The plan is that by establishing lots of consultative gatherings, or shuras, those who feel excluded will be brought into the decision-making.
At a news conference, the official, Staffan de Mistura, the secretary general's special representative to Afghanistan, said the United Nations was responding to the call of Afghanistan's recent consultative peace gathering, called a jirga, to de-list Taliban figures.
He also proposed the dissolution of the American-appointed council and a post-transition gathering of leaders to choose a consultative assembly to advise the interim government.
The three-week gathering, a purely consultative affair that ends on Aug. 9, is being held at the University of Kent, a complex of modern beige-colored buildings atop a hill with a sweeping view of Canterbury's skyline and its massive cathedral.
But its current guidelines covering practice conclude that "it is consistent with the A.P.A. ethics code for psychologists to serve in consultative roles to interrogation and information-gathering processes for national-security-related purposes," as long as they do not participate in any of 19 coercive procedures, including waterboarding, the use of hoods and any physical assault.
The American Psychological Association APAA) – the official professional body for psychologists in the US – officially rejects torture but it also supports the role of psychologists in interrogation: "It is consistent with the APA Ethics Code for psychologists to serve in consultative roles to interrogation and information-gathering processes for national-security related purposes".
Critically, in 2005, a prominent and highly controversial APA taskforce ruled that members could perform "consultative roles to interrogation- or information-gathering processes for national security-related purposes".
But it resulted in a report, adopted by the APA along with a rewritten set of ethical guidelines, that said it was "consistent with the APA Code of Ethics for psychologists to serve in consultative roles to interrogation- or information-gathering processes for national security-related purposes.
The second gathering, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) also takes place every March.
They originated from gatherings of nobility, formed for military and consultative purposes.
