我首先要强调，没有包括妇女和女童在内的社会全体成员的积极和实质性参与，就无法取得发展。因此，我们在阿富汗的所有卫生、教育及人权方案拟订工作中，采取了主张妇女和女童权利优先的方针。通往一个繁荣和稳定的阿富汗的途径是增强阿富汗妇女的权能，并确保她们能够表达自己的愿望，自身权利也受到保护。我们感到鼓舞的是，近年来，阿富汗采取积极步骤促进和保护妇女权利，包括加强对她们的法律保护，使其免遭暴力，创造更多的教育机会，并扩大她们在公共和政治生活中的参与。但是，还需要做更多的工作，并且必须更加迅速地予以完成。我们认为，提高阿富汗妇女和女童的地位将有助于增进所有阿富汗人的权利和安全并增强其权能。
I would first like to emphasize that no development can be achieved without the active and substantive participation of all members of society, including women and girls. For that reason, Canada takes an approach favouring women’s and girls’ rights first in all of our health, education and human rights programming in Afghanistan. The path to a prosperous and stable Afghanistan is through empowering Afghan women and ensuring that their voices are heard and their rights protected. We are encouraged by the positive steps that Afghanistan has made in recent years to promote and protect women’s rights, including strengthening their legal protection from violence, creating greater educational opportunities and increasing their inclusion in public and political life. But more must be done, and it must be done more rapidly. We believe that such advances for Afghanistan’s women and girls will help to advance the rights, security, and empowerment of all Afghans.