Kabul, Jun 28 (IANS): The Afghan government should adopt strong measures to protect women’s rights in advance of the deadline at the end of 2014 for withdrawal of international combat forces, Human Rights Watch said Friday.

On July 10, Afghanistan will for the first time appear before the UN committee that will review its compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

In recent weeks, several incidents have increased concerns about the government’s commitment to women’s rights, Human Rights Watch said.

In May, President Hamid Karzai told women’s rights activists that he was unable to support further efforts to protect Afghanistan’s law against violence against women.

Also in May, an effort to gain parliamentary approval for a key law on violence against women ended in shambles, and the lower house of parliament voted to abolish a set-aside for women on provincial councils.

“President Karzai needs to understand just how high the stakes are for Afghanistan in the debate over women’s rights,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“Donors should be clear that if Afghanistan doesn’t defend women’s rights, the money will no longer flow for the army or the police.”

Several women’s rights activists told Human Rights Watch that Karzai told them at a May meeting that he “had done all he could for them and could not do any more” to protect the 2009 Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women (the EVAW Law). They said he advised them specifically to stop advocating for stronger enforcement of the EVAW Law.

Several members of Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament have expressed increasing hostility toward women’s rights and appear to be making a concerted effort to roll rights protections back, Human Rights Watch said.