On 7 December 2004 Hamid Karzai was sworn as the first democratic chosen president of Afghanistan. Since December 2005 Afghanistan has a first democratically elected parliament (lower house "Wolesi Jirga", higher house "Meshrano Jirga") which in May 2006 have been approved by Karzais administration. Thereby the agreements between the Afghan interim government and the international community made in Bonn after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 are mainly implemented and are the first political conditions for transition to a stable democratic society. In February 2006 the Afghan government in London has made new agreements with the international community (the "Afghanistan Compact") for stabilizing and effective socio-economic rebuilding of the country and the creation of a rule of law. The Netherlands takes session in a joint Coordination and monitoring board of the Afghan government in association with representations of the international community which must guarantee the compliance of the Afghanistan Compact agreement.

The political relation between cabinet and parliament is still unclear. Political parties are taking shape. The formal functions of provincial and district Councils have yet not been developed and either the work relation between the different central and local governing board layers or the cooperation with the traditional tribal Councils. It is a fragile political situation in what easily on can play old strengths and ethnic antagonism.

In these circumstances a new legal system must be built that is capable to cope with human rights violations in the past years and will have contribute that the country does not descend down again in further conflicts. The human rights reports of the UN and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) put the role during the past 2.5 decades of conflict of well-known characters (in general indicated as warlords) that as a minister, governor, commander or even a Supreme Judge which served right under the interim government to the order. The current legal system is not able to guarantee a good procedure. The life circumstances in prisons are dramatically and among them are many women whom are jailed for years without a proper process. Partly the lack of training of judicial agencies and missing capacity in general is the blame and this is particular common in the provinces. Programs to reinforce the legal system, training of judges and building the police force apparatus requires a long time horizon.

The Netherlands was one of the largest donors of the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections. The embassy remains to raise bilaterally and in relationship to the EU use for strengthening of the new democratic institutions and good governance. The embassy supports in addition the activities of human rights defenders and commits resources for legal reforms. The Netherlands is in the field of "transitional justice” particularly active and contributed to the production of an action plan of the Afghan government as with a conference in The Hague in June 2005. The cabinet approved a action plan discussed in December 2005 and there transitional justice. This plan outfit a strategy for how to go with questions of victim aid, memory of victims, criminal prosecution, "vetting" of political appointments, truth astuteness and documentation. Implementation of the action plan is a formidable challenge, because the ambulatory with the war past lies politically sensitive also within the donor community.