The Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (AHRDO) is an independent, non-governmental, non partisan and non-profit organization established in early 2009 by a number of Afghan Human Rights and Civil Society activists with a strong commitment to work with the most marginalized sectors of society.

Mission

AHRDO is committed to the promotion of participatory democracy, a culture of non-violence and the respect for human rights in Afghanistan and the region, principally through employing a variety of arts and theatre-based programs that create spaces for dialogue, peace-building, social justice, public participation and consequently societal transformation from the grassroots up. Besides, AHRDO aims to complement the ongoing external democratizing efforts with activities that are rooted and informed by local cultural traditions and values, exploring unique ways that support the people of Afghanistan to create a vision of the future and provide opportunities for them to transform fear into friendship, disappointment into hope, knowledge into understanding, hesitation into action and individual efforts into collective power for the purpose of building a peaceful, just and democratic society.

Objectives

The strategic objectives of AHRDO's working mandate can be summarized as follows:

1. To support the creation of physically and emotionally safe spaces for the most marginalized people of Afghanistan to authentically explore their issues and conflicts, identify ways to empower themselves and start identifying concrete actions towards transforming their lives;

2. To contribute to the gradual but irreversible creation of human rights and democracy from an imported and alien phenomenon to an internally rooted and defined set of cultural and social ethics. AHRDO believes that every society needs to define its own set of democratic forms and characteristics based on the different accounts of history, culture, and level of development, in comparison with other societies;

3. To facilitate the cultivation and appreciation of the arts in general and the theatre in particular while also encouraging the active participation of Afghans from all walks of life in the production and implementation of arts-based activities with the final aim to make them an integral part of local culture and the local fabric; 

4. To promote non-violent dialogue on issues regarding transitional justice, peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan via the invitation to victim's associations to take centre stage in deciding how to deal with past violence and human rights abuses in the country;

5. To foster spaces for the women of Afghanistan to raise awareness on women's issues, widen the spectrum of discussion on the nature of these issues and gradually self-empower in order for women, in collaboration with civil society and the public at large, to be able, in the short, medium and long-term, to become actively participating and critically reflecting citizens in the shaping of democracy and equal gender relations in Afghan society;

6. To encourage the active public participation of the most marginalized groups in the country to take a key role in deciding how to move forward in the democratization of their society through community dialogue and the search for grassroots strategies for change;

AHRDO has a strong faith that the current political climate requires for civil society and human rights organizations to shift their focus to the so-called softer aspects of democratization and human rights promotion in Afghanistan. To achieve the stated objectives in an efficient, accountable but also creative and innovative manner, AHRDO has decided to employ a series of unique arts-based methodologies with different but ultimately complementary components. Some of these methodologies include: Theatre of the Oppressed, Playback Theatre, Conventional Theatre, Radio Drama as well as Poetry and Music.