A/HRC/13/40/Add.1 2. The Special Rapporteur has developed this framework for communications into an online digest, which illustrates the international standards with pertinent excerpts of the mandate holders’ findings since 1986 according to the categories of the framework for communications. The online digest is available on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.1 3. Owing to restrictions on the length of documents, the Special Rapporteur has been obliged to summarize in this report the communications sent and received. As a result, replies from Governments could not be published in their entirety. The names of alleged victims are reflected in this report, although exceptions may be made in relation to children and other victims of violence in relation to whom publication would be problematic. II. Summary of cases transmitted and replies received A. Afghanistan 1. Communication sent on 31 August 2009 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences and the Independent Expert on minority issues (a) Allegations transmitted to the Government 4. The Special Procedures mandate holders brought to the attention of the Government information they had received regarding the Shi’a Personal Status Law recently passed and published in the official Gazette on 27 July 2009 (Gazette 988). There are serious reasons for concern that the Shi’a Personal Status Law violates the human rights of minority Shi’a women and girls, is in breach of Afghanistan’s national and international obligations, and will further entrench discrimination and violence against women, girls and members of religious minorities. Reportedly, while this new law contains a number of changes as compared to an earlier version of March 2009, several contentious provisions of the law have not been adequately amended to ensure their compliance with Afghanistan’s international human rights obligations or to bring it in line with Afghanistan’s constitutional guarantees. 5. The following listing illustrates a number of serious human rights concerns contained in the provisions of the new law as gazetted on 27 July 2009: • The law makes it impossible for Shi’a wives to inherit houses and land from their husbands, even though husbands may inherit them from their wives • Only men are allowed guardianship rights • A female virgin, whatever age she may be, is treated as a legal minor and requires the consent of her “guardian” to enter into marriage • The law effectively condones the denial of maintenance by a husband to his wife if she refuses his sexual demands or what he perceives to be his “conjugal rights”; • A woman’s mobility, including the right to leave her house, continues to be potentially restricted to varying degrees, depending on the interpretations given to the qualifications in the provision which refer to “legitimate purposes” and “to the extent that local custom allows” 1 4 www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/religion/standards.htm.