UN Security Council to Hold Meeting on Afghanistan Tomorrow

Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP Photo

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold its quarterly meeting on the situation in Afghanistan tomorrow, Monday (23 June). The meeting will focus on human rights, the humanitarian crisis, increasing restrictions on women, and security and economic challenges.

This meeting will be held publicly, and representatives of the Security Council member states, along with several regional countries, will discuss Afghanistan’s political, economic, and social challenges.

Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Joyce Msuya, the UN Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, and Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, are among the main speakers of this session.

One of the key topics of the meeting is the review of the Taliban’s restrictive policies and their impact on the lives and rights of Afghan women and girls. Over the past three years, these policies have deprived women of the right to education, work, travel, free choice of clothing, and social participation, forcing millions of women into isolation.

The severe humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, which has left more than half of the country’s population in urgent need of aid, is another topic of discussion. Joyce Msuya is expected to present a report on the current state of humanitarian assistance and call for increased international financial support.

The meeting will also address the security concerns of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, particularly Pakistan and Russia, regarding the rise in activities of the Khorasan branch of ISIS.

The Security Council will also discuss the Taliban’s “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law and its repressive effects on the daily lives of the people, especially women. Many human rights organizations consider this law a tool of systematic oppression against women.

Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the Taliban, reacted to the meeting by saying that holding a Security Council session on Afghanistan without the presence of a Taliban representative will be ineffective. He emphasized, “Meetings held without Afghanistan’s presence have yielded no results in the past and will not do so in the future.”

Mujahid also called the presence of a Taliban representative in international meetings “vital” and warned that failure to present accurate information about the country’s situation could prevent the adoption of useful and effective decisions.