The Independent Coalition of Afghanistan Women’s Protest Movements has issued a statement expressing deep concern over the alarming and dire situation of women’s rights activists, human rights defenders, civil society activists, journalists, and vulnerable Afghan individuals currently living in Iran, and has called for urgent support from the international community.

Following a violent attack by a 31-year-old Belarusian man on a roughly two-year-old Afghan child at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, the Coordination Council of Afghanistan Political and Consular Missions and the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have condemned the act and called for a serious investigation.

On June 26, coinciding with the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Afghanistan Women’s Movement in Exile issued a statement calling on the international community to pay attention to the situation of Afghan women who are victims of torture, both inside Afghanistan and in exile.

The session for presenting Afghanistan’s fourth periodic report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was held on Tuesday (24 June) at the UN Human Rights Council headquarters in Geneva. A number of prominent figures including Nasir Ahmad Andisha, Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, Dr. Sima Samar, Shukria Barakzai, Fawzia Koofi, and other women’s rights activists were present at the session.