New York, 29 April 2023 (GNP): On Thursday, U.N. Security Council (UNSC) unanimously endorsed a resolution urging Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders to rapidly lift their increasingly severe restrictions on women and girls. The restrictions vary from prohibiting access to education to excluding women from the majority of occupations, public places, and gyms.
Following a ban on domestic and international non-governmental organizations in December, the United Nations revealed on April 4 that Taliban authorities had prohibited Afghan women from working for UN offices across the entire country.
According to aid organizations, many NGOs shut down completely in protest, adding to the suffering of Afghanistan’s 38 million people, half of whom, are facing hunger.
UNSC denounced the Taliban’s decision to forbid women from working for the UN, calling it “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations”.
Reversing all measures that restrict women’s rights to work is key to reaching the millions of people in Afghanistan that require humanitarian assistance.
Afghans urgently need emergency aid.
Women are essential to ensure it’s delivered. pic.twitter.com/CSY8JUXk3B
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 29, 2023
The ban, which was declared in early April, “undermines human rights and humanitarian principles,” according to the resolution, which was overwhelmingly accepted by all 15 Council members.
In a broader sense, the Council urged the Taliban regime to “swiftly reverse the policies and practices that restrict the enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
The Taliban rejected the resolution, claiming that it was an “internal social matter” to forbid Afghan women from working for the UN.
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In a statement released on Friday, the Afghan foreign ministry said that the resolution failed to recognize the nation’s “sovereign choices”.
It said, “We remain committed to ensuring all rights of Afghan women while emphasizing that diversity must be respected and not politicized”.
“This is an internal social matter of Afghanistan that does not impact outside states”, the statement added.
UNSC asked “all states and organizations to use their influence” to “promote an urgent reversal of these policies and practices”.
UNSC also emphasized “the dire economic and humanitarian situation” as well as the “critical importance of a continued presence” of the UN mission in Afghanistan and other UN organizations.
Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, the UAE ambassador to the UN, stated: “The world will not watch in silence as women in Afghanistan are erased from society.”
Next week, delegates from various nations will gather in Doha for a summit organized by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to “reinvigorate the international engagement around the common objectives for a durable way forward on the situation in Afghanistan.”
