A/HRC/16/67 human rights violations and international crimes recounted stories of their suffering and made clear their need for justice and accountability to be addressed in the peace process in some form. While the National Consultative Peace Jirga explicitly recognized the need to protect and respect the rights of women and children in its final 16-article resolution and reconciliation road map, the document failed to stress the imperative of accountability and justice as part of that process. 34. While the Government’s agreement to update the Action Plan for Peace, Reconciliation and Justice can be seen as a continued commitment to justice and combating impunity, the launching of the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Programme and establishment of the High Peace Council created concern about governmental priorities in this area. This programme and its supervisory implementing body stressed the need to end the conflict through a variety of incentives to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate antiGovernment elements. While there is a vetting process envisioned in the document for assessing the suitability of combatants to take part in reintegration efforts, there is also frequent mention of “political amnesty” and “grievance resolution” to be extended to participants in the process. This amnesty is not explicitly defined in the document, but it is designed to allow combatants to leave the field of battle without fear of arrest or prosecution in the immediate term. Mention is made in the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Program text that the process is not a “framework for pardoning all crimes and providing blanket amnesty” without further elaboration.3 As a result many human rights advocates voiced their concerns that impunity was not being seriously addressed in the process and that, if successful, the resulting peace would be unsustainable, non-reflective of victims’ concerns, and unjust. 35. Peace and reintegration initiatives designed to facilitate the release of detained combatants and the resolution of grievances raised human rights concerns. Prisoner release efforts began as part of the Government’s commitments to develop a peace process after the June National Consultative Peace Jirga, and a special Prisoner Release Committee was established. OHCHR/UNAMA monitored the Committee’s work and noted the release of more than 500 detainees. Human rights concerns included the non-transparent legal process involved in reviewing the cases of detainees and the grounds on which individuals are released. A core concern was that due process was not fully observed and that some suspected perpetrators of serious crimes and human rights violations were released for political reasons and not on strict legal grounds. Utilizing opaque or arbitrary grounds for release seriously further undermined rule of law and efforts to address impunity. The inclusion of “grievance resolution” mechanisms within the process of the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Programme also raised concerns that many suspects of serious international crimes and human rights violations could be absolved of criminal responsibility for political reasons or expediency. Uncertainty remains over how grievance resolution will work in practice in communities across the country. Vetting procedures, investigatory processes or related dispute resolution mechanisms have not been defined, but it is clear that this process will operate outside the formal justice system. 36. The creation of the High Peace Council in September 2010 raised concerns within civil society that the justice agenda was unlikely to feature prominently in the peace and reintegration process. President Hamid Karzai appointed 70 members to the High Peace Council on 28 September, a group that included only 10 women and only one member of civil society. Many members of the Council have been denounced as having been involved in serious human rights violations. As a result, Afghan civil society groups, including the Transitional Justice Coordination Group, a group of 20 representatives of human rights 3 Afghanistan, “Afghan Peace and Reintegration Program”, programme document (Kabul, 2010), p. 9. 11