UN Special Rapporteur Warns: The International Community Must Go Beyond Statements to Defend Afghan Women

Image: Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, warns that the international community should not only be limited to issuing statements regarding human rights violations in Afghanistan and that practical and more serious measures must be taken in hand to support Afghan women and girls.

He says that during more than four years of Taliban rule the human rights situation has not improved, and new restrictions have also been imposed on the people, especially women and girls. According to him, the Taliban have not repealed any of their discriminatory laws and decrees, despite repeated warnings that these regulations have become tools of discrimination and gender-based persecution.

Bennett also referred to the Taliban’s new restrictions against UN employees, adding that preventing female staff from entering the organization’s offices poses a serious risk to the delivery of aid in Afghanistan’s critical situation. He stressed that “women must be able to work in the United Nations without obstruction, and this is their fundamental right.”

In addition, the UN Special Rapporteur emphasized the necessity of close monitoring of aid distribution in the earthquake-affected areas of eastern Afghanistan. He warned that without transparency, women and children, who are among the most vulnerable groups, may be deprived of receiving this assistance.

In his remarks to the Human Rights Council, Bennett noted that some countries have allocated budgets and financial resources to help the victims of the Kunar earthquake, adding: “It is in everyone’s interest to ensure that aid reaches those most in need, especially women and children.”

These warnings come as the Taliban, through issuing new restrictions, have further tightened the space for social, economic, and humanitarian life for Afghan women and girls.