Rape a "huge problem" in Afghanistan, U.N. says

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan law does not protect rape victims and for too long communities have turned to traditional forms of justice which tend to criminalise victims of a profound problem, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

"This is an issue that is under-reported and to a significant extent concealed, but it is a huge problem in Afghanistan," Norah Niland, the United Nations' human rights representative in Afghanistan, told a panel of Afghan women.

A U.N. report, the full version of which is yet to be published, described rape as an everyday occurence.

A summary of the report said that in northern Afghanistan, for example, more than a third of cases analysed showed rapists were directly linked to local leaders who are immune from arrest.

Those likely to commit rape are close family members, men who work in prisons or orphanages and men in powerful positions either in state-run institutions or in armed groups and criminal gangs, it said.

In many communities, shame is attached to a victim of rape rather than the criminal, the report said.

Families will often resort to the traditional and religious practices of "baad" and "zina" to save face, either by insisting the victim marry the rapist or prosecuting her for sexual relations outside of marriage.

Afghanistan's penal code does not explicitly address the crime of rape or define it, something which the government must address urgently, the report said.

Sima Samar, head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, said the government had been reluctant to face the problem of rape, a taboo in conservative Muslim Afghanistan, but it should implement a new rape law soon.

"I have to admit that they are not very receptive ... but we have to resist and change that," Samar said.

She said existing laws treat adultery and rape as the same crime.

Samar also said that too much attention had been paid to military efforts in Afghanistan, often at the cost of implementing effective programmes which address the country's deep social problems.

The report recommended that traditional community meetings and councils, such as "jirgas" or "shuras", should not be used to address rape cases because they do not respect women's rights and often lead to baad or zina.

Although the panel consisted of urban, educated Afghan women, Samar said that shuras in rural parts of Afghanistan should be receptive to the report's message. "It depends who takes that risk and breaks that taboo and silence," she said.