for heroes, their development by asking correct questions, comparison of figures and data check. No technology can replace this.
To become a multimedia journalist, one should practice a lot. No university or lecture can replace daily hours-long practice. Only practice can lead to the craft of multimedia journalism. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, to make it better and to get satisfaction from it!
The Camp for Media Innovations has not only given journalists from print and online media outlets of the Kyrgyz Republic an opportunity to raise their professional skills, but has also granted a chance to participate in the contest for a potentially best multimedia project.
From July 24 to July 29, 2013, 19 journalists had a chance to attend an intensive training course that focused on teaching for contemporary methods of constructing multimedia mosaic, photo, video and infographic elements, designing multimedia scenarios, constructing basic websites and promoting content online. Participants learned media management techniques and practiced in writing unbiased articles for multi-ethnic audiences.
Classes were carried out in a very interactive mode. The theory was immediately applied into practice. During sessions, the participants learned creating websites, online databases and check-lists. They practiced posting interactive photos on their websites and bring visual elements together into a single multimedia history.
“I particularly want to highlight journalists’ genuine interest to study new media instruments, - says the trainer from Moscow Oksana Silantieva, - We managed to learn six highly difficult multimedia services in one day and the group kept this wild rhythm during this whole time! I was extremely impressed!”
The trainer from Almaty Gulim Amirkhanova taught the Camp participants for key techniques of social network marketing and media planning.
“Before this training I had no idea that our website has actually these many drawbacks, - says Mirbek Asanaliev, the editor-in-chief of the information portal ‘Jumgal KG’.– Now, thanks to the Camp for Media Innovations, I am ready to work upon them”.
During the last day of training, the journalists wrote applications, where they proposed interesting multimedia ideas for social projects and technical modernization of their editors offices.
After three-hour discussion, an independent selection board composed of external media experts selected seven winners and handed certificates for technical assistance.
The following media outlets proposed best project ideas:
“Aymak” from Jalal-Abad (“Project on Improving Interethnic Relations”),
“Miner’s Path” («Путьшахтера») from Sulukta city (“Developing Information Awareness of the Local Population via Different Means of Communication”),
“Financier” («Финансист») from Bishkek city (“Widening Access to Economic Information through Creating Interactive Online Platform”),
“SuLei-Info” from Isfana in the Leilek region of Batken oblast (“Solving Social Problems of the Local Population through Distribution of Information and Integration”),
“Danek” from Osh city (“Training Young Multimedia Journalists and Promoting Content”),
Website “Jumgal KG” («Жумгал KG») from Chayek village of the Naryn oblast (“Tackling Hunger for Information Problem in the Region”),
Information Agency “AKIpress-Osh” (Youth Media Initiatives for Helping the Population).
During August all the winners will receive requested equipment (computers, smartphones, dictaphones) and will have their expenses covered for the Internet connection, hosting and web-design.
“Victory (in the contest) has given me confidence, but it is also a huge responsibility”, - says the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Miner’s Path” («Шахтержолу») from Sulukta in the Batken oblast Gulmira Abdunazarova. Her project was immediately selected in a solid vote. “Now we are ready to work through the new strategy for our next steps”, - she adds.
Another winner – the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “SuLei-Info” from Isfana, Abdillabek Avazov – says it was during the training that he thought of the idea to create an interactive information platform, where social problems of the local population can be solved jointly with local authorities. “Every time I think of the opportunities that we are being granted, I get emotional. I am really happy!” – exclaims Avazov.
On the 24 of July 2013 Camp for Media Innovations of School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies starts off. 19 journalists from print media and online of the Kyrgyz Republic, who have been selected to participate in the Camp, will study contemporary methods of creating and distributing information, promoting content online, techniques of media management and writing objective articles for multi-ethnic audience.
During six upcoming days, professional foreign trainers from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan will teach the participants for the best ways of creating scenarios for multimedia publications, working with online texts, producing digital photo and video-recording from mobile phones, working with mobile applications, building inforgraphics and creating online versions of newspapers.
A separate session will be devoted to learning from the experiences of foreign online sources and getting the idea of how print media can profit from the use of multimedia. The trainings will be held in an interactive format, combining theory with practice.
“The world is becoming all about multimedia, while news is more and more mobile. Over half of print media in the Kyrgyz Republic, however, do not have online content and are falling off the current media development trend”, - says the Director of School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies, Inga Sikorskaya. “We want to help Kyrgyzstani media going up on a new level of producing contemporary content and becoming competitive in the media market. This will surely give more opportunities for the audience as well to receive quality information”, - she says.
Technical assistance will help applying the knowledge in practice. It will be later played off at the “Ideas Parade” competition during the last day of the Camp.
As a result of the contest, seven most competitive applications will be selected by a qualified panel. The media outlets, who win the competition, will receive specialized technical equipment, which is necessary for multimedia content production.
First of July 2013 was the deadline for submission of documents for Camp for Media Innovations. The call for applications, which was met with keen interest in all the regions of Kyrgyzstan, has raised 29 application packages. As a result of competitive selection stage, 19 winners have been identified. Each of them will represent home editorial office during a six-day-training taking place in Bishkek on July 24-29, 2013.
The finalists are expected to attend a multi-level training, where they will be introduced to a variety of interactive technologies, infographics, media management and the ways of promoting print content online. Additionally, they will undergo a course on ethnicity journalism and will participate in a competition-structured game “Parade of Ideas”, which will conclude with a project writing activity. The participants will apply for technical assistance that will be used to modernize the work of their editorial offices. A competent and independent commission composed of media experts will review the applications and select six-seven best candidates to receive the equipment requested.
The trainers at the Camp will be internationally approved media experts from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The School of Peacemaking and Media Technology of the Public Foundation «Network of Social Mediators» has started off a new training project aimed at teaching journalists for multimedia content production and a transition of them to a media convergence format. The project is financed through the Media Support Program of Soros Foundation – Kyrgyzstan and the National Endowment for Democracy.
At the initial stage of the project, the project staff will assess current conditions and needs of the print media officially registered in the Kyrgyz Republic, and of the online sources. A group of journalists will then be selected on a competitive basis to participate at the Camp for Media Innovations.
At the second stage, 20 finalists of the selection process will attend our multi-level training. They will be introduced to a variety of interactive technologies, infographics, media management and the ways of promoting print content online. Additionally, they will undergo a course on ethnicity journalism and will participate in a competition-structured game “Parade of Ideas”, which will conclude with a project writing activity. The participants will apply for technical assistance that will be used to modernize the work of their editorial offices. A competent and independent commission composed of media experts will review the applications and select six-seven best candidates to receive the equipment requested.
The trainers at the Camp will be internationally approved media experts from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The project results, feedback and success stories, as well as the analysis of the updated media content will be posted on the website of the School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies (www.ca-mediators.net), and onwww.soros.kg. Information will also be widely distributed via social networks and email newsletters.
As a result of the objectives above, local media are expected to increase journalistic standards, methods and technical base of distributing information and to learn producing a quality media product. Such developments will attract more attention of the audience and in the long-run improve the level of information awareness among the citizens of Kyrgyzstan.
School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies on the basis of the “Network of Social Mediators” Public Foundation is happy to announce a competition for the new Camp for Media Innovations among the officially registered print media and online media outlets of the Kyrgyz Republic.
The project is financed by the Media Support Program of Soros Foundation – Kyrgyzstan and the National Endowment for Democracy and aims at strengthening overall potential of the local media by teaching for contemporary tools of creating content and technical modernization. During six days 20 selected participants will undergo the training on creating and distributing multimedia content, promoting the product online and writing unbiased articles for a poly-ethnic audience and media management. They will also be given an opportunity to participate in the competition for technical assistance, which is necessary for the effective work of their editorial offices.
The training will be conducted by media experts from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The location is Bishkek, date – July, 23-30 of 2013. All expenses will be covered by the party organizing the event. To participate, it will be necessary to send an up-to-date CV/Resume, motivation letter and the filled outapplication form to the emailaddress peacemakingschool@gmail.com.The application form can be downloaded from our websitewww.ca-mediators.net [section titled “Camp for Media Innovations”] or requested through our email.
Documents will be accepted both in Russian and Kyrgyz. Deadline for applications is July 1, 2013 not later than 18:00 pm. Only full package of documentation will be considered eligible.
Training on peacemaking journalism, techniques of conflict reporting and the destruction of stereotypes was held on April 14-15-16-17, 2013 for reporters of online and print media from Osh, Jalalabad and Batken oblasts of Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek. The aim was to train participants to media tools on reducing the charge to a confrontational society, techniques of confrontation to the destabilizing information coming from outside, the organization of post-conflict rehabilitation of the journalists, finding joint mechanisms to improve the efficiency of peacemaking media efforts. “I gained a lot of useful knowledge during the training. Now I know how to cover conflicts properly not pumping the situation,” training participant Ibraghim Azimzhanov, a correspondent for "Osh Shamy” newspaper, said.
There are a lot of problems that may be solved by covering them in local media outlets. This training has taught journalists from southern Kyrgyzstan to report on conflicts properly and efficiently use media tools to reduce confrontation, Azimzhanov says. The training was held in the form of interactive discussion. Reporters learned from the theory of reporting on conflicts and consolidated their knowledge by participating in an interactive game, prepared by experienced trainers Arif Aliyev (Azerbaijan) and Ashot Melikyan (Armenia). A number of presentations demonstrating how innocent jokes, recorded on video and publicized on You Tube, can cause conflict and how it can be avoided, were shown to training participants. Special attention was paid to the toolkit for journalists on covering conflicts and ethnic diversity; providing materials with voices of children and women in media.In joint with the trainers, journalists have developed a Glossary of Stereotypes, which is a handbook for journalists working in conflict areas, and organized an improvised press conference, during which the representatives of the different ethnic communities exchanged views on the post-conflict situation in the south, trying to avoid stereotypes and clichés.At the end of the training, a film "Indivisible Island” on the ethnic problem in Cyprus was shown to the participants. The reporters discussed the issues raised in the film, and developed a scenario of conflict resolution. According to trainer of the project Ashot Melikyan, journalists from different media, living in conflict-pron areas must learn to trust each other, to understand that the problem of the Osh conflict of 2010 still lives in Kyrgyz society, and there are issues that needed to be discussed."Journalists will sooner or later have to cover this issue in media outlets, that is why techniques of overcoming stereotypes and clichés need to be learned right now", Melikyan concluded.
Today, the School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies has been trained about 80 journalists from media outlets in southern Kyrgyzstan. The training was conducted by specially developed techniques, which are based on practical experience of building media dialogue in conflict-prone areas of the world: the Balkans and the Caucasus. Within the School webinars on destroying stereotypes, clichés, and overcoming the image of the enemy in mass media are conducted.
Military men near the aftermarket during mass clashes, Osh, June 201
Training’s participants on mediation and conflict management are building the Tower of Peace, Bishkek, April 2011
Training in destroying stereotypes for journalists, Bishkek, April 2012
Workshop on production of team reporting in multinational journalist groups, Bishkek, August 2012
The School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia announces an annual competition among students from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,…
25 journalists and media workers from various regions of Kyrgyzstan have been trained to counter the propaganda of violent extremism and hate in…
Within the current context, media and journalists in Central Asia face the following dilemmas: How to cover issues happening in Afghanistan now? How to communicate information to the audience while describing the Taliban, whose image has been presented mainly in reports on terrorist attacks for almost 20 years? Can journalists offer audiences updated and redesigned narratives about a seemingly ex-terrorist group, while complying with standards and ethics?
Conflict-sensitive approaches, peace and solutions journalism tools, and new media formats can help create strategies to offer audiences a sufficiently clear and objective story.
Not Terrorists Anymore?
Kazakhstan was the first Central Asian country to officially remove the Taliban from the list of banned terrorist organisations. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Astana took this step based on "the importance of developing trade and economic cooperation with present-day Afghanistan and understanding that this regime is a long-term factor”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan soon reported the same decision, emphasising that it was "aimed at strengthening regional stability and maintaining a dialogue”.
In mid-September 2024, the media reported on the "unofficial visit” of the head of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security Saimumin Yatimov to Kabul and his meeting with the Taliban security chiefs. It was noted that the visit was made to "strengthen bilateral relations between Tajikistan and the Taliban”.
Official Dushanbe has not yet made any statements on this, however, at the time of writing this article, the Taliban were not on the list of terrorist and extremist organisations. Economic interests play their role. Tajikistan exports electricity to Afghanistan and has reopened five markets in border towns where goods are traded on both sides. Foreign trade turnover between the two countries totalled about $46 million in the first six months of 2024.
In Uzbekistan, the Taliban were not included in the 2016 list of 22 terrorist organisations banned by the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan. After the Taliban came to power, official Tashkent opened the Uzbek-Afghan border for the delivery of essential goods and humanitarian aid.
This August, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov visited Kabul. According to media reports, Aripov met with Taliban leaders and discussed bilateral relations and strengthening trade and business between the two countries. As a result, five trade and investment agreements were signed in the energy, agricultural, and industrial sectors.
Turkmenistan had been in contact with the Taliban representatives even before they came to power amid growing tensions over the paramilitary attacks across Afghanistan. On September 11, 2024, in the border town of Serhetabad, Turkmenistan and the Taliban representatives relaunched the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Natural Gas Pipeline Project. This large-scale project was first initiated almost 10 years ago.
The pipeline is expected to transport up to 33 billion cubic metres of natural Turkmen gas to South Asia annually.
On the one hand, the Central Asian region is becoming an important partner for Afghanistan offering infrastructure and trade projects and increasing cooperation with the regime in Kabul. This cooperation is taking place despite violations of the rights of women, girls, and minorities, restrictions on media freedom, arbitrary executions, and active calls by the UN and other international human rights bodies to put an end to such violations. The regime’s representatives in Kabul are still on the UN Security Council Consolidated Sanctions List.
On the other hand, Central Asian countries are concerned about security issues.
For example, in early September, a suicide bomber, a member of ISIS (an organisation banned in Central Asia), detonated an explosive device near the Kabul prosecutor’s office killing 6 people and injuring 13.
This fact and the length of the common Central Asian border with Afghanistan, which is more than two thousand kilometres long, pose a danger of infiltration into the region by members of ‘sleeper terrorist cells’.
Where Do We Start?
Define the unified terminology you will use in reporting on Afghanistan-related topics.
How should we describe the formerly banned and terrorist Taliban movement now?
Refer to international documents. Look up the UN-used terminology in the Case Law Database. In the latest speech of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, the regime in Kabul is referred to as the ‘de facto authorities’. This is quite a correct phrasing as it does not legitimise the authorities but only shows the reality.
In statements and reports of the European Union, the authorities in Kabul are called ‘the Taliban’. Many foreign media – BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and others – also use this term. For the Central Asian media, it is less acceptable because for several years, the phrase ‘the Taliban’ was necessarily labelled in brackets as ‘the terrorist and banned movement’.
The following is a list of terms that may be acceptable to use.
To use definitions correctly, it is necessary to update editorial guidelines and compile a list of terms for reporting on Afghan issues.
More precise terminology is necessary to create a balanced and impartial narrative when describing events related to Afghanistan.
What Events Should I Select for Reporting?
The most suitable topics may include:
Human Rights and Other Sensitive Topics
Many media avoid reporting on this sensitive issue amid Central Asian countries’ selective cooperation with Afghanistan. However, reporting on human rights violations is a journalist’s ethical obligation.
The exclusion of women and girls from education and employment opportunities, as well as from public spaces, continues in Afghanistan. Extreme forms of violence occur. In addition to forced early marriages and sexual violence, the Taliban has adopted a decree on public flogging and stoning women to death.
The UN Women estimates that since the Taliban came to power, they have adopted 70 documents restricting women’s rights and freedoms. Such policy is carried out with no regard for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Afghanistan ratified in 2003.
At the end of August 2024, the law on ‘Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’ was announced by the de facto authorities, which prohibits women from saying anything out loud in public and demonstrating their faces outside the house. This law cements policies that completely erase women’s presence in public – depriving them of their autonomy, attempting to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows.
Pay attention to the following topics:
Use Teamwork to Prepare the Material
Teamwork and cross-border reporting are great methods to gather information from different sides. Create a team of journalists and experts from several countries, including Afghanistan. Identify the topic and the person responsible for finalising the gathered information.
Citations, Statistics, and Online Resources
To keep up to date, create a similar list of Afghan media and keep track of the information. Pay attention to Afghan media amu.tv, which is based abroad. It has a separate constantly updated section on cooperation with Central Asia.
When reporting on violations of women’s rights and violence against women, in addition to using international reports, monitor incidents of gender discrimination on Rukhshana.media. This is an Afghan women’s media organisation created in memory of Rukhshana, a young woman stoned to death in Ghor province for running away after a forced marriage.
Be careful with citations. If you are going to use official press releases, it will be necessary to give some explanation in brackets after phrases such as ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ (note: This is the title of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan used by the de facto authorities since 2021), etc. The same should be considered when republishing materials from Afghan official media. If you use Russian-language versions of Afghan websites, it is worth double-checking the information several times, as problems with translation accuracy are common.
If references to Afghan statistics are needed, you can use data from the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA). However, there is no comprehensive information available. There is a lack of data on the ethnic composition of the population. This problem dates to 1979, the last time a population census was conducted. After a failed attempt in 2008, another census began in 2013 and was expected to be completed in six years. According to the Minority Rights Group, it was decided that the census would not include questions on language or ethnic background for fear that the results would be too politicised and lead to another failed census. However, the census was never completed.
What Background Information Should Be Used?
Reports on issues in Afghanistan should always contain background information to better explain to the audience what is happening. Since the Central Asian aspect is more focused on the events after August 2021, it is necessary to mention the process of peace negotiations in Afghanistan, why all the conditions of the Peace Deal were not fulfilled, and how the society lived before that.
For example: "De facto authorities came to power in Kabul after the previous Afghan government led by President Ashraf Ghani collapsed amid the US troops withdrawal from the country in August 2021. Earlier, in February 2020, a Peace Deal was signed between the US and the Taliban in Doha (Qatar) after more than eighteen years. The Deal addressed a reduction in violence, withdrawal of foreign troops, the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, and guarantees that Afghanistan won’t again become a refuge for terrorists. However, the Taliban failed to fulfil several conditions of the Peace Deal. The Taliban was formed in Pakistan in the 1990s after the Soviet Union’s troops withdrew from Afghanistan. Many of its early militants were trained in Pakistani madrassas. After NATO troops’ deployment, Pakistan gave the Taliban refuge”.
Such background can be shorter or longer according to the topic you are reporting on.
If the material is to cover the state structure of Afghanistan, the focus should be on comparing the Constitution of the country legally in force since 2004 with the draft Constitution that de facto authorities proposed and then abandoned.
It is also important to note that Afghanistan is a party to several international conventions, such as the Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (1984), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (1965), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). In addition, the country ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (2002), the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (2000), the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography (2000). Explore the report describing the impact of the situation on human rights.
It is necessary to use the links to these documents in the context of human rights reporting.
Visual Design of the Materials
When using visuals, such as illustrative photos or collages, it is important to consider the nuances of traditional dress that identify different groups. If you want to show a group of Afghan men wearing dastmols (Persian: دستمال) – traditional headscarves, you need to know that these are most often soft-textured, black, grey, white, brown, mixed tones of these colours, or brown and turquoise scarves in a checked pattern.
The group of people from the de facto government can be identified by the white or black turbans on their heads. If it is not possible to find original photos, search for such illustrations.
A man wearing a red and white chequered scarf of hard texture represents Arabic or Middle Eastern style and the use of such an illustration would be wrong.
When designing visuals for the material on women’s issues, it is correct to refer to a woman’s head and face garment in the Afghan dialect as chodari (Persian: چادری) rather than burqa. It is most often a blue-coloured garment, but other colours are also found.
