A/HRC/16/67 Plan for the Women of Afghanistan, in particular a national strategy to implement the Elimination of Violence against Women Act, and international donors should increase support for these initiatives. As an immediate step, the President could, by decree, release from detention any woman or girl arrested for “running away”, which is not a crime under Afghan law; (e) The Supreme Court and the Office of the Attorney General should issue directives instructing the courts and prosecution offices to apply the Elimination of Violence against Women Act. Police and prosecutors should register all complaints of harmful traditional practices criminalized by the Act, and the Attorney General’s office should promptly investigate and prosecute such cases. The Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the national High Commission for the Prevention of Violence against Women, should provide all law enforcement officials with training and capacity-building on the Act; (f) Religious leaders, together with the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, should develop and deliver training and awareness-raising programmes for mullahs, imams and religious teachers about women’s rights and the Elimination of Violence against Women Act. Religious leaders should speak out about harmful practices that are inconsistent with Islamic teaching and principles and hold open discussions among sharia experts on Islam and women’s rights. (g) While the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Programme represents an important step forward in ending the conflict, the Government and its international partners should take all steps necessary to ensure that political amnesties are not used to exonerate suspected perpetrators of serious international crimes and human rights violations. Combatant vetting, grievance resolution and prisoner release mechanisms should not be used to circumvent the criminal law and procedure, but to reaffirm the need to strengthen the rule of law and judicial institutions; (h) As a matter of the utmost urgency, the Government should take steps to ensure greater participation and representation of civil society, especially women’s groups, in the peace and reintegration process; (i) The Government and its international partners should take immediate steps to address deficiencies in the protection of fair trial rights for detainees. In this respect, priority actions should include increasing and improving detainee access to legal aid throughout the country, ensuring full and unfettered access of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission to all detention facilities, especially those run by the National Directorate of Security, investigating all detainee allegations of ill-treatment and torture, and releasing all prisoners who remain in detention despite having served their full sentence or having been found innocent in the courts; (j) To address inadequacies in the existing criminal justice framework, the Government and Parliament should expedite approval of the draft Criminal Procedure Code, as agreed at the Kabul International Conference on Afghanistan. The Government should establish a clear, public legal framework for National Directorate of Security operations of arrest and detention that removes the Directorate’s authority to operate separate detention facilities, reinforces the need for proper oversight of detainees and respect for their rights, and provides effective remedies for violations of such rights; (k) International military forces present in Afghanistan, including those of the United States and other countries that contribute to the International Security Assistance Force, should expand or establish mechanisms that monitor and safeguard 17