A/HRC/22/37 women throughout the country. The UNAMA/OHCHR report noted an increase in incidents of violence against women reported to certain entities, such as AIHRC and provincial departments of women’s affairs. AIHRC recorded 4,010 cases of violence against women from 21 March to 21 October 2012 throughout Afghanistan, compared to 2,299 cases the previous year. Increased reporting may not necessarily reflect an increase in actual incidents of violence against women, but it may be the result of growing public awareness and sensitization to violence against women and women’s rights generally, through efforts of civil society organizations, the Government and international actors. 40. In 16 provinces where detailed information on application of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women was available, police and prosecutors recorded 470 incidents of violence against women. This represents an increase in the number of incidents registered by police and prosecutors compared with the UNAMA findings in November 2011.9 Of those 470 incidents, prosecutors filed indictments in 163 cases, which resulted in conviction at trial in 100 cases (a 61 per cent success rate). Seventy-two of the 163 indictments (44 per cent) relied on the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women. Fifty-two of the 72 indictments that relied on the law (72 per cent) resulted in convictions at trial. This shows that, in the small number of investigations and prosecutions of cases of violence against women, use of the law was more likely to result in convictions. 41. Notwithstanding, while prosecutors registered more reported incidents of violence against women and city courts issued more convictions using the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women, when placed in the context of 4,010 reported incidents of violence against women recorded by AIHRC, the number of cases resolved through the judicial process using the law in the 16 provinces was very low. 42. Rather than following required legal procedures in all cases, ANP and prosecutor’s offices continued to refer numerous cases, including serious crimes, to jirgas and shuras for advice or resolution, which often undermined implementation of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women and reinforced harmful practices. Decisions of these mechanisms were observed to often 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 and religious principles. As a result, vulnerable segments of society, especially women and children, sometimes faced further victimization. For example, a court may have sentenced a rapist to imprisonment while a community-based mechanism may have decided he should marry the victim or called for a ba’ad exchange. Based on the data available, UNAMA found that ANP from 22 provinces (excluding Kabul) registered a total of 740 reported incidents of violence against women from October 2011 to September 2012 – almost the same as previous findings. ANP forwarded 401 of these 740 incidents (54 per cent) to prosecutor’s offices, with 312 withdrawn, sent to traditional dispute resolution or the legal department of the Ministry of Justice, mediated or under process. Although departments of women’s affairs in many provinces have proved to be instrumental in providing an effective mechanism for many women victims of violence to report incidents, challenges in women’s access to formal justice institutions remained numerous. 43. The practice of wrongful prosecution of women and girls for running away from home often to escape violence continued. Although running away or “home escape” is not a crime under Afghan law or in sharia law, law enforcement authorities often arrest and prosecute women and girls for this “moral crime”, charging them with the qualified “intention” to commit zina (sexual intercourse outside of marriage) or “pre-emptive zina”. 9 12 See UNAMA/OHCHR, A Long Way to Go: Implementation of the Elimination of Violence against Women Law in Afghanistan (Kabul, 2011).