A/HRC/25/41 44. UNAMA/OHCHR note that police and prosecutors have been mediating more cases registered under the EVAW law or referring cases to informal dispute resolution. The EVAW law neither refers to mediation nor rules it out, but permits a woman to withdraw her complaint at any point, which in practice facilitates mediation and is often culturally emphasized. UNAMA/OHCHR found that mediation, whether through informal or formal processes, often did not enforce penal sanctions for perpetrators under the EVAW law and/or the Afghan Penal Code. Through field monitoring, UNAMA observed that mediation of cases of violence against women by police in practical terms meant persuading a woman to resolve her case outside the judicial system. Decisions by informal mechanisms were often observed to be shaped by powerful men in local areas applying different procedures and making decisions based on a mix of tradition, varying interpretations of Islamic law and local power relations, sometimes contrary to law or religious principles. As a result, women sometimes faced further victimization. 45. Prosecutions of women and girls for leaving their homes without the permission of male relatives — often to escape violence — continued in spite of 2012 directives from the Attorney-General and the Supreme Court to end the practice. Although “running away” is not a crime under Afghan law or sharia law, police and prosecutors often arrest and prosecute women and girls for this “moral crime” and based on their discretion, charge them with “intention” to commit zina (premarital or extramarital sexual intercourse). Under sharia law, zina is a crime irrespective of a woman’s marital status or age, but “attempt to commit zina” is not a distinct codified crime in the Afghan Penal Code, nor is it proscribed under sharia law. UNAMA observed through field monitoring that authorities’ determination of “intent” in such cases is highly subjective, usually based on circumstantial evidence and often centred on the views of a specific prosecutor or police officer. The Supreme Court recorded 71 convictions for “running away/attempted zina” between March 2012 and March 2013. 46. Over the course of 2013, several legislative developments occurred in the form of setbacks to the advancement of women’s rights. The EVAW law was enacted by Presidential Decree in 2009 and on 18 May 2013, was brought before the Afghan Parliament by the Parliamentary Commission on Women’s Affairs, Civil Society and Human Rights with the stated purpose of obtaining parliamentary endorsement. This resulted in heated debates as several parliamentarians stated that the law contradicted certain tenets of Islam. The law was sent for consultation by 18 parliamentary committees. The debate around the law was highly publicized in the media, which negatively impacted on the already weak implementation of the EVAW law. It also highlighted the fragile nature of gains made for women’s rights in Afghanistan. Should the law come back to Parliament for a vote, many women’s advocates are concerned that it will be considerably weakened or rejected altogether. 47. In June 2013, the lower house of Parliament, the Wolesi Jirga, passed a draft criminal procedure code which prohibits witnesses from testifying against their relatives in all criminal cases. This provision would make effective prosecution of EVAW law cases extremely difficult, as in most instances where violence takes place in the domestic sphere, family members are generally the only witnesses to the criminal acts. Support for the new provision focused on the need to keep family matters, such as violence against female relatives and child abuse, private matters to be addressed within the family or community. At the time of writing, the draft is pending before the upper house of Parliament, the Meshrano Jirga. 48. In August 2013, Parliament passed an election law which reduced the quota of seats for women in provincial councils from 25 to 20 per cent and eliminated the quota altogether in district councils. These amendments to the election law are concerning as parliamentarians tried to remove all quotas for women at the local level and only reinserted 12