1. Background Afghanistan’s 40-year conflict has been characterized by blatant disregard of international humanitarian laws and norms by all parties to the conflict. The violence committed ranges from indiscriminate killing to displacing civilians in staggering numbers. Profound grievances and feelings of victimhood run deep across all segments of the Afghan population, throughout all regions of the country. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) reported (2005) that 69% of its 4000 survey respondents ‘Identified themselves or their immediate families as direct victims of a serious human rights violation’. 1 Subsequent consultation processes have also highlighted the importance of justice for peace, including “Afghan People’s Dialogue on Peace,” which involved more than 6,000 Afghans between 2011 and 2014, and was implemented by eleven civil society organisations, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), with support from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).2 Afghanistan is one of the very few protracted conflicts where an integrated data set on war victims is not available. To mitigate the dearth of data, different sources have come up with different estimates. The figure by Afghan government puts war victims at 1.5 million3 while AIHRC records pre-2001 war victims as more than two million.4 UNAMA, which has mapped civilian casualties since 2009, reports that the casualty figure, as of 30 September 2018, stands at more than 70, 000 with 24, 754 civilians killed and another 45, 644 civilians wounded.5 2. International Examples of Civil Society and Victims’ Contributions to Peace-building There are many global examples of the strong correlation between sustainable peace-building and participation of civil society and victims’ groups in peace processes. An analysis of 83 peace agreements in the post-cold war-era shows that civil society has taken part in the construction of 28 peace agreements (36%), out of 83.6 The study shows that civil society’s participation in peace process reduces the risk of peace collapsing by 64% among primary conflict actors, and by 50% among all conflict actors.7 Civil society engagement can take many forms. Another analysis of 20 peace agreements over a period of 15 years provides a useful categorization of civil society involvement in peace processes as high, 1 AIHRC, A call for Justice: National Consultation on past human rights violations in Afghanistan, p.8, 2005 Afghan People’s Dialogue on Peace: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Two reports (2011 and 2014) available: https://unama.unmissions.org/people%27s-dialogue-on-peace 3 Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, High Peace Council, Strategic Plan: Peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, p. 4, 1 June 2017 – 31 December 2020 4 AIHRC, A call for Justice: National Consultation on past human rights violations in Afghanistan, p. 4, 2005 5 United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Quarterly report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict: 1 January to 30 September 2018, p.1, 10 October 2018 6 Nilsson, D. (212), Anchoring the peace: Civil society actors in peace accords and durable peace, p.25, International interactions, 38 (2) 243-266. 7 Ibid 2