Informal comments to the media by Ambassador Ferit Hoxha, Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations, along with Brazil, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Japan, Malta, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom; on women and girls in Afghanistan.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, warned the Security Council that the country “under the Taliban remains the most repressive country in the world regarding women’s rights.”
Briefing the Council on Wednesday (8 Mar) in New York, Otunbayeva, who also acts as head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that “at a moment when Afghanistan needs all of its human capital to recover from decades of war, half of the country’s potential doctors, scientists, journalists, and politicians are shut [away] in their homes, their dreams crushed and their talents confiscated.”
According to the Special Representative, Afghanistan also “remains the largest humanitarian crisis globally”, with two-thirds of the population, 28 million people, needing humanitarian assistance this year to survive. Almost half of the population, 20 million people, are experiencing crisis levels of food insecurity. Six million are one step away from famine-like conditions.
Otunbayeva said that “this assistance will cost $4.62 billion, the single-largest country appeal ever.
The head of UNAMA also briefed Council members on “an erosion of other human rights.”
According to her, the Secretary-General’s report notes ongoing extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detentions and torture carried out by the de facto authorities against former government officials and security forces.
For Otunbayeva, “these are violations of the Taliban’s amnesty decree” and “there is no transparency regarding investigations of violations, and violations appear increasingly allowed to occur.”
The Council also heard from a representative of civil society, Zubaida Akbar, Afghanistan Program Officer at Freedom Now.
Akbar said that, since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, “the rights of Afghan women and girls have been decimated”.
She added, “Through over 40 decrees, the Taliban have sought not only to erase women from public life, but to extinguish our basic humanity.”
“Women inside Afghanistan tell me they feel suffocated and hopeless. Young girls talk to me about ending their lives. This cannot continue. Excellencies, there is one term that appropriately describes the situation of Afghan women today: gender apartheid,” added Akbar.
For the human rights activist, “outspoken international condemnation is critical, but it is not enough.”
Akbar argued that “such flagrant violations of international law, including the provisions of equality and non-discrimination as enshrined in the UN Charter, require a proportional, coordinated and meaningful international response that makes clear that violations of women’s rights are intolerable, unjustifiable and that the Taliban will face consequences.”
“If you do not defend women’s rights here, you have no credibility to do so anywhere else,” she concluded.
The Chargé d'Affaires of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, told the Members States that “in just over a year and a half, Taliban has systemically stripped Afghan women and girls of their fundamental human rights and effectively erased them from society.”
According to him, under Taliban rule, “women and girls have faced gender-based discrimination, including forced marriage, that has deprived them of healthcare, education, and freedom of movement.”
Faiq added, “In just over a year and a half, the doors of science, technology, and knowledge closed to Afghan women and girls.”
The Afghan Chargé d'Affaires argued that “the oppressive regime of Taliban is a tragic reality for Afghans today; however, this regime does not represent the Afghan people.”
“Without public support and national legitimacy, Taliban regime will not endure. Taliban has placed Afghanistan on the brink of a social, economic, and political precipice. Continuation of their policies will lead to further miseries Afghanistan,” said Faiq.
Before the meeting, Permanent Representatives from Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Japan, Malta, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States spoke to journalists at the stakeout.
Representing the group, Ferit Hoxha, Permanent Representative of Albania, said “We demand that the Taliban immediately reverse all oppressive measures against women and girls and respect the human rights of all Afghan people including women and girls in all their diversity, persons with disabilities, persons belonging to ethnic and religious minority groups, youth, children, and others.”