By Wendy Lubetkin
Washington File Correspondent

Geneva -- The Afghan Interim Authority has asked the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to support its work toward the full restoration of human rights in Afghanistan.

"A new chapter has been opened in the life of the Afghan people," said Shamssuzakir Kazemi, a member of Afghanistan's observer delegation, in the Interim Authorities' first address to the UN human rights body meeting in Geneva.

Kazemi assured the Commission that the Interim Authority (IA) takes seriously its "historic responsibility to lay the foundations for a democratic, just and progressive Afghanistan."

But he emphasized that effective and continued international assistance will be "essential in order to help the Afghan people attain their fundamental rights" and he urged that the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) be "both extended and expanded geographically."

"We sincerely express our gratitude for the efforts of the International Security Assistance Force aimed at helping to create the favorable conditions necessary for the success of the programs initiated by the Interim authority," he said.

Kazemi said the IA wants to build a "democratic, participatory, transparent and accountable government and to ensure respect for the rights of the Afghan people in all walks of life."

The Interim Authority "fully concurs" with the recommendations of a UN report on human rights in Afghanistan prepared by the Commission's special investigator Kamal Hossain, Kazemi said. "We should be grateful to the Commission for its support of these recommendations."

Hossain's report, submitted to the Commission on March 27, provides a summary of the dramatic developments in Afghanistan since the Commission last met one year ago, and the emergence of a "totally new situation" in the country.

It says the highest priority in Afghanistan's program for the restoration of human rights should be "to replace the rule of the gun by the rule of law." This will require the support of the international community and the establishment of effective law enforcement and judicial systems as well as a "national human rights commission empowered to protect the rights of all Afghans."

Another pressing human rights issue, according to the report, is the "need to address the deep-rooted discriminatory attitudes and practices that serve to marginalize women and minorities."

The report calls for urgent measures to repeal all edicts and orders that discriminate against women and to analyze the existing legal system's impact on women with regard to family law, divorce, property and inheritance rights.

Women should be represented in the Loya Jirga, government ministries, the judiciary, the National Human Rights Commission and other important national and regional institutions, it says.

The report urges the international community to commit itself "resolutely and with a sense of solidarity, to supporting the people of Afghanistan in meeting the challenge of national reconstruction which faces them."

Today "the most formidable barrier to the realization of human rights is scarcity of resources," Hossain writes. The resources pledged by donors at the Tokyo Conference "need to be delivered urgently and additional resources need to be mobilized."

"Innovative initiatives might include possible public-private partnerships and a trust fund aimed at providing resources for the protection and promotion of human rights."

The full text of the UN "Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan" is available on the Internet at: http://www.unhchr.ch/pdf/43AV.pdf