DHAKA: The United Nations complained Sunday that Afghan authorities have been slow in enforcing a law protecting women against forced marriages, domestic violence and rape.

A report issued by the UN mission in Afghanistan found that although Afghan authorities registered more reports of violence against women under the four-year-old law, prosecutions and convictions remained low.

In a statement, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay described the law as a ‘landmark’ and said it ‘was a huge achievement for all Afghans’.

‘But implementation has been slow and uneven, with police still reluctant to enforce the legal prohibition against violence and harmful practices, and prosecutors and courts slow to enforce the legal protections in the law,’ she said, reports The Straits Times.

Afghanistan enacted its Elimination of Violence Against Women law in August 2009.

It criminalises child marriage, selling and buying women to settle disputes, assault and more than a dozen other acts of violence and abuse against women.

BDST: 1723 HRS, DEC 08, 2013