UNITED NATIONS, Mar 09 (APP): Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the \u201cmost repressive country in the world [for] women\u2019s rights\u201d, the senior UN official in Kabul has told the Security Council, while nevertheless voicing a nuanced position on the importance of continuing to engage with the group.<\/p>\n
Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva, UN Special Representative and head of the UN\u2019s Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, strongly condemned the recent Taliban decrees that have further eroded the rights of Afghan women.<\/p>\n
However, she also urged the international community to preserve \u201cwhatever political space exists\u201d for frank discussions with Afghanistan\u2019s leaders, warning of rapidly deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions across the country.<\/p>\n
Following Afghanistan\u2019s fall to the Taliban in August 2021, the UN remained committed to \u201cstay and deliver\u201d while calling for unified support for the country\u2019s people. <\/p>\n
Initial engagements with the de facto Taliban authorities were relatively constructive. However, decisions over the last year \u2013 including bans recently imposed on women accessing higher education and working for NGOs \u2013 have been widely viewed as unacceptable.<\/p>\n
In her address to the 15-member Council, the Special Representative expressed regret that, on International Women\u2019s Day, she bore few comforting messages for the women of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a moment when [the country] needs all of its human capital to recover from decades of war, half of its potential doctors, scientists, journalists, and politicians are shut away in their homes, their dreams crushed, and their talents confiscated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bans across Afghanistan, she added, were currently in effect against women working, studying and traveling without male companions.<\/p>\n
“In particular, a December 2022 ban on women\u2019s employment with NGOs \u2013 including groups that deliver crucial humanitarian aid \u2013 has had serious consequences for both the population dependent on that aid, and the Taliban\u2019s relationship with the global community.”<\/p>\n
The Special Representative expressed her hope that the Taliban would pay heed to the international community\u2019s unified position and reverse those decrees, as well as others that were further eroding the rights of women.<\/p>\n
However, she also called on the international community to construct an agenda for discussions with the Taliban \u2013 including on issues that matter to them \u2013 as the basis of a gradual confidence-building process, citing Afghanistan\u2019s grim economic and humanitarian prospects, and the need for access.<\/p>\n
The country is still home to the world\u2019s largest humanitarian crisis, with two-thirds of the population, or 28 million people, estimated to need aid in 2023.<\/p>\n
Nearly half of the population, 20 million people, are currently experiencing crisis levels of food insecurity, and six million are one step away from famine-like conditions.<\/p>\n
Against that backdrop, Ms Otunbayeva warned the Council that \u201ctime is short, and demands on donors are multiplying.\u201d<\/p>\n
She voiced her fear that as 2023 progressed, bans on women and other restrictions imposed by the Taliban might further hinder humanitarian access to those most in need.<\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s ability to deliver was also being impacted by growing concerns over the looming threat posed by the terrorist group known as Islamic State \u2013 Khorasan Province, or ISIL-K, and worries that the Taliban lacked the capacity to address it, she added.<\/p>\n
Noting that UNAMA continued to engage daily with Taliban officials, the local opposition, civil society groups and many others, she also called on the Council to renew the Mission\u2019s essential mandate for another year.<\/p>\n
The \u201charmful annihilation\u201d of women\u2019s rights in Afghanistan must be reversed, UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In an appeal coinciding with International Women\u2019s Day, the experts urged Taliban leaders to lift the many restrictions imposed on women since they seized power.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen and girls have been banned from entering amusement parks, public baths, gyms and sports clubs for four months,\u201d the experts said in a statement, adding that since the Taliban takeover, \u201cwomen have been wholly excluded from public office and the judiciary\u201d too.<\/p>\n
Today in Afghanistan, women and girls must also adhere to a strict dress code and they are not permitted to travel more than 75 kilometres without a male escort, the experts explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are compelled to stay at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rights experts, who report to the Human Rights Council in an independent capacity as non-UN staff, also urged the Taliban authorities to fulfill their obligations under the international human rights treaties to which they were a state party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 09 (APP): Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the \u201cmost repressive country in the world [for] women\u2019s rights\u201d, the senior UN official in Kabul has told the Security Council, while nevertheless voicing a nuanced position on the importance of continuing to engage with […]<\/p>\n
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